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What do I do about the students who are very fast writers?

Please note: There is a special exception for students who are such fast writers that they have goals OVER 40 in a minute. On the bottom of the Goal Sheet, please notice the exception for fast writers. Students who have goals over 40 should try to meet those goals, but only for up to six days. As long as they are answering over 40 problems per minute without errors, they should be passed after six days. It is nice for those who can write faster to have higher goals, but we don’t want it to slow them down too much.

What do I do about the students who are very slow writers?

Students who copied fewer than 18 boxes in the Writing Speed Test may not have understood the task and should be re-tested and more closely monitored. If, in fact, they are not capable of writing any quicker they need to learn how to write numerals faster before they begin this Rocket Math®. Students who write this slowly (fewer than 18 boxes in one minute) may not be able to complete enough problems in the time allowed to benefit from the practice; nor will they be able to really demonstrate fluency in memorizing the facts. These students should be placed in Rocket Writing for Numerals to structure their practice in writing the numerals 0-9 until they are fluent. This program uses the same daily routine of practice as the Rocket Math^® program, where students practice for a few minutes and then take a timed test. Later, you can retest them on the Writing Speed Test and place them into Rocket Math^®.

Do their goals ever go up as they get faster at writing numerals?

Yes. The number you circled is the starting point. As children write faster and do more on a “One-Minute Daily Test,” you will want to adjust their goal upward gradually.  Cross out their old goal and raise their goal to midway between (the average of) their old goal and their new performance. If they only go up one number, don’t change them.

For example: Think of a child, Joe, who has a goal of 28. One day Joe writes the answers to 30 problems in one minute. Now we know Joe can write faster than 28 and so his goal goes up to 29 (the average between 28 and what he just did 30). Joe passes today, and tomorrow he has to do a little better, write the answers to 29 problems, to pass the next sheet. Get it? If you don’t, read this paragraph again. It really does make sense.

Each time students demonstrate the ability to write the answers to two more facts in one minute, their goal goes up accordingly. This can be very motivating for students. Celebrate with students as they improve.

However, you can postpone raising the goals if you have reason to believe that the student will not be able to write that fast again. Keep an eye on that student and raise their goals to match their writing speed when they are ready. Raising the goals is important to do eventually—so that children should not pass sets of facts on which they are hesitant. If a child has low goals, but actually can write much faster, then the child could be hesitant on some of the facts and still meet their goals. This results in students back where you started—not automatic. Children who pass several sets of facts in which they are hesitant, will reach a point where the number of facts on which they are hesitant are too many to learn. Then they become stuck and can’t and won’t progress up the Rocket Chart. Then, guess who’s crying? Yep…the teacher…No, we’re kidding. Students don’t like to “hit the wall.” It is great that they want to succeed. Just be sure that you are monitoring the goals. Make sure they are as high as they should be at all times and you will prevent the aforementioned wall hitting situation.

Please note: Don’t forget the exception on the Goal Sheet for students with goals over 40. Students who have goals over 40 should try to meet those goals, but only for up to six days. As long as they are over 40 without errors, they should be passed after six days.

Why would I want to give the Placement Probes?

You want to give the Placement Probes if you think there is a chance that some of your students have already memorized some of the facts in the operation in which you are about to have them start. For example, a second grade teacher might suspect (or hope!) that some of her students have learned some of the addition facts in first grade. She wants them fluent on all the addition facts before beginning them on subtraction. (That doesn’t ring a bell? Go back and read the section, “When are students ready to begin fact memorization in an operation?”) If some of the children have memorized some of the addition facts already, they can skip some of the sets of addition facts. After the teacher finishes doing her “happy dance,” she/he will realize that this will save time and allow the students to move along faster. The teacher would want to use the Placement Probes to see who can skip some sets of facts.

These placement tests are optional however. The alternative is to have all your students start at the beginning with Set A. We would not recommend using the “placement” test in situations where few of the students have had opportunities to practice memorization of math facts, or to practice memorization of the facts within the operation in which you are beginning. Starting children at the beginning of the operation will not slow them down much. When children already know some facts, they will usually pass those sheets on the first try. Children who are moving along, passing one sheet a day, soon find themselves on sheets that require some study.

For example, a first grade teacher beginning math facts memorization for the first time would not need to use the Placement Probes because those students are completely new to the idea of memorizing math facts. So you want to give the Placement Probes if you think some students may not need to start at the beginning of the operation — and you are in a hurry to move them along. Students who are not tested and start at the beginning of an operation in which they know some of the facts will master each sheet in a day and quickly move up to the set on which they need to work. So if you can afford a few days it would be a good idea to skip the Placement Probes and start all your students at the beginning. We have done it both ways and we recommend this strategy if possible.

How do I use the Placement Probes?

Each of the Placement Probes is a mini-test (15 seconds in length…Yes, you read that right. 15 seconds!) of a part of each operation. The Placement Probes for each operation can be found at the beginning of each operation. There are four probes for each operation. This means that each operation has only four places in which you can start the students. The Placement Probes will help you place students beyond the beginning of the sequence of facts. This would be a good thing, no? Students who do not pass the first test in an operation would begin at Set A in the beginning of the operation. For each mini-test that a student passes the student is able to skip practicing those sets.

It is especially imperative that students do not begin writing on the placement tests until you say “Go” and that they discontinue writing answers immediately upon “Stop.” (We believe this is true of ALL timings, but especially the placement test timings.) If you cannot get your students to abide by the starting and stopping times, the scores will be useless and the placement will be incorrect. If you have this problem (students starting early or continuing to mark answers after time is up) then these students (or all students) will need to either start at Set A, or be tested in small groups where compliance with the time restraints can be assured.

Because the tests are so short, there is not much time for frustration. Therefore it is OK to have everyone try all parts and then score them later. You could have students exchange papers and grade them in class if you are feeling especially lucky that day.

How should the students practice with each other?

One student has a copy of the PRACTICE answer key and functions as the checker while the practicing student has the problems without answers. The practicing student reads the problems aloud and says the answers aloud. It is critical for students to say the problems aloud before saying the answer so the whole thing, problem and answer, are memorized together. We want students to have said the whole problem and answer together so often that when they say the problem to themselves the answer pops into mind, unbidden. (Unbidden? Yes, unbidden. I just kinda like that word and since I am writing this, I get to use it.)

A master PRACTICE answer key is provided—be sure to copy it on a distinctive color of paper to assist in classroom monitoring. The distinctive color is important for teacher monitoring. If you are ready to begin testing and you see hot pink paper on a desk, you know someone has answers in front of him/her. When you make these distinctively colored (there, I said it again) copies, be sure to copy all of the answer sheets needed for a given operation and staple them into a booklet format…one for each student who is working in that operation. For some reason (I actually know the reason) teachers always want to find a way to put the answer keys permanently into the students’ folders. DON’T. Students need to be able to hold these in their hot little hands, outside of their folders. Then answer keys will be the same regardless of the set of facts on which a student is working. So students working on multiplication will have the answers to ALL the practice sets for multiplication. This allows students from different levels to work together without having to hunt up different answer keys.

The checker watches the PRACTICE answer key and listens for hesitations or mistakes. If the practicing student hesitates even slightly before saying the answer, the checker should immediately do the correction procedure, explained below. (Let’s stop here. This is critical. Critical, we tell ya. This correcting hesitations thing is sooooo important. We mean really important. You can probably guess why. We need students to be able to say the answer to these problems without missing a beat — not even half a beat. So students must be taught that there is no hesitation allowed. Really.) Of course, if the practicing student makes a mistake, the checker should do the correction procedure.

The correction procedure has three steps:

1. The checker interrupts and immediately gives the correct answer.
2. The checker asks the practicing student to repeat the fact and the correct answer at least once and maybe twice or three times. (We vote for three times in a row.)
3. The checker has the practicing student backup three problems and begin again from there. If there is still any hesitation or an error, the correction procedure is repeated. Here are two scenarios:

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Scenario One
Student A: “Five times four is eighteen.”
Checker: “Five time fours is twenty. You say it.”
Student A: “Five times four is twenty. Five times four is twenty. Five times four is twenty.”
Checker: “Yes! Back up three problems.”
Student A: (Goes back three problems and continues on their merry way.)

Scenario Two
Student A: “Five times four is … uhh…twenty.”
Checker “Five times four is twenty. You say it.”
Student A: “Five times four is twenty. Five times four is twenty. Five times four is twenty.”
Checker: “Yes! Back up three problems.”
Student A: (Goes back three problems and continues on their merry [there is a lot of merriment
in this program] way.)

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This correction procedure is the key to two important aspects of practice. One, it ensures that students are reminded of the correct answers so they can retrieve them from memory rather than having to figure them out. (We know they can do that, but they will never develop fluency if they continue to have to “figure out” facts.) Two, this correction procedure focuses extra practice on any facts that are still weak.

Please Note: If a hesitation or error is made on one of the first three problems on the sheet, the checker should still have the student back up three problems. This should not be a problem because the practice problems go in a never-ending circle around the outside of the sheet. Aha…the purpose for the circle reveals itself!

Each student practices a minimum of two minutes. The teacher is timing this practice with a stopwatch…no, for real, time it! After a couple of weeks of good “on-task” behavior you can “reluctantly” allow more time, say two and a half minutes. Later, if students stay on task you can allow them up to about three minutes each. Make ‘em beg! If you play your cards right (be dramatic), you can get your students to beg you for more time to practice their math facts. We kid you not. We’ve seen it all over the country…really!

After the first student practices, students switch roles and the second student practices for the same amount of time. It is more important to keep to a set amount of time than for students to all finish once around.It is not necessary for students to be on the same set or even on the same operation, as long as answer keys are provided for all checkers. If students have the answer packet that goes with the operation they are practicing and their partner is on a different operation, they simply hand their answer packet to their partner to use for checking. We know what you are thinking. Yes, we realize that “simply handing” something between students is often fraught with danger. We were teachers too. All of the parts of the practice procedure will need to be practiced with close teacher monitoring several (hundreds of) times prior to beginning the program. Not really “hundreds,” but if you want this to go smoothly, as with anything in your classroom, you will need to TEACH and PRACTICE the procedural component of this program to near mastery. Keep reading. We will tell you HOW to do this practice. (We are VERY directive.)

• -The practicing student should say both the problem and the answer every time. This is important because we all remember in verbal chains.
• -Saying the facts in a consistent direction helps learn the reverses such as 3 + 6 = 9 and 6 + 3 = 9.
• -To help kids with A.D.D. (and their friends) the teacher can make practice into a sprint-like task. “If you can finish once around the outside, start a new lap at the top and raise your fist in celebration!” Recognize these students as they start a second “lap” either with their name on the board or oral recognition — “Jeremy’s the first one to get to his second lap. Oh, look at that, Mary and Susie are both on their second laps. Stop everyone, time is up. Now switch roles and raise your hand when you and your partner are ready to begin practicing.”

Here’s how to teach students how to do this kind of practice—and get them to comply with the procedures as well.

• Model how to do corrections in front of the whole class.
• —-Stop the student and say the correct problem and answer.
• —-Repeat–ask the student to repeat the problem and answer three times.
• —-Back up three problems and begin again.
• Put the correction procedures on an overhead or poster and go over them verbally.
• Explain what a “hesitation” is. (It is a second or more of nothingness before saying the answer to a fact. Students don’t have to count a second. They just need to know what it “feels” like. You will model the heck out of that later. Keep reading.)
• At first you should be the checker with a student from the class making pretend mistakes, and you tell students the three steps to the correction procedure as you model it.

Make your students model the correction procedure as you role play making errors

• Next, you take the student role and call on students to be the checker. Make both hesitations and answer errors as well as saying the wrong fact or saying just the answer.
• Make sure the student corrects with all three steps of the correction. If they don’t do part of the procedure, prompt it until they do, then give more hesitations or mistakes for that student to get to demonstrate the correction procedure the right way.
• Once a student has demonstrated the right procedure for corrections, move on to another student.

Keep this up for the usual five to seven minutes allotted for math facts, moving from child to child having them demonstrate the correction procedure.

Script for how to prompt modeling of the correction procedure.

Here’s a link to this helpful script.

Do more practice than they need.  Play “keep away” with the practice procedure.

Don’t begin the program of students working with students yet. If you do this kind of modeling for a few minutes a day for several days, students will begin to ask you if they can start doing the practice now.

OK. Here comes something really cool. Ready? Try telling them that doing practice “the right way” is really “hard” and you’re not sure they can do it “the right way” yet. Continue modeling for a few minutes a day for a few more days—not letting students actually start practicing. (Think, “Keep Away.” You know how badly kids want the ball when they play that game? Same deal here. There are actually few things as satisfying to a teacher as having students ask you to “LET” them do work. Ya gotta love that!) By the time you actually “allow” them to practice—they’ll be so anxious to prove to you that they know how to do practice “the right way” that no one will even consider doing it any other way. So around day three of practice it might look something like this:

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Teacher: “Let’s do the pretend practice again.”
Student Z: “Umm, Mrs. Smith, can we please do this on our own? We know how to do it.”
Teacher: “Well, I know some college kids who can’t do this right. It’s really hard. I’m not sure that we are ready. Let’s practice a few more days.”

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If you do this for two more days after the students start asking to work without your model, you will see something like you have never seen from your students before. It is a thing of beauty actually.

Training video on the above.

How can I manage with students at many different levels?

One great thing about Rocket Math® is that it follows the same daily routine. Once you establish the daily routine, it will go smoothly and quickly each day. Everyone is doing the same type of activity, even if they are on different sheets. Your job is to establish exactly how to do every part of the activity and help students practice until it becomes routine. The routine goes something like this.

Everyday students get out their Rocket Math® folders and pull out the practice sheet for that day. (You will develop a procedure for this.) Of course, you have already stuffed their folders with exactly the right sheet so they don’t have to run around trying to find a copy of Set G or whatever they are supposed to be working on. (You will develop a procedure for this.) They move to get with their partner to practice. (You will develop a procedure for this.) Of course, you have already established partners and where they will work. When you say “’B’ partners start first today!” they all know who is the “A” partner and who is the “B” partner and they begin practicing immediately. They all say each fact and the answer around the outside as fast as they can go. Their partners correct every hesitation or error. They practice for two minutes until the timer goes off. Then the partners switch roles. The student who was answering takes his partner’s answer key and assumes the role of checker. When you say “’A” partners begin, everyone does and another two minutes of practice ensues. Then when the timer goes off at the end of two minutes, you say “Pencils up! We’re ready for our timing.” Within seconds every pencil is up—poised for the timed test. You say “Begin” and students start writing answers to math facts as quickly as possible on the test which lies inside the practice circle of the sheet. After one minute you say “Time!” and a bunch of children cheer spontaneously because they passed their timing. You collect the folders quickly (Guess what you develop for this? You guessed it, a routine procedure!) and it is all over in minutes.

How do I establish the daily routine so it runs smoothly?

First of all, see the section of these directions entitled, “How do I get my students to practice the right way?” You are going to need to teach your students how to do each part of the daily routine—beginning with how to practice and correct hesitations and ending with the distribution and collection of folders. You are also going to have to be sure you check their papers, fill their folders and keep the crate full of sheets of Rocket Math®. The bad news is that you’ll have to organize this all yourself. The good news is that once this is organized and taught as a routine, it will be the best part of the day for both you and the students. We know that this “organization and teaching of the routines” sounds like a no-brainer, but this where we see things go amiss (and awry and asunder too!). When teachers don’t have things set up and organized, don’t have procedures and routines in place, don’t overtly/directly teach these routines and don’t PRACTICE the routines with their students, it is like watching a car crash. There is nothing one can do to help right then. You know it could have been prevented. Usually, the damage is repairable. The “fix” is…go back and organize the materials, develop procedures and routines and P-R-A-C-T-I-C-E the routines with the students until they have mastered them.

How do I know when students are ready to move on to the next set of facts?

After the students practice you give the One-Minute Daily Test — the box in the center of the page. The one-minute timing each day is a little test. If a student passes the “test” he/she has successfully memorized all the facts given so far. Passing means he/she is ready to be given more facts by moving on to the next practice sheet. If a student does NOT pass the “test” he/she needs more time to practice the facts given so far and should NOT move on to the next practice sheet. A student who does not pass needs to work on the same sheet again tomorrow because he/she did not meet his/her goal. See the section of these directions called, “Shouldn’t my students be practicing math facts at home for homework?”

What does it take for a student to pass a set of facts?

Passing is meeting or exceeding the student’s individualized goal with no errors. We recommend not allowing any errors. It will impact perhaps one out of ten “passes” that would have an error. We know it is simply a result of answering a little too fast, but it is simpler, cleaner and better to have the student re-do that set.

The goal for each student was initially established on the Goal Sheet. If a student exceeds that goal on any timing, the new “high score” becomes the goal. An exception should be made if you have reason to think the student may not be able to keep up that rate. In that case, wait until the student shows the ability to meet the new higher goal on two or three sets in a row before increasing the goal. The student should meet or beat their goal (their previous best) in order to pass.

If students stop before the end of the 1 minute timing to avoid having their goal move upwards, move it up at least one problem anyway. Or you could have the student stay after class with you and do the test again while you watch to make sure they don’t stop. Starting the program out by recognizing students whose goals have gone up is the best way to keep students moving ahead.

What does it take for a student to pass an operation?

Students pass an operation, such as addition or multiplication, when they complete Set Z in the operation. Working through the 26 levels of an operation is enough practice. The last set or sets of each operation are mixed facts and so ensure that the whole operation has been mastered. The two minute timings are meant as a means to monitor progress, but are not to be used as “final” or “exit” exam where students have to meet a certain level to pass the operation. Getting through Set Z is enough.

Shouldn’t my students be practicing math facts for homework?

Yes, students should do Rocket Math as homework!

Homework is highly recommended—after students have learned how to practice. Any day that a student does not pass a set, we recommend requiring the student to take home the sheet they did not pass and practice the facts around the outside to improve their speed.

At–home practice should be orally reciting the facts and the answers in the same manner as outlined in paired oral practice above. Once students have learned how to do that practice at school, they should be ready to show someone at home how to help them in the same way. Very few minutes a day are all that would be required to make a big difference in student success.

Note: Practice and Test worksheets are set up in the virtual filing cabinet to print out two-sided.  If you do that, you can send the used worksheet home each night.  Students can practice and complete the back side of the worksheet for homework.  They could even take a practice one-minute test and see how far they can get at home. 

• See this blog: How to Get Parents to Help You.
• Here is a copy of the basic parent letter from you the teacher to parents as a Word document so you can edit it and make it your own. Dear Parents Letter
• Queridos Padres — parents letter in Spanish.
• All the parent letters are in the Forms and Information drawer of our virtual filing cabinet.

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