Texas Mathematics Teacher Spring/Summer 2022 - 22

Fact Fluency and Young Mathematicians: One Campus's Journey
Because of the pandemic and the fact that students could
not share workstations and materials, individual sets of
workstations and materials were made for each student.
Our students learning virtually were included in the fact
fluency efforts, and parents were asked to pick up fact
fluency packets with individualized workstations from
the school (see Figure 8).
What do Teachers Say?
It has been exciting to see all of our mathematics teachers
commit to these efforts and see growth in their students
because of these efforts. Juana Sanchez, one of our secondgrade
teachers, said " Doing fact fluency everyday keeps
my students engaged, excited and eager to learn their
facts. They practice and learn their strategy to pass their
running records. Students are using what they learned
last year to make connections to the strategies. " Samantha
Cortez, one of our third-grade mathematics teachers said,
" Fact Fluency is a great opportunity for my students to
practice their multiplication facts. Using the different
games really gets my students engaged and using the
fact fluency vocabulary. You start to hear them use the
strategies such as making doubles, skip counting, and
then, they slowly progress to just saying the fact with
automaticity. It is a great way to see their growth with
multiplication levels and by observing them or pulling
groups, I am able to start giving them running records to
move them to the next level. "
Figure 8. Individual fact fluency packets
The last change was that we added number concepts in
kindergarten to our fact fluency initiative. We decided to
include our kindergarten students in these efforts so that
we could consistently monitor and celebrate their efforts
to build a solid foundation with number concepts, a
foundation that was so critical to our fact fluency efforts in
first-grade. Our kindergarten teachers were excited to start
" Number Concepts " running records with their students.
The students were able to progress through the resources
at their own pace to ensure student understanding and
proficiency with numbers 0-5, 6-10, 11-15, and
16-20. We continued to use strategy-based workstations,
data binders, and data walls in each grade level and
students used " I Can " statement cards to monitor their
progress (see Figure 9). We continued to see our students'
proficiency with mathematics facts increasing, and our
students remained excited about and proud of their
growth.
What Lessons Have I Learned?
There are numerous lessons that I have learned over the
course of our journey and a few of those lessons are listed
below.
1. Never underestimate what your teachers will do.
2. Never give up on a goal you believe in. If your first
plan does not work, come up with a different plan
and keep working towards your goal.
3. In order for an initiative to be successful, the
initiative must be done with consistency and
fidelity.
Maria Gonzalez
MarGonzalez@pasadenaisd.org
Mathematics Campus Coach
Pasadena ISD, Red Bluff Elementary
Reference:
Newton, N. (2016). Math running records in action: A
framework for assessing basic fact fluency in grades K-5.
Routledge.
Figure 8. Individual fact fluency packets
22 | Spring/Summer 2022
Texas Mathematics Teacher
Texas Mathematics Teacher Spring/Summer 2022

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