- B.O.Y.:
To improve students fluency of math facts and basic operations, I heavily rely on minute drills at the beginning of the school year, which we do at the start of the day. We also play games, like Around the World where students compete against each other to show the most mastery in facts.- iPad or Computer Games: Multiplication Grand Prix, 3rd and 4th grade multiplication facts levels in iXL
- Paper + Pencil Practice: Multiplication minute drills… 24 in 1 minute (2 times tables at a time)…. 60 in 3 minutes (mixed facts)… 100 in 5 minutes (mixed facts). My goal is for them to get 100 mixed facts done in less than 3 minutes. I also have them complete a blank multiplication table out in 7 minutes or less.
- Incentives: as students master their multiplication facts, their cars move on my multiplication grand prix bulletin board. For every 2 facts they master, they earn another part of an ice cream sundae.
- M.O.Y.:
As the year progresses, I have taught or review addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, as well as fraction concepts. I want these skills to stay fresh, so I move beyond multiplication fact fluency to ensuring that students are accurate and consistent with other operations.- iPad or Computer Practice: iKnowIt.com is phenomenal. They have so many skills that can be assigned to students and reassigned if they score below a certain percentage. Like iXL.com, the program gives students a little tutorial if they get a problem wrong.
- Paper + Pencil Practice: DynaMath has some great DynaDash drills that take more than a minute, but can review key operations. In addition to this, I would make skills reviews some weeks, and at times, I just reviewed basic operations. I spent 3 days modeling and having students complete some problems on their own, and on the 4th day, they would have a mini-quiz over the basic operations.
- Incentives: I used LiveSchool to track students’ points. For completing drills in a set time period, they could earn LiveSchool points/dollars, which they would use to get flexible seating, extra snacks, or an end of quarter party among other rewards.
- Testing Time/E.O.Y.:
By the end of the year, I want the students to be really accurate and consistent with all of the taught skills, but especially basic operations. Also, I want them able to check their work so that they know they are accurate.- iPad or Computer Practice: They are still using iKnowIt.com, but I want to see on notebook paper or grid paper where they checked their answers. I can also raise their percentage required before a level gets reassigned. On iXL.com, I have students go back to old levels and get their SmartScores up to 90-100.
- Paper + Pencil Practice: We will play team review games, and there may be a race to the correct answer with work shown that checks the answer (solved with a second strategy or the inverse operation was used to check). Some games are not a race, but a team effort to get as many completed correctly as possible. Homework packets will include fluency practice as well.
- Incentives: Students who are fluent in operations and skills tend to progress more in the curriculum. For whatever program the school has invested in, I will reward students for mastering all or most of it either before testing or before the end of year. In DC, students were rewarded for completing 100% ofST Math. In Texas, I rewarded students for achieving excellence or mastery on 80% or more of iXL.com.
- Stock Market:
Last school year, I had my 5th graders track specific stocks on the stock market. Each week, they tracked the price of the stock, and then they calculated the value of their shares of that stock. During the 2nd quarter, they had selected 2 stocks, and had to calculate the value of their portfolio as well. This allowed students to keep practicing their multi-digit multiplication skills as well as addition fluency.
