5th grade Instructional Guide

Canyons School District

Instructional Supports Department

Fluency in Mathematics Implementation Tools & Resources

Critical Actions for Educators

What does it mean to be fluent in mathematics? Fluency entails so much more than being fast and accurate. Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, “Computational fluency refers to having efficient and accurate methods for computing. Students exhibit computational fluency when they demonstrate flexibility in the computational methods they choose, understand and can explain these methods, and produce accurate answers efficiently. The computational methods that a student uses should be based on mathematical ideas that the student understands well, including the structure of the base-ten system number system, properties of multiplication and division, and number relationships” (p. 152). When the focus of fluency is on memorizing times tables, students often memorize facts without number sense, which means that they are very limited in what they can do and are prone to making errors. (Jo Boaler) Students cannot be fluent without conceptual understanding and flexible thinking. Focusing on flexibility rather than speed means valuing students’ ability to use strategic thinking to carry out a computation without being hindered by many unnecessary or confusing steps in the solution. Number sense is the foundation for all higher-level mathematics. Number Talks are one of the best methods for teaching number sense and math facts at the same time. Number Talks provide daily opportunities for students to develop meaningful strategies as they use numbers flexibly to practice computation and engage in purposeful conversation with their peers. Additional resources to support Number Talks to build number sense: ● Building Fact Fluency Kit (self enroll for BFF Canvas Course) ● Number Talk Images by Pierre Tranche ● Custom Number Talk Images by Berkeley Everett ● Number Talk Images by Kristen Acosta ● Math Talks for Slides by Becca Dietor References Bay-Williams, Jennifer and Kling, Gina. (2019). Math Fact Fluency. Boaler, J. (2014). Research Suggests Timed Tests Cause Math Anxiety. Teaching Children Mathematics, 20 (8).

● Engage students in a Number Talk daily to build number sense and fluency ● Encourage multiple, meaningful strategies as students practice computation ● Build conceptual understanding before expecting fluency ● Focus on flexibility rather than speed ● Timed-tests are not best practice for

building fluency and often causes fear of math

NCTM (2023). Procedural Fluency in Mathematics.

Parish, S. (2014). Number Talks: Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computation Strategies, Grades K-5, Updated with Common Core Connections. Math Solutions.