With so many things to do in math class each day, it’s almost impossible to help our students build fluency in math facts because there simply isn’t enough time. Timed drills have been proven to be unsuccessful for the majority of students because rather than testing mathematical knowledge, they test how fast a student thinks or writes. So, we were looking for a way to help students practice their math fact fluency without time constraints. That’s how we came up with our math fact fluency graphs.
[Read more…] about How to Build Math Fact Fluency in Your ClassroomMultiplication Strategies
The Truth About New Math
New math is ruining education. Or at least this is what we keep hearing people (like parents, the media, and politicians) say.
What is this “new math” of which you speak? I see the memes on Facebook and wonder, have I been teaching mathematics wrong? Has it changed? Did I miss an email about this?
[Read more…] about The Truth About New MathConquer Math With These Proven Multiplication Strategies
We have taught students in grades four and five for so long and one trend we’ve noticed is that students cannot retain their multiplication times tables. What is happening to those little brains? Or is it because we teach these facts differently? We’ve been thinking about the different multiplication strategies we use in our classroom.
When we went to school, math drills were all the rage. But to be honest, the stress of answering sixty multiplication questions in less than a minute was horrible. And, I was lucky because I knew my times tables, but I just couldn’t write fast enough no matter how hard I tried. Those drills weren’t an assessment of my math skills. They were an assessment of how quickly I could write.
And don’t even get me started about the time I wrote a zero, but it was messy and looked like a six. Ugh! So, I knew I couldn’t give my students math drills. Here’s what we do instead.
[Read more…] about Conquer Math With These Proven Multiplication Strategies