Math Real Fluency

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Fluency in math class speaks to the ability of a student to recall applicable math knowledge necessary for solving problems with little to no brain effort. In the primary grades, fluency is limited to addition and subtraction facts. Once students enter Middle School or Junior High, fluency encompasses addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. Fluency of these facts allows students the ability to build on their previous knowledge of numbers and tackle more challenging concepts. A student’s success is math class is closely tied to their math facts fluency levels (Pol, 2016; Arnold, 2012). However, there is a disconnect between the state standards and remediation necessary for those students who have not mastered their facts on the state’s …show more content…

With the introduction of new state standards, math facts instruction and practice though necessary has been abandoned. The standards address at which grade students should have facts mastered but there is no prescribed framework to allow this to take place. As a result, students’ math facts knowledge and retention have suffered tremendously. Many students do not leave the prescribed grade having mastered all skills necessary for the following grade. Since math fact retention and fluency is assigned to a specific grade level, math fact intervention is not typically seen once student surpass that grade level even though it is an instructional need for many students (Nelson, Parker, & Zaslofsky, 2016). At the Middle School or Junior High level, almost no time is spent on intervention for math facts fluency. Teachers operate under the assumption that students should have and did master their facts before arriving in their classroom. Teachers tend to mistake weakness in a specific skill for a lack of math

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