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Recommendations for Practicing Fluency with Family at Home

Sat, 06 Apr 2024 20:53:10 GMT

What are some family activities that students can do to build their mathematical fluency?

Scavenger Hunt

Make up a mathematical scavenger hunt for inside or outside. Write the first equation at the starting point. When the child answers the equation correctly, give them a clue to the next location. Continue for several rounds and decide on a fun treat for when they finish the scavenger hunt!

Skip-Count Throughout Daily Routine

An easy way to incorporate multiplication and division fluency in your day is by skip-counting, which is an excellent strategy in building mathematical fluency. Skip-count up or down when you are transitioning to a different activity, counting objects, or as you exercise.

Math Fact Trivia Game

Make a family game night by preparing equations on a trivia board and decide on point values based on how easy or difficult the equation is. Decide whether the family will play on teams or as individuals, come up with a scorekeeping system, and you can even award the winner a prize!

Make Posters

Incorporate art into math by creating posters of common equations or skip-counting patterns. Hang them in places where your kids often spend time, so they can reference them when doing homework and use them to practice.

Use songs on Youtube

Skip-counting songs are extremely helpful in promoting multiplication and division fluency in students. Look up skip-counting songs on Youtube and have your child choose which ones they enjoy so they can listen to them as a way to practice their fluency.

Building Multiplication and Division Fluency for Individual Students

Sun, 24 Mar 2024 21:55:47 GMT

What are some individual activities that I can use to help my students build fluency?

Goal setting

Help students set goals (either individually or as a class) on their mathematical fluency. For example, a student may have the goal to choose an efficient strategy such as skip-counting for each division problem that they encounter. For students who are more motivated by numbers, it might be a specific amount of problems that they need to complete each day within a certain time frame. Note that fluency goals do not need to be time-based but can be!

Daily Checklist

Give students a checklist each day of their responsibilities in math class. It may contain activities such as: fluency practice, note-taking, independent practice, etc. This conveys to students that it is a priority to work on their fluency at a separate time than when they practice grade level concepts. In addition, it will give the students dedicated time to practice to achieve their fluency goal. These goals might be individualized and might be class-wide.

Fill in the blank practice

Use this Skip-Counting (2-12) Practice to help reinforce skip-counting for multiplication and division. This set can be used for classwork or homework and students can move through the worksheets at their own pace. You can also assign specific concepts and pages based on a students’ skills or needs.

Active strategies

Fluency practice does not have to be boring OR stationary! Use this Active Multiplication and Division Game Bundle to help your class get moving! If you need more individual practice, assign students a stationary exercise and a number to count by to help get them moving and working on skip-counting at the same time!

Be the teacher

Ask students to make a practice worksheet involving a fluency skill (skip-counting or fact practice) with an answer key for their peers to practice the skill. Students will be excited to take on more of a leadership role, while still practicing the skills they need to be successful in math!

Building Multiplication and Division Fluency in the Classroom

Sun, 17 Mar 2024 19:40:35 GMT

What are some classroom activities that I can use to build fluency?

Count by…

Do you ever count down from a number while your students transition from activity to activity? Why not try skip-counting? Start at 20 and count down by twos. Or tell students that they have until the number 100 to transition while you skip count by 10s. When the students have transitioned, they raise their hand and tell you which number you were skip-counting by.

Bump

Students sit in a circle. One student decides which number the class will count BY and one student decides which number the class will count TO. Students will skip count one by one in a circle. If they do not know the next number OR if they get to the final number in the set (as determined by their peer at the beginning of the round), they get “bumped” to the middle of the circle. Accommodations should be provided for students who are performing significantly below grade level (I give them a multiplication chart or hundreds chart if necessary).

Quiz Time!

During moments where students are waiting for dismissal or transition to a new space, use a set of multiplication/division flashcards to do a “quiz game.” Choose an equation and a student name at random. If they answer correctly, choose a small prize such as a piece of candy or ticket or any other reward system that you use. If they answer incorrectly, you can give them an opportunity to use a strategy to correct their answer so they still have access to that prize. Choose a few equations and names each time for some quick practice!

Daily Warmup

Put skip-counting by numbers 2-12 on a poster in your classroom. Each day during morning meeting or before math, use a random number generator or have a student choose which number you will count by.

Do-A-Dot Skip Counting Pages

Use these Skip-Counting Do-a-Dot Mazes to help students practice their skip counting for numbers 2-12. If you do not have bingo dotters, you can have them color the dots with marker or crayon.

Building Multiplication and Division Fluency in an Authentic Way

Sun, 17 Mar 2024 19:24:42 GMT

How can I build fluency without using rote memorization tactics?

When I encourage fluency in students, it is important to me that they don’t simply memorize the facts that they use most often. Something that should be prioritized more in math instruction is the use of efficient strategies to solve a problem.

The reason that students should have fluency in a given mathematical concept is so students can focus their mental energy on more complex problems. While it is ideal for students to be able to recall certain well known facts from memory, we know that this is not possible in all cases for all students. Instead, an alternative may be to prioritize their use of strategies for multiplication and division.

Here are the steps I use when teaching multiplication and division to foster conceptual understanding which will lead to fluency:

Make the language easy and accessible
Teach strategies from most “hands-on” to most abstract
Encourage students to use more abstract strategies when they are ready

The first step in fostering fluency in students is to make the language that they use easy and accessible. For example, when I teach multiplication, I instruct students to say “groups of” instead of times. Thus, 4 x 5 becomes “4 groups of 5.” This helps students easily translate the mathematical symbol for multiplication into terms they are already familiar with. Similarly, I use the term “divided into equal groups” for division. Thus, 20 ÷ 5 becomes “20 divided into 5 equal groups.” The first step in building fluency is to make the language that we use more accessible to students.

The second step in fostering fluency in students is to teach hands-on strategies first, and more abstract strategies later on. I may start with using manipulatives such as blocks or pieces of paper to form groups or arrays. When this becomes simple for students, they may begin using pictures to represent multiplication and division problems. After that, you may find that skip-counting becomes even simpler. Now, when they are required to be independent on a multiplication or division task, you know that they have at least three strategies they can use to get started.

Finally, some students may prefer to stick with a more hands-on approach. It is completely acceptable for students to use more hands-on approaches for as long as they need to, and we should certainly encourage this as much as possible during instruction and in-class assessments. For longer, state assessments, this may not be viable because there are restrictions on the manipulatives and tools our students are allowed to use. In this case, you may need to encourage your students to use some of the more abstract methods such as drawing or skip-counting. As long as the student has one or more strategies to help them with getting started on a multiplication or division problem, they will begin to build fluency through repetition.

We as teachers need to give students the tools to be successful. All students develop at their own time, so we may see significant variations in how these strategies are used throughout the year by different students. Encouraging students to challenge themselves while still giving them tools to be successful is always an important role of an educator.

What is Fluency and Why Do Our Students Need Fluency in Math?

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 20:28:00 GMT

Fluency: the basics

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Three Ways to Use Errorless Learning in your Classroom

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 20:08:27 GMT

Do you want to use errorless learning but don’t know where to start? Try these ideas!

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How Will I Know When it is Time to Reduce Scaffolds?

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 21:00:29 GMT

Have you been using errorless learning? How will you know when your students don’t need it anymore?

Students generally do not use additional resources unless they need them. For example, a student will not use a multiplication chart if they already have the facts memorized. The memorized facts serve as a more efficient strategy, and the multiplication chart - in that case - would be a less efficient strategy. We, as humans, generally use the most efficient strategy possible when it comes to solving problems.

When we provide errorless learning opportunities, the goal is to eventually take those supports away so the student can prove that they can solve a given problem independently. Taking away scaffolds can be difficult on the teacher and student, and is often a balancing act. You may take away a scaffold, but then need to provide it again the following week if the student struggles to meet expectations.

Some students need an extra push to become independent with solving problems in school. It is up to us as educators to determine when they require additional resources and when they have the skills to do it on their own. Reducing scaffolds comes down to three important questions:

Does the student have at least one or two strategies they can use to solve this problem?
Is the student confident that they can use these strategies independently?
Does your data from consistent data collection indicate that they are improving on this skill?

We will delve deeper into each of these questions:

Strategies

If a student is solving an addition problem, do they know that addition is adding two or more numbers together? Do they know that they can use their fingers, objects, or a number line to represent these numbers? Can they count the amount of objects that are being added? If you have answered yes to most of these questions, the student can probably begin to solve addition problems without the errorless learning scaffold that you have been providing them. Knowing where to begin in solving a problem or equation is extremely important. If the student can demonstrate that the know strategies for solving the concept, it is likely time to reduce the amount of errorless tools that they are receiving.

Data Collection

Is a student’s data improving on the skill that they’ve been receiving errorless scaffolds in? Does the errorless work seem too easy for them? Based on your data collection (formal assessments and informal observations during instruction), you may decide to increase or decrease scaffolds. If a student is showing progress on a given concept, it may be beneficial to slowly decrease the scaffolds. If they cannot seem to adjust, it is easy enough to add the support back in!

Confidence Level

Does your student consistently boast about how easy a given concept is? And do they also have the skills to back up that confidence? This is certainly a sign that they could do without as many supports. On the other hand, if they tend to freeze up anytime they need to answer a question, they may require that additional support a bit longer - at least for independent work!

Conclusion

Overall, it can be difficult to determine whether a student truly needs additional supports. Given the amount that students are expected to learn and retain each day, I try to make sure that all my students feel comfortable with their new concepts and assignments, even if that means using extra accommodations a few days longer. Also, please know that this structure does not apply to all students. Some students will always need some type of errorless learning support for their academic concepts and that is okay too! We, as teachers, need to meet our students where they are and support them to the best of our ability!

When and How to Use Errorless Learning

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 23:23:39 GMT

When should I use errorless learning in my special education classroom?

Generally speaking, students use accommodations and additional resources for as long as they need them. This means that as soon as they discover that they have a more efficient way to complete work, they will use that instead. This is my reasoning for using errorless learning more often than not during my small groups as a special education teacher. I know that most students will use errorless learning resources for a short period of time, before transitioning to do the work on their own.

A good rule of thumb is to use errorless learning strategies anytime a student is consistently practicing the wrong answer or confusing themselves by not having an efficient strategy to use. For example, one of my students used to guess the wrong answer, but then would be stuck with that wrong answer in his head throughout the duration of class. Errorless learning gives the student multiple repetitions of practicing a skill correctly, even if they do not have one-on-one attention from a teacher.

How should I use errorless learning in my classroom?

During all my lessons, my students have some type of independent work so they can practice the new skill that they learned independently. It is during this time that I most frequently use errorless learning strategies.

The resources that I make for errorless learning are all printable. Some are in worksheet form and some are in flashcard form, meaning that students can write directly on those flashcards or you can laminate them for multiple uses.

Resources

Need errorless learning resources? I have several options already created! Click the links below to see more!

Addition with Dominoes - with Errorless Learning Option!

Addition with Dice - with Errorless Learning Option!

Addition and Subtraction within 10 - with Errorless Learning Option!

Donut Addition within 10 - with Errorless Learning Option!

Candle Addition within 10 - with Errorless Learning Option!
Candy Addition within 10 - with Errorless Learning Option!

Addition within 20 Flashcards with Errorless Learning Option

Addition within 10 - with Errorless Learning Option!

Subtraction within 10 - with Errorless Learning Option!

Common and Proper Nouns with Errorless Learning Option!

Odd and Even Number Activities - with Errorless Learning Option!

Alphabet Matching with Errorless Activity Option

Hundreds Chart with Blanks - with Errorless Learning Option!

Division Practice - With Errorless Learning Option!

Multiplication Fact Practice - With Errorless Learning Option!

Counting and Number-Matching with Errorless Learning Option!

The Benefits of Errorless Learning

Sun, 04 Feb 2024 20:52:37 GMT

Why should I use errorless learning with my students?

As a special education teacher, it can be difficult to differentiate for all your students’ needs in a meaningful way. During a small group lesson, some students may require more support with emotional regulation, while others may need multiple repetitions on any given academic skill. I began using errorless learning strategies when I realized that my students needed more feedback than I was able to provide within my small group. The goal is for this to be a short-term teaching strategy before the student begins to master the content. Of course, in special education, we know that this sometimes takes time and that all students learn at their own rate. Later in the month, I will have a post sharing about how to reduce the scaffolds that you provide to your students.

Vignettes that demonstrate effective uses of errorless learning

Multiple repetitions

I worked with a student for three years. Over the course of those three years, we practiced numbers and letters and other “pre-academic” skills consistently. By the time this student was in 3rd grade, it did not necessarily feel appropriate to spend so much instructional time on these basic skills. I wanted them to have opportunities to engage in the academic content her peers were engaging in also. In addition to modifying this student’s work, continuing to work on important foundational skills, and using classroom accommodations, we also used errorless learning resources to supplement. While their peers were working on multiplication, the student could also complete multiplication activities, but their activities were errorless, thus giving the student exposure and practice with equations and products in the correct format. This student felt more connected to their classroom and their peers while also feeling comfortable with the workload.

Building confidence

I consulted with a parent who shared that their child felt anxious about completing grade-level assignments. The student would often not answer any of the questions because they had fear about getting a wrong answer. With the use of errorless materials, the student was able to build their confidence while they worked toward completing work independently.

Instant feedback

There was a period of time in which I had 8 students in a small math group who all had extremely different needs. When I was working with a smaller group of students on a more specific concept, I would provide errorless learning resources to the other students. This way, students were practicing the assigned concept correctly and had instant feedback on their work. When they worked with me, they were better able to complete work independently without using these resources.

Resources

Need errorless learning resources? I have several options already created! Click the links below to see more!

Addition with Dominoes - with Errorless Learning Option!

Addition with Dice - with Errorless Learning Option!

Addition and Subtraction within 10 - with Errorless Learning Option!

Donut Addition within 10 - with Errorless Learning Option!

Candle Addition within 10 - with Errorless Learning Option!
Candy Addition within 10 - with Errorless Learning Option!

Addition within 20 Flashcards with Errorless Learning Option

Addition within 10 - with Errorless Learning Option!

Subtraction within 10 - with Errorless Learning Option!

Common and Proper Nouns with Errorless Learning Option!

Odd and Even Number Activities - with Errorless Learning Option!

Alphabet Matching with Errorless Activity Option

Hundreds Chart with Blanks - with Errorless Learning Option!

Division Practice - With Errorless Learning Option!

Multiplication Fact Practice - With Errorless Learning Option!

Counting and Number-Matching with Errorless Learning Option!

Get Organized for the Day in Special Education

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 21:10:18 GMT

Get Organized for the Day!

Daily organization can feel quite overwhelming for any teacher, but daily habits that help you to stay on top of all your responsibilities can be a game-changer! I’ll share sample literacy and math lesson formats that I use to keep everything running smoothly in my classroom!

In my literacy small groups, we have a primary focus on phonics, especially because I tend to work with younger students. Here are the components of literacy that I work on everyday with my students:

Review prior spelling patterns
Introduce new pattern (1-2 times per week)
Read a decodable text
Write dictation sentences
Write a response to a question or free-write

In my math small groups, I focus on conceptual, rather than procedural understanding. This means that at all ages, my students are working on problems that have real-life applications and are using a variety of methods to solve their problems. Here are the components of math that I work on everyday with my students:

Review prior concepts, vocabulary, anything memorization based (for younger students this may be number names, while for other students it may be verbalizing the difference between the four operations).
Introduce new concept (1-2 times per week)
Practice new concept - use errorless learning strategies if necessary
Create and solve real-life problems using the given math concept
Independent work for practice

Get Organized for the Week in Special Education

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 20:52:26 GMT

Get organized for the week!

I feel very strongly about a weekly organization plan because teaching is such a dynamic and ever-changing job. I tend to plan for the week on Thursday or Friday of the previous week so that my Monday runs smoothly, but you can plan any day that works best for you!

Progress Monitoring Data Collection

Each week, you should have a list of students that need to be assessed as a part of their progress monitoring for their IEP.
Based on this list, pull assessments from your progress monitoring binders.
I usually write my students’ names on the assessment I’ll use for them, and I do the assessment at the beginning of my session with them so I don’t forget. You can go about this however it is best for your and your students.
After they complete the assessment, Record the data on their individualized data sheet and store the assessment in their section of your progress monitoring binder.

Meeting Schedule (if you have any meetings planned for the week)

Ensure that the parent and the rest of the IEP team has confirmed that they’ll attend the meeting. Ensure that everyone is clear on when the meeting is taking place.
If you are responsible for finding coverage for yourself or the teacher you are working with, ensure that is done the week of the meeting.
If you will miss any service time with other students, communicate that with them and their classroom teacher.

Lesson Planning

Some schools may require you to submit lesson plans each week, but traditional lesson plans for classroom teachers do not tend to work for special education teachers because we have so many different groups of students to work with. Here is an example of a weekly lesson plan that I use for my instruction with my small groups. Note that this is an example of a group that moves quite quickly. Some groups of students may use a whole week or a few weeks to review the same concept.

Get Organized for the Month in Special Education

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 22:50:06 GMT

Organize your month!

It is beneficial to sit down each month to plan for upcoming shorter term goals that you may have for yourself and your students as a special education teacher. The biggest consideration that I typically have on a monthly basis is about progress monitoring, paperwork, and meetings. I’ll share my system for a progress monitoring schedule each month as well as my timeline for reevaluations and annual reviews. Note that reevaluations take at least two months to complete, so the timeline is a 2-3 month consideration.

Progress Monitoring Schedule

Print a calendar (FREE printable calendar HERE !) or use a calendar you already have.
Write the name of the student and the type of goal that you’d like to progress monitor for on a specific date.
Use the progress monitoring interval to keep track of when the next time you’ll need to progress monitor is.
Using this system, you’ll be able to prepare your progress monitoring materials each week for the students on your calendar. I’ll talk about this more in my next blog post!

Reevaluation Timeline

70-80 days before reevaluation due date: connect with IEP team to determine the areas that you’ll assess for this student. **Remember that the parent is an equal member of the IEP team and their opinion should be taken into consideration for this decision.
60 days before reevaluation due date: get consent for reevaluation.
60 days before reevaluation due date: set meeting date for reevaluation.
60 days before reevaluation due date: make a calendar of when assessments and data collection will be completed for this student.
30 days before reevaluation due date: connect with IEP team to determine whether the team requires more or different data. Make changes as necessary.
7-10 days before reevaluation due date: confirm reevaluation meeting date with all members of the IEP team.
7-10 days before reevaluation due date: Send draft of all paperwork to parents/guardians.

Annual Review Timeline

30-40 days before annual review due date: connect with IEP team to discuss specific components of the IEP.
30-40 days before annual review due date: set a meeting date.
7-10 days before annual review due date: confirm reevaluation meeting date with all members of the IEP team.
7-10 days before annual review due date: Send draft of all paperwork to parents/guardians.

Resources

Having trouble getting started on putting together a progress monitoring binder? I have several math options already written! Click the link below to see more!

Story Problems Progress Monitoring MEGA BUNDLE !

Get Organized for the Year in Special Education

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 00:59:36 GMT

Getting Organized!

The New Year is a great time to start making resolutions and one of the more common resolutions that I hear people make is regarding organization. As a special education teacher myself, I understand the importance of having systems and structures to get and stay organized throughout the year. Here are a few full-year systems that I have found to be effective in my classroom and some resources to help maintain those systems:

Master List of Students

Use Google Sheets, Excel, Numbers, or a similar program to organize your data.
Create headings at the top of the document. I typically use these: Last Name, First Name, Grade, Annual Review Due Date, Reevaluation Due Date.
Fill in the data according to your caseload.
Using the Duplicate feature, make a sheet in which the data is sorted by grade, a separate sheet in which the data is sorted by Annual Review Due Date, and a separate sheet in which the data is sorted by Reevaluation Due Date.
In looking at each of these sheets, you can input important dates on your calendar. You’ll also have an idea of your priorities moving forward.

Progress Monitoring Binder

You’ll need a different binder for each type of goal that your students have.
Write the goal (or a simplified version of the goal) on the front of the binder.
Inside the binder, compile resources that you’ll use for progress monitoring each time your students need to be assessed. (I’ll talk more about this system in my next blog post also!)

Student Data Binder

Use one binder for each grade level you work with or separate a large binder into sections for each grade level.
Print a page for each student that you work with that includes their name and goal(s). Indicate the intervals for progress monitoring for each goal.
Print data sheets for each goal that the student has.
As you collect data for students, you’ll be able to file it in their section of the binder and fill out their individualized data sheet.

Plan Ahead! Take 30-60 minutes to sit down and plan out the rest of your year.

Put a note in your calendar for any grade-level field trips that your students may be attending. Take this opportunity to plan whether you’ll be attending this field trip as a support to any of your students. If not, you may have some extra planning time that day!
Account for any sick and personal days that you may already have on the calendar. Communicate with teachers and make a note in your calendar to organize your sub plans a few days before.

Resources

Having trouble getting started on putting together a progress monitoring binder? I have several math options already written! Click the link below to see more!

Story Problems Progress Monitoring MEGA Bundle!

Benefits of Reference Sheets in Education

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 19:56:25 GMT

A Few Reasons I Love Using Reference Sheets in my Classroom!

Why use reference sheets?

If you are anything like me, you have answered the same question about a math procedure hundreds or even thousands of times. I can’t count how many times I have explained the standard algorithm for addition, the steps for finding the area of an irregular shape, or the components of using the Pythagorean Theorem. Reference sheets have been a huge asset to my classroom because they have saved my students so much confusion over standard algorithms and procedures!

Definition:

Reference sheets are any resource that provide a visual or written explanation of a given concept.

Examples of use:

I recommend giving students reference sheets after a small or whole group lesson about the concept. This way, they can use the reference sheet as a resource during their independent practice. You can also send reference sheets home as a resource for students and parents during homework. Lastly, these reference sheets can be helpful to keep in student binders as a whole-year support if needed.

Benefits of reference sheets:

Increase student confidence for independent work
Increase teacher flexibility in supporting students during independent work
Support parents during homework and studying time
Provides students with a long-lasting support for grade-level concepts

Resources:

Errorless Learning

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 22:06:18 GMT

Increase Differentiation in your Classroom with this Strategy!

W hy I use errorless learning:

Picture this: you are working with a student who is performing 2 years below grade level in math. You ask them if 5 is an even or odd number. They respond that the answer is even. You tell them that 5 is an odd number, then ask them the same question shortly thereafter. They answer even again. This student has now had two repetitions of associating the number 5 as an even number, which is not actually the case. This student may be an excellent candidate for errorless learning.

Definition :

Errorless learning is the concept that students should have multiple exposures to the correct answer before having to answer a question without any visual supports.

Examples of use:

Errorless learning can take place during direct instruction where the teacher can remind students of the correct answer or association between two concepts using verbal and visual cues. Errorless learning can also take place on a worksheet or task cards where a question and answer are provided for the student to practice.

Benefits of errorless learning:

Increases amount of correct repetitions for a concept
Increases confidence
Provides more visual and verbal support
Allows a teacher to provide differentiated support for their students

Resources :