Basic fact mastery is a necessity to learn math. For some kids though, it becomes a source of frustration because it is one of the times when speed counts. I try not to spend much time in class emphasizing speed. Learning for mastery and accuracy tend to be the focus of our week. Nonetheless, Mondays are our day to work on fast facts through mad minutes. With my third graders, we spend the first months of school sharing strategies for facts. We talk about arrays, turn-around facts, finger tricks, patterns, and even songs that help build that fact fluency. We practice facts together each week. With the fourth and fifth graders, I begin to let them have choice. Students must pass their 2's through 12's facts. They get to choose which set to attempt each week. We do 40 problems in a minute and a half. Each child tracks their own progress (of course, I track it too!) and determines which fact to try the next week. Some kids choose to pass the "easy" facts first (2, 5, 10, 11) while others decide to get the "hard" facts out of the way first (7, 12.) Those that finish multiplication move on to division and then onto alternate activities when they complete that. (I have 4-5th graders now that are on track to be done with division by Christmas break!) What happens to those that don't pass? Well, there is a catch - to force the practice, the kids that don't pass each week have to take their mad minute home for extra homework to fix and finish with a pen by Friday. What can you do to help? This is one of the areas where parents can be instrumental in their child's success because I expect that most of the skill and drill for fact fluency happens at home so that we can learn new concepts in class. Practice facts out loud while driving or cooking dinner. Pull out the old fashioned flash cards. Play games (ask them how to play Salute!) Use the computer. All of my students have XTraMath.org accounts. This site is specifically for practicing facts. We use it at school and kids are also welcome to use it at home. Check out the document linked below for other websites that allow for practice. Any help you can give them now will make life in math easier.
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Once upon a time, math was taught as a series of algorithms to be memorized and then reproduced. It would be very easy for me to simply take the ideas of perimeter and area of a rectangle and teach the third graders the formulas (you know, area = base X height.) And you know, they would probably be able do quite well at calculating. However, it is 2013 and the focus in math is no longer simple memorization but application and exploration. With that in mind, my third grade group and I have been exploring the calculation of perimeter and area. To make it fun, we started with a birthday party. Our friend Julia got a new pet for her birthday. We knew that the dimensions of its cage was 20 steps by 8 steps. But how big is that? We went outside to find out. Julia's present was a surprise so we also had to make a guess as to what the surprise was (rabbit, dog or horse? What would fit?) Our exploration led us to realize standard units of measurement are necessary first of all! After working with perimeter for a time, we found out that there was 56 feet of fencing available (the perimeter measurement.) Our next task was to design a pen that would optimize the area for the new pet. Julia's problem took us a few days and some scaled drawings to determine the best plan. Turns out there are a lot of options for shape and area size of cages all with the 56 foot perimeter. Check out the photos page of the website to see all the pictures from our hard work. http://traceybean.weebly.com/photos.html (You'll also see pictures from our attempts to measure the area of an irregular shape - the third grade body! They worked to determine the area of skin. Using our new-found formula for the area of a rectangle, we began to apply that to simplify our work when calculating a larger object.) Mrs. Williams, the music teacher, and I have 14 - 4th graders joining us every Thursday morning for some rockin' and rollin'! For most of them, this is the first time they have ever picked up a guitar. We have only had 2 half hour sessions but look at what these kids can do already with just 3 chords! Students make mistakes. Let's face it, teachers and parents do to. But in my class it is what you do with those mistakes that matters. I have tried to build a classroom environment where mistakes are ok and even celebrated (through song!) IF you take the time to fix your thinking. In my mind, school should be about learning and understanding the material not about penalizing students with poor grades for trying to learn. The only real mistake you can make in my classroom is not taking the time to fix your own thinking. Sometimes you can do that on your own or you need to "phone a friend" or you need intervention with the teacher, no matter the method, building better brain pathways for long-term learning is my goal for students' learning.
To help facilitate that philosophy of learning and fixing, I have a policy for fixing and finishing work. As part of my job, I take grades as a form of assessment to determine who is understanding and who needs more time or help. However, students are allowed to fix any assignment for a better grade. I ask that they do it promptly while the learning experience is fresh. I ask that they fix it with a pen so I can see the changes they make. I then give them back half of the percentage points they missed. (I joke with them that I did half the work finding your mistakes so I get to keep half of the points for my effort.) This goes for students who only missed one question to those that might have received a D or (gasp!) an F. Students are allowed to fix and finish mad minutes, homework, quizzes, and even tests. My only other restriction is that fix and finish work is all due the week before the quarter ends so I can finalize report cards for the classroom teachers. Made a mistake? |
Tracey BeanWerner Elementary Archives
May 2018
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