Fact Fluency: What does it mean? How do I know students have it?

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Courtney LaRocheCourtney LaRoche

Wayzata Public Schools; MCTM VP Middle School

Recently, I have been working with teachers to challenge conventional wisdom and classroom practices regarding fact fluency.  I have noticed that everytime I work with staff or parent groups, someone always reacts by sharing a personal experience with timed tests and learning their facts.  Sometimes the memories are in a positive light, remembering how much they loved the competition aspect of a timed test….loving that “perfect score” and being able to beat the rest of the class.  Most of the time however the memories cast a shadow over their confidence as a mathematician, remembering how hard it was to memorize facts, how nervous they got and how when they didn’t get it fast, they felt dumb in math.  Unfortunately, that is also followed up with the statement that they are still not good at math….even when they are in a career that uses math daily.  Is speed and memorization what mathematical fluency is all about? NCTM would argue that mathematical fluency is about accuracy, efficiency and flexibility.  I wonder if we have been missing the flexibility part?  How do we shift practices around memorization and timed tests? How do we make our actions in the classroom value and support thinking, reasoning, and using strategy in order to address flexibility?  One of my favorite video clips to share with teachers comes from Graham Fletcher. His 5 minute ignite session “There Is a Difference”  Memorization vs. From Memory, challenges some of the conventional wisdom and definitions around fact fluency.  After sharing this with teachers, the question becomes, now what?  Action!  Using Number Talks everyday in classrooms is one way to starting building flexibility and strategy into student thinking.  It can be implemented in any classroom today.  Check out Sherry Parrish’s book Number Talks or Humphrey’s and Parker’s Making Number Talks Matter to get started.  Another great resource is Jo Boaler’s youcubed.org site.  To start this shift, my ask of teachers and leaders is this:  

  • CHALLENGE conventional wisdom.  Read some of the latest research around Mindset, Anxiety and Timed Tests, NCTM’s Principles to Action
  • CHAT with your students.  Number Talks is a great place to start…
  • COLLABORATE with your colleagues next door and throughout the world!.  Work with your PLC to try something new, use twitter and other social media to find out what’s happening outside your building, district, etc.