Number Talks Versus Number Strings

Number Talks have become quite popular in the last few years, but what most of you call Number Talks, I call Number Strings. Today, I’d like to analyze Number Talks versus Number Strings in our quest to build our math minds so we can build the math minds of our students.

So, watch the video below or read the transcript.

Number Talks Actually Started With Kathy Richardson And Ruth Parker

Number Talks actually started back in the 1990s with Kathy Richardson and Ruth Parker. A lot of us became familiar with Number Talks through Sherry Parish’s book that was published in 2014. From what I read in Sherry Parish’s book, it was more of Number Strings versus Number Talks.

Number Talks Versus Number Strings

So what’s the difference? In my opinion, Number Talks are typically one problem that we talk about all the different ways that kids can solve that one problem. Number Strings are a series of related problems that lead kids to a particular strategy or a particular model.

The second difference happens in Number Talks, whereas the facilitator of the number talk, I am not using a particular model when putting up student thinking. I’m only using a model if a kid says they used that particular model. If they say, “I thought of it on a number line and this was how I did it”, then I would show that.

In a Number String, there might be a particular model that I have in mind that I want to show the kids how it works on these multiple problems and how it works every single time. So, you can have a specific model in mind that you are facilitating the use of in a Number String. Whereas in a Number Talk, it’s more about how the kids are modeling and seeing the problem versus in a Number String, you’re kind of leading them into a certain model or a certain strategy.

When To Use Which

That leads me to when should you use which one? So to me, this is based on how I’ve been using the two. You may disagree with me, so let me know in the comments, but to me, I like to use Number Talks when I’m working with a group of students who already have strategies. If I put a problem and you get the “deer-in-the-headlights” look, then the Number Talk may not be the best thing because they don’t have different strategies and they are all solving it the same way. That makes it hard to do a talk about the different ways kids are solving it.

So in a Number Talk, you have to have a group of kids who have some strategies and then you can talk about the different strategies and how they are alike and how they are different. That’s one of the powerful parts of a Number Talk, is that you’re not just showing all of the different ways that kids solved it because that can be overwhelming for a lot of kids. To do a number talk correctly, you also need to make connections. If Johnny did it one way and Jose did it another way, we’ve got to talk about how those ways are still alike and how they are different. What did Johnny do that’s different than what Jose did and but yet still connected.

For our struggling kids, sometimes a Number Talk can be very overwhelming because they see six different ways that people solved the problem and they don’t get any of them. So you’ve got to spend some time in Number Talks to be able to make connections between the different ways that kids are solving them.

In a Number String, I like to use them to help develop strategies. If I’m working with kids who don’t have strategies already, a string of problems is super powerful to help build those strategies. So let’s take a look at this example.

This can definitely be different depending on the grade level that you work. However, in this example, I could start with the string off to the left if my kids don’t have a strategy or strategies for that bottom problem. So I might start out just showing 9 + 7 and talking about how they solved that problem. Then I would show 29 + 17 and see if they’re using the same type of strategy. They may have a different strategy for that problem but I want to make the connection of how they solved 9 + 7 connects to how they can solve 29 + 17. Then how that connects to how you can solve 498 + 267. Finally, I get to the problem which is what I actually want my kids to develop at this grade level. When I’m adding decimals, can I use those same strategies? You bet!

If they haven’t made those connections, I’m going to use a string to help bridge the gap between the things that they learned prior to what I’m wanting them to learn now. If I just throw up 3 and 99 hundredths plus 17 hundredths, and they don’t have strategies already and they haven’t made connections, then I’m probably going to get every kid solving it the same way or not knowing how to solve it.

So again, a Number String to me is a way to help develop strategies whereas a Number Talk is to talk about the different strategies kids have for that one problem, how they connect together, how they’re alike, and how they are different.

I hope that that’s helped you build your math mind, so you can go build the math minds of your students. If you would like to learn more about using Number Strings, I talk about them as Number Talks because most of you are familiar with Number Talks.