Math Fact Fluency & Number Sense
Differentiated
Math Stations
Many teachers struggle with finding the time and effort to create and implement math games, in addition to already implementing the standard curriculum in the classroom. There are numerous pressures and demands for teachers today, but there are ways to make games work in the classroom. One way is to incorporate math games into math lessons, math stations, and interventions for struggling learners (from Taylor-Cox, as cited by Ramani & Eason, 2015). Math stations allow for a teacher to meet with a small group while the other students are working independently on the skill, playing a math game with a partner, or working on an iPad. Furthermore, there are math curricula that incorporate games into instruction, making it more time-effective and provide opportunities to apply their developing math skills (Ramani & Eason, 2015). “Games offer math teachers a way of practicing and reinforcing arithmetic and other math skills. Not only do games engage students, they also present the opportunity to present “high level” math concepts in a colorful and simple way” (Cavanagh, 2008).
Math
Talks
Computer-Assisted
Instruction
For students that have concrete number sense and are becoming more fluent with math facts, “a computer-assisted program may assist them in completing problems quickly and accurately” (Hawkins, et al., 2017).
Technology has become a large part of children’s lives and, consequently, there are many technology-based programs that can aid students in practicing math facts. Technology-based drill and practice has been affirmed to improve students’ performance in this specific area of math (from Musti-Rao, S., & Plati, E., 2015, as cited by NMAP 2008). Electronic flashcards are time efficient and provide immediate feedback to the students, which will benefit students’ performance and allow for more practice. The pacing of flashcards should be quick enough to keep the students engaged, but slow enough that it is appropriate for each student’s instructional level (Hawkins, et. al, 2017).
Research Strategies
While math fact fluency is important for students’ foundational mathematical skills, research shows that how students approach the problems makes all of the difference (Boaler, 2009). Research has shown that students who interact with numbers and their relationships perform better on math problems (Boaler, 2009).
Boaler shares that, “the best way to develop fluency with numbers is to develop number sense and to work with numbers in different ways, not to blindly memorize without number sense” (2009). One way to increase number sense in students is to administer “math talks” in the classroom. Math talks are explained to be “a brief daily practice where students mentally solve computation problems and talk about their strategies, as a way to dramatically transform teaching and learning in their mathematics classrooms” (Parker, 2015). Math talks allow students to share their thinking, build on their peers’ explanations, and truly understand why “mathematical procedures work” (Parker, 2015, p. 25). Through these experiences, students can build math fact fluency and apply strategies when solving math problems.
As an elementary teacher, it is important to understand that students learn at different paces in all subjects, including addition and subtraction facts. Before stressing math fact fluency, teaching number sense is crucial to the understanding of why the sum or difference of math facts are correct.