Remember how much fun timed tests were when you were in school? Do you remember how much you loved hearing a timer tick-tick-tick while you attempted to write the answers to your math facts as quickly as possible? Of course not. Nobody loved it.  Everybody remembers them but not for any good reason. Timed tests are no more effective than flash cards but do you know what is? Practice. How hard is it to get a child to play a game where you keep score? Not very hard. The objective of the timed test was to provide consistent practice and build fluency. Can’t that be accomplished with a game? One of the biggest beasts to conquer in the early grades is teaching children the multiplication facts. Most teachers make it some sort of game or competition. They put up a bulletin board and give children an opportunity to memorize a new set of facts daily. Once they repeat the facts to the teacher, she checks them off and adds to the display. Once every student has checked off all of the tables, they celebrate with a party. Do you know what they do then? They move on and start learning division. Multiplication is something that is memorized briefly but once the goal is met, it is not practiced, it is used in reverse to teach division. If you teach a grade that is learning multiplication or a grade that is supposed to already know how to multiply, practicing is the best way to spend four minutes of each math lesson.  The thing that makes this game so effective is that you do it every single day. You give them an opportunity to multiply every day which means they will use the skill. Guess what? They will also be great at dividing! Don’t memorize and move on. You will be fighting that battle every day of the year if you do

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Please use games, music and movement to teach whenever possible.

Timed tests are stressful for most students, especially our PEC students. Learning is usually  stressful enough for them. Get creative and have fun! That’s a win-win for everyone!

*Play Schoolhouse Rock Multiplication songs during morning entry  and afternoon dismissal. Music activates memory. Think about how many songs you know by heart compared to how many math formulas you “learned” in high school but never used again. Multiplication is arguably one of the math skills that is used daily throughout life. Take the two minutes at the beginning and end of class to invest in making the facts permanent.  These games are pinned to the Pinterest page.

There are very few PEC students who benefit from “timed tests” of any kind. Typically, this format causes unnecessary stress and anxiety, which puts the student into  a “fight or flight” state, where he is just trying to survive. In this place, no learning is possible. The student cannot access the frontal lobe of the brain where all new learning is stored, because they are still stuck  in survival. Musical CD’s that teach math facts can be helpful to our students on an individual basis, usually with headphones. When our granddaughter was 4 or 5 years old and was learning to ride her bike, I reminded her that.. ”Practice  makes perfect!”… and she said ..” No, practice makes progress.”  Out of the mouth of  babes.

Pamela Webster, M. Ed., SPED