What to Do When Teaching Basic Facts 1. Have the students self-monitor.

Students should be able to identify their meanies and continue to work on reasoning strategies to help them derive those facts. 2. Focus on self-improvement. Students need to keep track of how long it takes them to go through their facts, and then a couple of days later, see whether they are quicker and more accurate than the last time. 3. Drill in short time segments. Use the first 5 or ten minutes of the day, or extra time just before lunch to work on fact development. Longer periods of time are ineffective. 4. Work on facts over time. Rather than do a unit on fact memorization, work on learning facts over months and months, focusing on reasoning strategies, then on memorization. Keep reviewing and monitoring. 5. Involve Families. Share the big plan of how you will work on learning facts over the year. Ask family members to help by using strategies when they dont know a fact. 6. Make drill enjoyable. There are many games designed to reinforce facts that are not competitive or anxiety inducing. 7. Use Technology. When students work with technology, they get immediate feedback and reinforcement, helping them to self-monitor. 8. Emphasize the importance of quick recall of facts. Without trying to create pressure or anxiety, emphasize to students that in real life and in the rest of mathematics, they will be recalling these facts all of the time. 9. Celebrate student successes.

What NOT to Do When Teaching Basic Facts 1. Dont use timed tests. Students get distracted by the pressure and abandon their reasoning strategies in timed tests. If they miss some they dont get the chance to see which ones they are having trouble with, so the assessment doesnt help them move forward. Students develop anxiety, which works against learning mathematics. Have students self monitor the time it takes them to got through a small set of facts. 2. Dont use public comparisons of mastery. Students who master the facts slowly should not be compared to those who do so at a quicker pace. Avoid the negative emotional reaction that comes with public competition. 3. Dont proceed through facts in order from 0 to 9. It is better to work on facts that students fine easy to learn then proceed to the more difficult ones. 4. Dont work on all facts all at once. Select a strategy (starting with wasier ones) and then work on memorization of that set of facts (e.g. doubles) Be sure they have really learned those before moving on otherwise they will become confused. 5. Dont move to memorization too soon. Quick recall or mastery can be obtained only after students are ready meaning they have a robust collection of reasoning strategies to apply as needed. 6. Dont use facts as a barrier to good mathematics. There is no reason that a student who has not yet mastered all basic facts should be excluded from real mathematical experiences. 7. Dont use fact master as a prerequisite for calculator use. This denies them important learning opportunities. A student who has not yet developed fact fluency will be too bogged down in computation without a calculator. With a calculator, the student can participate in the lesson.

Adapted from Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally, by John Van de Walle, Karen Karp and Jennifer Bay-Williams.