Effective Instructional Strategies to Ensure Fifth Grade Mathematics Readiness

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Effective Instructional Strategies to Ensure Fifth Grade Mathematics Readiness

Literature Review

The purpose of this literature review is an exploration into effective instructional strategies to ensure fifth grade mathematics readiness. This two-part study investigates what teachers consider to be key elements in instructional design and implementation to support mathematics curriculum across the elementary grade levels. It will also investigate specific mathematics skills that teachers believe should be taught and reinforced each year from kindergarten through fifth grade.

Due to the constant changes to the national and state education programs, there has been an increase in the focus on language objectives and literacy skills in the classroom today, while mathematics skills have received increasingly less emphasis and become less of a priority. “Although students have made progress in some areas of math, when it comes to basic arithmetic—in particular, the ability to compute—growth has been disappointing” (Loveless, 2003). Students who have as yet to show proficiency in fundamental mathematics skills by the fourth grade year will quite possible require remedial instruction. It is difficult, and often impossible, for educators to adhere to the curriculum structure of the current grade level when students are not yet proficient in the basic concepts that should have been mastered in previous grade levels.

The Reteaching of Mathematics Skills to Fifth Grade Students

Studies indicate that student mathematics achievement has remained unchanged in lower elementary grades as compared to the middle school grades (Kutscher, 2008). Reteaching is necessary to reintroduce and reinforce mathematics concepts to students who have be...

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Loveless, T. (Director) (2003, February 6). Trends in math achievement: the importance of basic skills. Mathematics and Science Initiative. Lecture conducted from U.S. Secretary of Education, Washington, D.C.. Retrieved from http://www.brookings.edu/research/speeches/2003/02/06education-loveless

Linder, S. M., Powers-Costello, B., & Stegelin, D. A. (2011). Mathematics in early childhood: Research-based rationale and practical strategies. Early Childhood Education Journal, 39(1), 29-37. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10643-010-0437-6

Slavin, R. E., & Lake, C. (2008). Effective programs in elementary mathematics: A best-evidence synthesis. Review of Educational Research, 78(3), 427-515. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.cu-portland.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/214120806?accountid=10248

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