Building Fact Fluency

Fact fluency is usually an important piece in math success.  It is recommended that you have 5-10 minutes per day involved with individual math fact practice.  I know this is hard to make work some days.  If you can't get that math fact practice in daily, maybe you can just try to get practice in more often?

I have created flashcards to help you with this. Children should use flash cards once they have the understanding of the strategy and can represent it concretely and pictorially.  Flashcards can help to lead to automaticity. These are self-checking flashcards.  Print them out and then run them back to back.  Use a hole punch to make holes where the three answer choices are.

When the students go to use them, they choose their answer and stick their pencil through the hole that they think is the answer.  They look at the back of the card, and if they are correct, the hole will have a ring around it.

These might work well at a center, or you might have students keep a set in their desk to practice when they have finished other work.  You decide how they might work best for your classroom.

There are different versions so that you are able to differentiate as necessary.  Download whichever ones you think might help you.

Addition/Subtraction Facts Under Five

Addition/Subtraction Facts--Doubles

Addition Facts--Doubles + 1

Addition/Subtraction Facts--Make Ten

Addition/Subtraction Facts--Under 20

Addition/Subtraction Facts--Extension

Mathematical Comprehension

I liked this as a reminder of how much reading and math go together.  It also helps us to remember to give our students opportunities to think.  They spend so much time waiting for us and their parents to tell them what to do that they sometimes don't develop their own thinking skills as they should.

In what ways do you help your students develop their thinking?

Fact Fluency

Fact Fluency is a big part of the CCSS.  However, we sometimes get caught up in thinking that fact fluency is just automaticity of facts.  Automaticity of facts is one piece of fact fluency, but there are other parts that are important, too!

Fact fluency includes accuracy--Does she get the right answer consistently? Can she prove to you how she knows it is the accurate answer?

Fact fluency includes efficiency--What strategies does the student use to help her know or remember the fact?  e.g. Does she recognize doubles + 1 facts?  Does she understand how place value influences 60 x 70?  Can she explain it?

Fact fluency includes flexibility--Can she use fact families to help her solve an unknown fact?  Can she relate one fact to another easily?  Can she use a variety of strategies to explain the problem? when solving facts? Does she understand how the commutative, distributive, and associative property work Can she move easily from one operation to the next?  Does she know her facts easily in written or mental form?

In reading, we know that it is important not only to decode, but also to comprehend.  There are many pieces to being a good reader, and decoding and comprehension are only two.  The same is true for math.  In order to strengthen our students' fact fluency, we should find ways in our classroom to encourage all of these elements of fact fluency.  Not only will it increase our students' fluency, but it will also lead them to better number sense.

Dr. Nicki recommends that we have a 5-10 minute block daily in our classrooms where students work on improving their fact fluency.  I know that our days are full and finding 5-10 minutes is not always feasible, so I suggest we just be more cognizant of trying to fit facts in more often--and not just instant recall--think of other ways to present your facts to kids.  I will try to share more ideas and resources for this as the year progresses.

To help boost your students' fact fluency, I have created two math path puzzle SMART documents. One covers addition and subtraction, and the other multiplication and division. Each screen is a different puzzle with each group of puzzles becoming progressively more difficult.

There are many ways you can use these in your room.  You could print out a page or two and use them as a station during workshop.  You could use a page every now and then as a warmup activity for the whole class. You could use them as part of a Number Talk.  The choice is up to you!

Parts of these files could be used in every grade K-5.  Click on the links to download the Notebook file or files to your computer.

Addition and Subtraction MathPath Puzzles

Multipication and Division MathPath Puzzles

TIP:  When I use pages from a file like this, I put a blank page in the doc as a bookmark.  That way, when I come to grab another puzzle or two, I remember which ones I have used.

Parent Resource

You should have received in the last two days a grade level handout that you can share with parents if you wish.  This handout was created to guide parents to a better understanding of  "new math."

On your grade level page, I tried to cover concepts and algorithms that are commonly introduced or used during your year.  Next to the concept, is a QR code for parents to scan which takes them to a video explanation of that concept.

These pages will be attached to the Unit 5 website, but you are also welcome to make copies to share with your parents if you like.  Here are the links for each grade's page if you need it:

Kindergarten

1st grade

2nd grade

3rd grade

4th grade

5th grade

I included at the top of each grade level's page a video by Dr. Raj Shah that I think does a great job explaining the changes in our math instruction.

Concretely, Pictorially, Symbolically

I had the greatest time seeing Dr. Nicki this summer! She really is a wealth of knowledge, and I got a bajillion great ideas and resources from her.  If you are unfamiliar with her, here is a link to her blog.  She has written lots of books about teaching math, and she just really is ALL THAT.

Anyway, one of the big ideas she left us with at this conference was the fact that students need to learn their math (we focused on facts) in three stages: concretely, pictorially, and symbolically. We often spend so much time on the symbolically part that we forget about the other two stages!  However, these stages are key for ALL grade levels! All kids won't stay in the same stage for the same amount of time, but it is our duty to be sure that they know how to do it and what it means.

For example 2 + 4:
CONCRETELY:

PICTORIALLY:

SYMBOLICALLY/NUMERICALLY:

2 + 4 = 6

I know that I was guilty of glossing over or skipping some of these steps sometimes--esp. with my higher math kiddos. However, research shows that students need to be able to understand each of these steps to gain a deeper understanding of what is happening,  Some students may need to stay in the concrete stage longer than others, but all of our students should be able to explain what is happening in the concrete and pictorial stages.  They may move more quickly to the symbolic stage, but they need to be able to explain how it all works,  Students who just have math fact recall are like students who are good decoders in reading.  They can say what you want to hear, but they have no comprehension of what is going on...

Thankfully EM builds these stages in regularly for our students.  We are so lucky to have such a great resource.  

Dr. Nikki shared a myriad of tools to help us build the concrete part into our lessons.  One thing she had us make was a beaded number line.  It would be a good thing for you to put into your first weeks of school.  Many grade levels would be able to make it independently.  If you don't think  your kiddos could, you could ask for parent volunteers to make them or to help the students make them.  This could be used for all grade levels. Two colors of pony beads and a strong piece of string for each child is all you need. :)

This video has some good ideas for you on ways to use it.

Using a Beaded Number Line from Karen Richardson on Vimeo.


Here also is a virtual beaded number line that you could use along with the kids' own numberlines.  It has some great features, too.

http://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/69/itp_beadstring

I'd love to hear how you use these number lines in your room, or let me know if I can help you with ways to put the beaded number line into your lessons.

Thinking about Math

Welcome to my new blog!  I am Jennifer Gibson, Unit 5's new Elementary Math Coach.  I am excited to be able to support our teachers and students in the development of great math thinkers!

My primarily goal is to support you to help students be successful.  I know that you are busy and overwhelmed.  I know that you are already working to make a difference,  You are putting in the time this summer to keep up to date on what is happening in education. Please allow me to help you to make your math journey easier.

Through this blog, I hope to make it easier for me to share great things going on in our classrooms, ideas to better manage your math classroom, and finally, ways to make math matter to all our learners.

I have a lot of ideas, and I also have plenty of things that I just don't know--but I am ready to learn.  My plan right now is to spend the beginning of the school year just getting into buildings and visiting classrooms.  I plan to let buildings know of the days that I am going to be there, and then hopefully, people will put me to work!  I would love to work with a small group, teach a game, help develop workshop expectations, whatever will make your work easier.  I think this will allow me to get to know our buildings and our strengths better.  I will also be able to answer questions or concerns when I am out in the buildings.

One of the things that I love to do is to create SMARTBoard documents.  This summer, I developed a review game for each grade level (5th grade still to come)  You should have received an email about the game for the grade that comes before you.  Here I am posting the link to all of the games.  You can download and use whatever you wish of these games.  I just used the CCSS to develop them as an easy activity for the beginning or end of a school year.  The links are here, just click on the picture to go to the Google doc, download it and use it as you wish.:

Kindergarten Preview

Kindergarten review game

1st grade review game

2nd grade review game

3rd grade review game

4th grade review game

Here I go...stepping into a new stage in my career.  I'm excited, and I want to make a difference. I hope that you have a great new year!