Like me, I am sure many of you are already planning for the beginning of the next school year.
Learning the basic multiplication facts takes time for many students, so I start this process in August/September.
This year, in my classroom, we will be concentrating on the new Common Core standards of developing the concept of multiplication and number sense. However, in addition, at home I will have my students practice learning their basic facts as part of their daily homework assignments.
PROBLEM: In past years, I found it a bit difficult to keep all of my students on the same set of facts at the same time. There are always some students that learn their facts very quickly and some need a bit more time. However keeping track of individual levels and testing those can be challenging.
SOLUTION: I have found a solution that works for me and I hope it will work for you too. Each student has an individual assessment sheet. Each week I assess their mastery of a fact set. If they show mastery, they move on to the next set (assess next week). If not, then they practice that same set for another week, and test on that same set a second time. Since these assessments are all on one sheet, it is easy to keep up with what was tested on last time, without any additional recording of data.
Once 8 assessments are completed, a new sheet is required, so I staple both together. I keep the class set of assessments in one folder, and they are easy to pass out each Friday.
In addition to giving weekly assessments, I communicate student progress with parents weekly as well, with “Oops! notes” and “Congratulations! notes”. These assessments as well as parent communication notes are included in my Multiplication Fluency Assessment Pack. I have decided to offer if here for FREE. I hope this will help you keep organized and keep your kiddos on track as they learn their multiplication facts.
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