Teaching Basic Facts January 24, 2015

Approaches to Fact Mastery 1.Memorize Each Fact in Isolation 2.Teach a Collection of Strategies 3.Guided Intervention

Approaches to Fact Mastery 1.Memorize Each Fact in Isolation Too many facts to memorize 2.Teach a Collection of Strategies Some students feel the strategy is yet another thing to memorize 3.Guided Intervention Demonstrate a variety of strategies and let students use the one that works best for them

Fact Remediation 1.Recognize that more drill will not work 2.Provide Hope (Your belief that they can do it, Examining a fact chart) 3.Inventory the known and the unknown for each student 4.Diagnose strengths and weaknesses 5.Focus on reasoning strategies 6.Build in success 7.Provide engaging activities for practice

Do’s 1.Ask Students to Self-Monitor 2.Focus on Self-Improvement 3.Drill in Short Time Segments 4.Work on Facts over Time 5.Involve Families 6.Make Drill Enjoyable 7.Use Technology (Can provide immediate feedback and reinforcement – helps with self monitoring) 8.Emphasize the Importance of Quick Recall of Facts

Don’ts 1.Use lengthy timed tests 2.Use public comparisons of mastery 3.Proceed through facts in order from 0-9 (0–12) 4.Work on all the facts at once 5.Move to memorization to soon 6.Don’t use basic facts as a barrier to good mathematics 7.Don’t use fact mastery as a prerequisite for calculator use

Resources: Movement in Math by Suzy Koontz & Rolling Numbers by Stacey McNeal

Warm Up Math & Movement by Suzy Koontz Bean Pole – stand straight with your arms at your sides and take in as much oxygen as you can. Warm up – follow the leader as we snap our fingers on both hands all together

Warm Up Continued Skip Counting by ? Elephant March (by 3’s) Jaguar Tummy Rub (by 6’s) Nine’s Twist (by 9’s)

Benefits  When we get our body going we get our mind going – it is now awake and ready to learn.  Crossing the Mid-Line in every warm up  Repetition helps students move data from short term to long term memory  Reaches out to the kinesthetic learner  All learners benefit

Mascheal’s Top Five 1. Spend a great deal of time on multiples raps, songs, exercises, videos etc. 2. Individualized Approach working on one fact family at a time mathfactscafe.com (website) timed test arcade (app) 3. Do not go in order Have each student color in their own facts chart as they master them (privately) 4. Let them know you believe they can do it and build in success 5. Celebrate (publically) beating personal records 6. Don’t stop nce the facts are mastered!!!

Share Ideas/Resources That Work With One Another Send them to Mascheal and she will put them on the website!

Keep up the Great Work out There !

Sources: Elementary and Middle School Mathematics Teaching Developmentally John A. Van De Walle, Karen S, Karp and Jennifer M. Bay-Williams; Pearson 2013 Movement in Math by Suzy Koontz