Learning Facts at Home

At the School District of Waukesha, we work hard to help all students become strong mathematicians. One small part of building a strong math foundation is helping students learn math facts. Our goal is for students to learn these facts in relation to other problems rather than in isolation. So that if someday they forget 7 x 8, they will have a strategy to fall back on (such as remembering that 7 x 7 is 49 and adding 7 more). Building a foundation based in understanding will also allow students to extend their knowledge of 7 x 8 to more complex problems.

In order to create this strong foundational network, students need more than just memorization through repetition. Visuals, drawings, and specific strategies help students to see how one known fact can help them learn another fact. For more information on these teaching techniques see the question below on fact strategies.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do basic facts fit into our standards?

Within the Wisconsin Mathematics Standards “basic facts” fall under the concept of fluency. The standards for each grade level are listed below.

Kindergarten: Fluently add and subtract within 5.

1st Grade: Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10.

2nd Grade: Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies. By end of Grade 2, know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers.

3rd Grade: Flexibly and efficiently use strategies, the relationship between the operations, and properties of operations to find products and quotients with multiples of 0, 1, 2, 5, & 10 within 100.

What does fluency mean?

Fluency incorporates 3 important ideas:

Accuracy- Students need to have the correct answer.
Efficiency- Students need to be quick in giving the answer. Although how quick is relative to the individual student and the difficulty of the problem.
Flexibility- Students have several strategies that they can easily use to solve basic facts.

What strategies are students using to learn their basic facts in school?

Click on the following links to learn more about strategies for addition and subtraction problems and multiplication and division problems.

How does memorization fit into fluency?

Students are still expected to commit math facts to memory as shown in the grade level standards above. However the way we go about memorizing facts is different than it used to be. Rather than using only repetition to memorize facts, we now know how important it is to first build a complete understanding of the underlying math. For example, the child must think of 3 x 5 as 5 groups of 3 objects, an array of 5 rows of 3 objects, and a number line with 5 jumps of 3 before we can look for 3 x 5 to be committed to memory.

Do students still take timed fact tests?

While speed is an important part of having fluency with math facts, it can also lead to an increase in math anxiety for students. The pressure that students sometimes feel during timed tests or competition based games around getting an answer as quickly as possible can be detrimental. This can lead a student to dislike math at an early age.

Instead of emphasizing speed through competition or high stakes tests, it is important to encourage a growth mindset for children. You could remind your children that knowing all of the math facts takes time, and it is easier to remember facts we understand.

For more information please read Fluency Without Fear by Jo Boaler, Mathematics Education professor at Stanford University.

How can I support my student(s) in learning their basic facts?

Games

Many board games, card games, and dice games you may already play as a family incorporate some level of learning math.

- If you are looking for more please check out: Math Games
- Want to learn more about supporting learning while playing games? Check out: Game Guide for Grownups

Discussing strategies

- Ask your child/children how they figured out an answer to a problem. Oftentimes they may have been thinking about it differently than expected.
- Learn about the strategies used in schools by looking through the links in the strategies question above.

Flashcards

While flashcards can be used, many of the games above can be a better way to learn the facts. That’s because the games are more fun and your child is likely to stay with it (and practice math) longer. One of the best ways to use flashcards at home is listed below.

- Separate the deck into 2 piles (known and unknown). Practice the flashcards in the student’s ‘known’ pile only, in order to rehearse the facts and ensure they are committed to long term memory. Every couple of weeks go back to the ‘unknown’ pile to see if your child has any more facts to add to the ‘known’ pile.

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