Math Room - Fact Fluency

Strategies for Learning Addition and Subtraction Facts

1. Mastery must focus on fluency. If students don't know a fact like 8+5, they need options for finding the sum efficiently.

2. Students move from counting all to using strategies (such as counting on or doubles) to mastery (see table below).

3. Foundational facts must precede derived facts. Students use the foundation facts they have mastered to develop derived fact strategies for addition and subtraction. (i.e. If students don't know 8 + 5, they could decompose (or break apart) the 5 into 2 and 3. Then they could add 8 + 2 + 3 or 10 + 3 to get 13. This is called the Make 10 Strategy.)

General Fluency for Addition Foundational Facts

Phase 1 Uses counting strategies only

Phase 2 Fluent with facts within 5 or some foundational facts; counts for all others.

Phase 3 Uses a blend of doubles, combinations of 10 and counting on; automatic with some foundational facts.

Phase 4 Automatic with most or all of doubles, combinations of 10, plus 1 facts

Math Games that Support Addition and Subtraction Fluency

Online Games Tangmath Games (Kakooma and Numskill)
Playing Card Games Make 10 or Numskill Home Edition
Dice Games: Pig or Roll the Dice

Strategies for Learning Addition and Subtraction Facts

1. Mastery must focus on fluency. If students don't know a fact like 8+5, they need options for finding the sum efficiently.

2. Students move from counting all to using strategies (such as counting on or doubles) to mastery (see table below).

General Fluency for Addition Foundational Facts

Phase 1 Uses counting strategies only

Phase 2 Fluent with facts within 5 or some foundational facts; counts for all others.

Phase 3 Uses a blend of doubles, combinations of 10 and counting on; automatic with some foundational facts.

Phase 4 Automatic with most or all of doubles, combinations of 10, plus 1 facts

Math Games that Support Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division Fluency

Online Games Tangmath Games (Kakooma)
Playing Card Games Hit the Target or Multiplication Madness

Debunking the Myths About Fact Fluency

Myth: Memorization is the best technique to master basic facts.

Fact: Rote memorization is not effective for learning and retention. Children may remember in the short and then forget. Rote memorization of basic facts has the added flaw that, if you forget the fact, you have no alternatives for figuring it out efficiently. If the memorized fact is forgotten, the alternatives is to count (addition) or skip count (multiplication). Neither is efficient. It is much more effective for students to apply number relationships to develop fluency and eventual mastery of basic facts. Eventually children either come to know the facts from memory, or they become so automatic at selecting and applying strategies that they can generate a response within a few seconds. (Jennifer Bay-Williams and Gina Kling)

Myth: Memorization has no place in education

Fact: Memorization, so often maligned in educational circles, has a place in learning. It serves a function: to focus attention, to help us notice the invisible. There is no question that the role memorization plays in education can be overstated and overplayed. In math education especially, entire subjects are reduced to incoherent laundry lists of isolated, irrelevant facts that we’re made to memorize for some reason. Still, I worry that saying memorization serves no role at all is to remove a meaningful learning tool... So memorization has a place, but we have to be very selective... Confusing memorization with learning is a huge error. Recognizing that memorizing a small body of selective knowledge [ie. combinations of 10, doubles] at the appropriate time in order to aid learning and reveal beauty in the mathematical world is something else entirely. (Dan Finkel)

Sources:

Math Fact Fluency by Jennifer Bay-Williams and Gina Kling
Math For Love Website, Founder Dan Finkel