Can we lower the goals for some students?

Jennifer asks:
After getting Rocket Math up and running in our 3rd grade classes, we are wondering if students’ goals ever change. For instance, I have a student who scored 42 on the writing speed test but is having difficulty achieving that on the one minute timing (scores 37-39 consistently). We have other students who are struggling with this as well. Let me know if we reset goals at some point or if you have any other suggestions. Thanks!

Dr. Don answers:
Jennifer,
Thank you for asking such a great and important question. Lowering students goals generally should not happen. Goals should NOT be lowered because of a “knowing-the-facts” problem, meaning the problems seem hard or the student hasn’t mastered the facts (learned every single one of the facts to the point of instantaneous recall). Goals might be lowered if there is a “handwriting speed” problem, meaning they really cannot write as fast as we thought.

You can’t decide which kind of problem you have on the basis of “not passing” for a handful of days. In other words, until students have practiced orally with a partner who is correcting their errors and hesitations and has taken tests for more than six days, I wouldn’t even consider it a handwriting problem. Some students will get annoyed that they have to practice for three or four days, but that’s how we teach them the value of perseverance.

In theory if a student can write fast enough to fill in 42 boxes in one minute in the Writing Speed Test, then he/she should be able to answer 42 problems in writing in one minute. I know that everything doesn’t work out according to the theory. But it is important to remember that we expect that it requires two to three minutes of daily oral practice for several days to get to the point where the student can answer every single fact on the page without hesitation. And some students (they used to be referred to me as the special education teacher) require a second or third practice session each day for several days until they get those facts learned. So some students literally take ten to fifteen oral practice sessions before they learn those facts. We want to give those students two or three practice sessions a day so they won’t take all year to learn the facts. But only after they get the number of practice sessions they personally need will they be able to write the answers as fast as they can write.

Also let me point out that if a student did not start at “A” this year, (meaning some of the facts on the test were learned last year) then the problem may be with the older facts on the test. These facts are not being practiced in the oral practice around the outside. If the student is hesitant on any of those facts, then the student will need to do oral practice on the “test” as well as on the outside for a few days. See my recent video about that.

One way to “check” to see if you have a “handwriting problem” or a “knowing-the-facts” problem is to individually test a student orally. Have the student say the answers (just the answers not the problems) to the test for one minute. If the student makes any errors, or is hesitant on some of the facts or if the student answers anything less than 40 problems orally in one minute, then the student just needs more practice and probably practice on the test as well as around the outside. In other words, you know you have a “knowing-the-facts” problem.

If the student answers all of the problems on the test without error and answers more than 40 in the one minute, then the student knows those facts well enough to be at mastery. Now you know you have a “handwriting problem” rather than a “knowing-the-facts” problem. Now you have a reason to consider lowering the goal to the best that the student was able to do after four or five practice sessions. So the student you mention, if he has practiced for six days, and when you test him is able to orally answer more than 40 problems on the test in one minute without error, then you could lower his goal to 39, since that seems to be the best that he can do.

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