math retention

I posted a long article on learning facts and memorization techniques a long time ago — you can try to find it using the search option; if you can’t find it, email me and I’ll try to dig it out again.

from http://www.citycreek.com works wonders with this problem. You do not want to use it as a substitute for understanding math concepts but, from what you describe, your dd has the concepts down okay. MFFW gives kids like this a “peg” to hang math facts on.

Once she has the math facts down, you may need to do 5 minutes or so a day of math drill to develop speed and fluency. We used Quarter Mile Math for this (http://www.thequartermile.com). It took us 10 minutes a day with me keyboarding, for 4 months, to get my then-10yo dd solid on the math facts. You can email or call the company for a free demo disc, to make sure the program is what you want before you purchase.

We still have to do occasional refresher drill in addition to our regular math, or dd starts to “lose” the facts. Right now I am planning to get Mad Minute from Amazon for this.

Mary

Any suggestions for wording of IEP goals for my soon to be 2nd grader. She can do addition and subtraction facts to 20 and some double digit addition. My biggest concern is word problems, since she also has some reading and processing issues. Also, are there any standardized/ grade level tests for math to recommend and perhaps be included as ways to measure her IEP goals?

nt

Saw your note about learning math facts and memorization techniques. Can you post your ideas again. I’m always looking for something new. Thanks

Here’s the entire post, original question plus my long and detailed answer.
I’m going to copyright a couple of these! The demand is steady.

Teaching Math
Memorization of Basic Math Facts
Posted By: Melissa
Date: Wednesday, 17 January 2001, at 3:04 p.m.
My son is a second grader with Asperger’s Syndrome, dysgraphia, ADHD and a host
of specific learning disabilities and language processing problems. He is an
excellent reader (heavily dependent on sight word recognition and context clues,
but able to decode when all else fails) and loves science and social studies. He
is behind his peers in spelling and written expression, partly because of his
dysgraphia and partly because he has poor visual sequential memory skills when
applied to spelling words. His math abilities and disabilities are an enigma to
all of his teachers. He was counting and was able to associate the numbers 1
through 10 with their corresponding quantities before he was 2. He could
identify numbers to 100 both receptively and expressively by the time he was
three. His math ITBS scores in first grade were all above average, with a
national percentile rank of 85% overall. His ability to solve word problems,
count money, and generally understand math concepts is developmentally
appropriate. Unfortunately, he isn’t learning to memorize math facts. We have
been trying since kindergarten to teach basic sums and he just can’t seem to
learn them. He uses manipulatives and number lines very skillfully and counts up
and back in his head (or out loud) to arrive at answers, but virtually nothing
is memorized. He even understands place value and the concept of regrouping, but
he can’t memorize 3+6 or 2+5 to save his life. For some reason, he was able to
memorize doubles up to 10+10 and he can solve any double plus one problem fairly
quickly after a warm up of reviewing doubles, but the other facts are somewhere
in a black hole. Adding or subtracting 0 and 1 aren’t too taxing, but mixing
addition and subtraction problems on a page sends him over the edge and
alternating between minus one and minus zero on the same worksheet is too
challenging for him. If you gave him a dollar and told him tootsie roll pops
were on sale at 2 for a quarter and asked him how much change he would get if he
bought 6 tootsie roll pops, he would have the patience and ability to work
through all the steps to get to the answer, but when he sees a worksheet with
just numbers on it, he can’t get through it without becoming very upset. We were
willing to wait patiently and let his math facts fall into place over time as he
worked on a variety of math problems and activities, but he has made no progress
in over two years. We have tried Kumon worksheets and they were great for
handwriting but did nothing to help him learn math facts. Flash cards now send
him into a panic. Off the shelf computer programs hold his interest at the
simplest level but he quits as soon as he gets beyond the +2 level. Minute Math
or anything with a timer is enough to make him break out in hives. What should
we be doing to help him acquire this important foundation skill? Are there
special computer programs that do for math what Fast ForWord does for language?
Please keep in mind that unless he is enjoying what he is doing, he has the
attention span of a house fly. Can anyone out there help me help my son?
Messages in This Thread
Memorization of Basic Math Facts
Melissa — Wednesday, 17 January 2001, at 3:04 p.m.
Re: Memorization of Basic Math Facts
Mary MN — Wednesday, 17 January 2001, at 4:35 p.m.
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“Unless he is enjoying what he is doing, he has the attention span of a housefly” —love the description; hmmm, sounds like most of my family.

Some practical techniques for learning basic math facts:
(1) verbal.
Try simply reciting them in rhythm. No, no special tune, no special silly rhymes, no nothing — just distractors, and he can make up more than enough of those on his own. Just recite problem AND answer together in a rhythmic chant:
One plus zero is one
One plus one is two
One plus two is three
One plus three is four

…

very important points: ** don’t just give him the questions and have him chime in the answer; he’ll recognize very soon that it’s a counting pattern and tune out of the major point, which is *what* you are counting. Have him chant the list of ten sums with you, then alone
This keeps some interest on the task, because he is talking and you are listening, and he is trying to get it perfect. I make a game-buzzer bzzzeep noise when kids miss, and then we start again. I make a chime noise when they get through correctly, and maybe give a token award such as a gold star.

** You only need the ten sums from plus zero to plus nine; after that, place value takes care of it. The idea of memorizing up to twelve or twenty comes from the same era as slate pencils, when it was hard to write things down.

** for kinesthetic help, he can move a hand or foot in time to the rhythm. Again, no fancy patterns as distractors, just beating a rhythm.

** if this seems to work at all, work on *overlearning* it. After he is getting all ten sums in a row, all ten rows, have him do two or three rows a day, until he can say the whole table. Then have him practice it at least a couple of times a week for another month or two.

(2) Visual: Again, one of the major points is to get rid of distractors. No bunnies, leprechauns, etc.
Get 100 sheets of nice solid paper or light cardboard in 8 1/2 by 11 size, plain white. Write in large marker a full inch or two high one math fact at the bottom of each one.
first card: 1 + 1 = 2
second card: 1 + 2 = 3
etc.

Then illustrate these clearly with nice round dots, red for the first number and blue for the second (or any two good clear colours that the child can distinguish)
Make the dots neat and as identical as possible by tracing something like a medicine-bottle cap. Colour the dots in solid. Resist temptations to decorate with happy faces or to arrange the dots in pretty patterns or whatever; the goal is to remove as many distractors as possible and pay attention to the far more profound and interesting patterns in the way numbers work together. The cards should be nearly identical except for the changes in number.

Then put the first nine cards — the one plus (number) set, omitting zero which comes later in visualization. — along one or two walls of your study area.

Give the child *orally* lots of one plus (number) problems, and have him go to the appropriate card and count up as he needs to. Then play for speed, to see how many he can do without going to the cards. When he can zip through this set, post the two plus (number) set, and so on.

(3) Combined: the above two games — can you tell me the (number) pluses in order fast , and can you get the (number) pluses in mixed order fast without looking or counting — work even better when used at the same time.

(4) Problems: Get on your computer and type up in 18-point lots of little problems that explore simple sums, first in sets of one plus (number), two plus (number), etc. and then mixed:
Nog has one hog. He buys one hog. How many hogs does he have now?
Matt has one cat. He finds two cats. How many cats does he have now?
Jan has one fan. Ann has three fans. How many fans do they have together?
and so on.

Have the child write out the problem as well as the answer each and every time, ie 1 + 1 = 2, never just 2. Writing just answers saves thirty seconds now and wastes years of your life later when you have to go back and learn to write a logical development.

**********************************************

Trying for a happy medium here: YES, it is very important to learn basic number facts! The advanced concepts that you want and need to learn later are *based* on these number facts and a good number sense, and concepts without facts are like butter without the bread — too rich and no structure (on the other hand, facts without concepts are like bread without butter — dry and tasteless.) My tutoring students almost all got to need my services by being handicapped with their number facts. Several members of my own family have been handicapped by bad teaching of basic facts, and have had college and professional futures damaged.

** On the other hand, why is it important for your child to do numbers-only worksheets?** These are totally artificial, not real-world (I always ask my students: When did you last go into a business and hear someone say “Oh my God, we have to get these worksheets filled in by noon?” *Nobody* out of school does worksheets.)I sometimes assign repetitive practice for overlearning, a necessary goal for automatic skill, like doing piano scales; but this is a refinement and/or last resort. IF (two very big ifs) your child is doing OK on grade-level tests and can retrieve the number facts in whatever way works for him at a speed that is consistent with his grade cohort, why is the filling in of useless paper a required ritual? Particularly a problem-solving person with a creative flair, as you describe him, can have his abilities turned off by being forced through this kind of wasted effort. Ask yourself what your real goals are — forcing him to fill in this paper because that’s the way it’s done, or having him grow up knowing numbers and liking to solve puzzles with them?
Once more, I am *not* saying to ignore learning and automatizing facts, or to omit writing work on paper — just the opposite; but I am saying that filling in blanks is not a major life goal for most people, and this *method* of teaching can be reduced or totally omitted.

Good luck, and I would be happy to hear progress reports from you.
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