Category Archives: Learning Tips

Learning Tips

8 Quick Keys to Memorizing Math Facts

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Got a student in school? Nearly any grade, except possibly kindergarten? How well does your learner know their basic math facts? Here’s what they should know by age:

Grades 1-2: Memorize addition and subtraction facts. By the end of grade 2, should know all 100 combinations through 9 + 9 and 18 – 9. Should be able to solve 100 problems in 5 minutes.

Grades 3-5: Memorize multiplication and division facts. By the end of grade 5, should know all 100 combinations through 9 x 9 and 81 divided by 9. Should be able to solve 100 multiplication problems in 5 minutes by end grade 4, and should be able to solve 100 division problems in 5 minutes by end grade 5.

Grades 6 and up: Should be fluent in all four operations, able to switch between operations, and able to instantly name the inverse of any given math problem. Should recognize different formats for multiplication ( times sign, dot, no sign at all) and division (division sign, long division sign, fraction bar).

Why is it so important?

If students can solve the 100 facts in the given operation within the 5 minute time frame, they are solving each one in approximately 3 seconds. More complex problems (like long division) are actually made of smaller math facts in series. For example ( a simple example at that), the problem 308 divided by 20 takes at least 8 math facts to solve. Each step in the process is a math fact. 8 x 3 is 24 seconds to solve the problem. The entire 25-problem assignment would take about 10 minutes.

Now revisit that math if your student is three times slower with the math facts. Each fact takes 9 seconds instead of 3. Each problem would take over a minute, and the assignment would take over half an hour. I think it’s a good bet that EVERYONE would rather be done with math in 10 minutes than in a half an hour! The calculus just gets worse from there for students who are even slower with math facts, or worse yet, don’t know them at all. Then we through in mistakes as well as time consumption.

So get them to memorize those math facts so they can be done with math in class, or maybe after a few minutes of homework. It’s worth the effort.

And here’s how to get the task done:

KEY 1: Motivate ’em! Share the math about how LONG they are spending on their math and let them conclude it would be better to memorize.

KEY 2: If the time motivation above does not work, add some artificial incentives: promise a valuable reward when they hit milestones, like doing all additions in 5 minutes. Be sure to follow through, and don’t stop until the job is done.

KEY 3: Many people find the task of memorizing 100 math facts for the operation (or 400 all together) daunting. They don’t realize they ALREADY KNOW many of them. Take a moment to find out which facts your student already knows, then subtract those from the to-do list. Chances are good there are only a handful of troublesome facts to work on in each operation.

KEY 4: Pick a fact or two and practice it for a week, all by itself. Say the math fact every time you do something common, like get in the car or open the refrigerator. Pretty soon, it will move over to that list of “accomplished”!

KEY 5: Use triangle flashcards for practice. These come in two sets – addition/subtraction and multiplication/division. The addition or multiplication answer is at the top of the triangle, and the other two corners have the addends or factors. Cover the top corner to answer the fact from memory. Cover one of the side corners to answer the companion subtraction or division fact.

KEY 6: Memorize the three numbers that go together to make the fact family: 3 + 4 = 7, so 3 and 4 and 7 are the numbers “in the family”.

KEY 7: Write troublesome math facts with their answers. Writing is another way to get information into the memory. Pretend they are spelling words, and write them down!

KEY 8: Memorize the “special” facts first, like additions that total 10, or the doubles. Look for other patterns, too. Learn to skip count for multiplication. Learn that 5 times an even number always leads to an answer ending in zero, while 5 times an odd number always has an answer ending in 5.

Give it the time and attention it needs, and kids will have the facts memorized in no time.

Need help with other troublesome math challenges? Check out the Quick Tips Math series over on Teachers Pay Teachers! You can find just the skill needed for review and practice, or you can let me know and I will create a Quick Tips to suit your need. And there’s a free sample: CLICK HERE. It’s got tip sheets for order of operations, divisibility rules, and much more – ten of them all together. Grab it today while supplies last!

Learning Tips, Spelling

Secrets for Spelling Success

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Spelling can be one of the most challenging parts of writing for many kids! And it’s frustrating – Students perceive that guidelines are presented as “spelling rules,” but there seem to be more exceptions than consistency. It’s no wonder some give up entirely!

If they are working digitally, they can simply use spellcheck, right? WRONG! First of all, it’s possible to misspell something so badly that spellcheck doesn’t recognize it. Secondly, spellcheck cannot catch errors of misusage, omitted words, inserted words, and so forth. We all need to develop basic skills with spelling and learn tools to make sure we get it right before others see it.

Like it or not, people judge based on spelling. If a document, note, memo, or report is riddled with spelling errors, the reader’s first thought of the writer is usually far from kind. The more professional the job, the better the spelling needs to be.

Success with spelling relies mostly on one thing – the ability to notice misspellings and take action to correct them. Teach the kids to use spellcheck when working on a computer, but also teach them to use a dictionary (online or otherwise), and practice spotting spelling mistakes. Once they are found, action can be taken to fix them.

Here are tips to improve spelling accuracy:

  • Read, and read, and read some more! Reading will help students build that intuitive recognition that kicks in when they make a spelling error. We usually find these mistakes by noticing when words do not “look right.”
  • Do word search puzzles. Again, recognizing when words are spelled correctly will help build that automatic cringe when words are misspelled.
  • Find words within words. Remember when you were a kid and the teacher wanted to occupy you on the day before the holiday break? She gave you a big word, like the holiday name or the month and challenged you to find as many smaller words as you could using just the letters in the given word or phrase. This one is easy to do – just pick words or phrases with lots of vowels and common consonants and you’re on your way! Make it into a contest, and you’ll have instand motivation. Play with your students or children, then when you go over the word lists, they will learn from the words you put on your list as well.
  • Do at least some writing with pen and paper. One thing I see more and more is students who are over-reliant on spellcheck. If you have them write the old-fashioned way, you can see how their spelling understandings are coming, and you can help them learn to proofread.
  • Teach phonics and word roots. In spite of the seemingly huge number of exceptions, English is a phonetic language, and the rules really do apply most of the time. Closer examination of the exceptions will reveal that the problematic words are primarily on those lists of very common words (the sight words), and also those that have their roots in other languages. That’s why the exceptions seem so common to kids – those sight words are needed in almost every writing task.
  • Be sure kids can spell sight words. The Dolch list, or whatever sight words list you want, can really help kids learn to spell. The Fry List is also excellent because the words are ranked in order of their frequency. Learn the first hundred or so, and you have a large chunk of the problematic words. As mentioned before, these words are frequently exceptions to the common rules. Think of words like “said” and “have” and then try to explain to a first grader why they are pronounced the way that they are! A better approach is to call these words “outlaws” or some other creative name that cues children that something unusual is happening.
  • Watch your own attitude. Kids are quick to pick up on the attitudes of the adults in their lives. If you consider yourself a good speller, it will show. If you struggle with spelling, what are YOU doing about it? How do you compensate? Or do you hope no one will notice or tell yourself that it’s not that important? Whatever you are doing, the kids are quite likely to imitate you, so don’t fall into any traps that you don’t want your child to be in for the rest of their lives!

Need more ideas about how to build spelling skills? Check out my Spelling Secrets: Transferring Spelling Knowledge to Everyday Writing video. It’s just $4.95 over on Teachers Pay Teachers.