Fact Fluency
Math is about more than just memorizing!
Fact Fluency is the “buzz word” in schools. Teachers have probably mentioned that your child is building their fact fluency or that they need to work on it. Two questions may arise from this... What does it mean and how do I help my child with this?
Fact fluency is not about speed drilling facts. Rather it is an automaticity that occurs when students understand how numbers are related and can solve problems both efficiently and accurately. When I was in school, I was drilled on facts in the form of “mad minutes”. I was really good at memorizing and felt so accomplished when I’d be one of the first students to flip their sheet over signaling I was finished solving 100 facts in one minute. I felt like a“genius”. Was I really though?
The truth is anyone can memorize and it doesn’t signal any kind of “genius”. If anything, an ability to memorize helps with solving quickly, but then when problems are presented in a form other than a mad minute or flashcards, students don’t know what to do. Flexibility and generalizability are lost when students just memorize.
An ability to solve facts really fast only goes so far until you’re asked to make meaning of what you memorized or apply it to a new concept, which you will definitely be asked. “How can I use 4 x 7 to solve 8 x 7?” I’d be stumped if I was back in 4th grade I’d say “4 x 7 just is 28 and 8 x 7 just is 56”. What I should be able to say is “4 x 7 is like 4 groups of 7 and so if I double the number of groups of 7 to 8 groups, the answer also doubles, so 28 doubled is 56.”Efficiency doesn’t just come from memorizing, it comes from understanding how numbers relate readily and quickly calculating because of those learned connections.
Mad minutes were a traditional way of developing fact “fluency”, but there is a reason teachers don’t use them anymore. They left out a key part: how are numbers related? Number sense is a significant part of developing math “genius” and should not be overlooked.
This added layer to fact fluency can feel insignificant and frustrating when a child needs to just learn that 3 + 7 = 10 so they don’t take hours to do their homework. However, if they are not learning why 3 + 7 = 10 at the same time of recognizing it, they will have a much harder time making connections in later grades. Children can not make sense of math after it has already been taught to them. Rather, it needs to be taught simultaneously and that’s called fact fluency.
How can you help them learn this? Ask questions that make your child THINK and reflect. If your child can answer the question“How can I use 4 x 7 to solve 8 x 7?”with an answer that demonstrates number sense, that’s great and keep ecnouraging that! If they have a hard time answering the question, take it as a learning opportunity to teach them the connection. They may not make the connection after one time and so you should continue to have the same conversations. Repeated exposure and time to think is vital to your child’s fact fluency development.
