I have found that number talks are really helpful for building number sense as well as assessing number sense. When I use number talks in my classroom it allowed me to easily see gaps in understanding with some of my students. Simply learning math facts through memorization is not very helpful. I can't count the number of times that I have memorized facts of some sort for a test and then promptly forgotten all of the facts after finishing the test. Our brain just doesn't work that way. If we want our learning to become long term then there needs to be connections built. There must be true understanding. That is one reason that I love number talks. I find that many of these talks can be effective and helpful for students on many levels. For
