One of the main benefits of mathematics is the development of abstract reasoning skills. However, fluency – or the ability to immediately process simple calculations or recognize basic math facts – is also important to develop as students progress through elementary school. Just like being able to recognize words without decoding letters (“sight reading”) aids reading comprehension, fluency with basic math facts can help students master tasks that rely on more abstract reasoning. In other words, being able to automatically add, subtract, multiply, and divide single digit numbers frees up student’s mental resources (specifically their working memory) to focus on more conceptually challenging tasks.
And building fluency is an area where online tools really shine. Unlike a human teacher, online tools can continually and carefully monitor the performance of dozens, hundreds, or thousands of students – their error patterns, response times, and growth rates – and provide each student with material that is designed to boost their performance. One of these tools is xtramath – which allows teachers to tailor specific programs – like division, or subtraction of single digit numbers – to their students, then allow students to work for 5-10 minutes a few times a week to develop fluency. The icing on the cake is that the program is free for teachers and families. You can navigate to their website by clicking the image below:
