03+Fact+Fluency


 * Fact Fluency: What Is It? **

We spend time in our curriculum working towards fact fluency. We look at addition and subtraction in grades 1, 2, and 3, and we look at multiplication and division in grades 3, 4, and 5. So, what is fact fluency? Why is it important?

It would be easy to assume that fact fluency is the ability to get a certain number of problems correct in a set amount of time. After all, that is how we test our students. But fact fluency is much more than scores or time limits. In order for a student to be fluent, several things need to be true: 1. Students need to be able to quickly recall all single digit addition/subtraction facts and all multiplication/division facts through factors of 12. 2. When a fact is forgotten, students must have a way of building the fact without counting. For example, if a student has difficulty with 9+7, the student should be able to use a make 10 strategy to build the fact. Counting on from 9, while resulting in the correct answer, is a beginning-level strategy. Fluent students are able to use more sophisticated strategies to build facts. 3. Perhaps most important, students need to know when to use a particular operation to solve a real-world problem.

When students have fact fluency, it allows them to use their brain power to think about the mathematics. When a lot of brain power is used to build the facts needed, students get lost in the process of solving the problem.

Until students are fluent, plan on spending no more than 10 minutes a day working towards fluency. Here are a couple of games and activities that you can use to help students build fact retention, which leads to fact fluency.