Wednesday, January 27, 2010
New Website Launch
The new Factivation!® for Multiplication website is set to be launched in February 2010. New features will include a complete site redesign with subscription capabilities for both teachers and students. The new student-centered "Fact Lab" will greatly improve the versatility of the program by allowing students to watch the instructional videos for the nine Factivation!® lessons both at school or at home using a unique username and password. Teachers will enjoy this functionality and the increased options for student practice. Students' use of the Fact Lab should also expedite mastering the Multiplication facts. We are excited to introduce the new Factivation!® for Multiplication to teachers and students this February.
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My students love using Factivation daily! The rules and tricks really help them. Fast Facts Builder are really great to build fluency, but only 22% of my class have mastered their nines. What else can I do to build fact mastery?
ReplyDeleteIt used to be that facts like 7X6, 6X3, and 7X8 were tricky for students to remember; however, the Factivation chants have taken away the frustration with those formerly "difficult" facts (those in the dreaded 6,7, and 8 times tables!) Luckily, we can leave the "times tables" in the past for the most part.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the Nines go, these facts are typically easy for students to learn (because of the Finger Factor trick mainly) but learning a strategy for a fact and being fluent with the fact are two different things. The Factivation videos are meant to establish background knowledge and familiarity with the facts by introducing students to simple strategies, later to be used as a trigger when fluency building (even with division facts- see www.factivation-for-multiplication.com/division_connection). Fact fluency is, of course, the ultimate goal!
With all that being said, let's get to a solution for your situation: Lessons 3 and 4 may take students a little longer than the other lessons when it comes to true fluency. This is because the "tricks" for these facts take a little time to perform (like counting by fives)- there is not a quick trigger as with the facts in the chant group. So, spending more time on those lessons (especially with the fluency building components) before moving ahead would be a very good idea.
If you have gone on to any future lessons but students are still not fluent with the Nines, I would suggest stopping the current lesson and going back to Lesson 4. Ensure near-automaticity from the majority of students before moving ahead.
For 1-2 weeks, I would completely immerse students in the Nines facts! Post them around the classroom with the products showing, and draw attention to them throughout the day. From the Factivation program, I would watch the 3-minute Fast Facts video daily and do the accompanying Fluency Builder, but perhaps vary how you are using it, sometimes partners, other times race the teacher, etc.
Conferences are coming up, so perhaps that would be a good time to introduce parents to the Fact Lab in the new Factivation website (to which your students will have a subscription), and encourage Mom or Dad to have their child play the games in the Lesson 4 Fact Lab at home each night during this 1-2 week period of focusing on the Nines, as well as watch the videos when possible- I will go ahead and post them to the public site for now so that they will be available to your kiddos at home.)
In the computer lab, I would suggest going to sites like www.multiplication.com to find games where the students can specify a fact group (rather than games where facts are randomly generated). They can select the Nines only and work specifically on them (they'll still get the 0's, 1's, 2's and 5's review facts in the Fast Facts video and you don't want them to be bombarded with facts they've had no exposure to yet- it will only confuse them).
Here are some of the games (from the site mentioned above) where you can specify the Nines: Pizza Pizzazz, Car Wash, Aquatic Speedway, Fish Shop, The Ants Go Marching, Jungle Plays the Drums etc. I think the games on this website are great to support Lessons 1-4. After that; however, the Factivation lessons make things much simpler than other Multiplication programs/gamesites, as only three facts are covered in each of the remaining lessons, not 10 as with the traditional "times tables" which even the most sophisticated video-type games are designed around.
I'd love to hear in a week or two how your students are doing with their Nines facts. Keep using the chants as your daily attention-getters and your students will breeze through Lessons 6-8 and you'll be home free! =)
I'll look forward to hearing about your students' progress Carrie! Thanks for your post.