Question 1

X—How do I monitor students’ progress?

Holly Stassens · Accepted Answer

How do I monitor students’ progress?

You monitor progress by the two-minute timings. You can find the two-minute timings clearly labeled in the drawer of the “filing cabinet on the web.” Once a week or once every two weeks (I, of course, suggest every week.) have your students do a two-minute timing of all the facts. (I made the tests so that a good many of the entire world of facts for the given operation are represented. You do not have to figure this out. I wouldn’t wish that on you. It was a lot of work to get it just right.) The purpose of these two-minute timings is to see if students are improving in their knowledge of the facts. (These timings don’t really teach; they just help you monitor progress.) On days when you do a two-minute timing, do NOT do the regular practice sheets. (Even I, Dr. Overdo wouldn’t do that.) Each time the students complete a two-minute timing, they will graph their results on their Individual Student Graph in their student folder. They graph the number of problems they answered correctly in two minutes.

You will have to label the vertical axis individually for each student AFTER they complete their first two-minute timing. See four examples in this picture. You set the starting point based on the student’s first timing. Set the starting point at the nearest ten below the student’s score on the student’s first two-minute timing. For example, if the first two-minute timing is 9, set the starting line at zero. If the first two-minute timing is 18, set the starting line at 10. Here’s a video explaining how to set up the Individual Student Graph on You Tube. As your students progress through the program and learn more facts that they know instantaneously, they will be able to answer more within two minutes. In the beginning they will only “know” a few of the facts and will have to figure out as many as they can in two minutes. [This makes this test different than the One-Minute Daily Timing where they should know all the facts and are not allowed to skip any. Because the Two-Minute timing includes facts they don't know, it means you must allow or even encourage students to skip facts they don't know and move on to the ones they do know, during the Two-Minute timing.] See the blog: "Skipping, when is it OK?" Eventually some students will instantaneously “know” so many facts that they can answer about 40 per minute, or 80 in two minutes—but only if they can write that quickly. There are enough spaces on the graph for each week in school. Have the students color in the bar with the date closest to the date they took the test.

Question 2

X—How do I monitor students’ progress?

Holly Stassens · Accepted Answer

How do I monitor students’ progress?

You monitor progress by the two-minute timings. You can find the two-minute timings clearly labeled in the drawer of the “filing cabinet on the web.” Once a week or once every two weeks (I, of course, suggest every week.) have your students do a two-minute timing of all the facts. (I made the tests so that a good many of the entire world of facts for the given operation are represented. You do not have to figure this out. I wouldn’t wish that on you. It was a lot of work to get it just right.) The purpose of these two-minute timings is to see if students are improving in their knowledge of the facts. (These timings don’t really teach; they just help you monitor progress.) On days when you do a two-minute timing, do NOT do the regular practice sheets. (Even I, Dr. Overdo wouldn’t do that.) Each time the students complete a two-minute timing, they will graph their results on their Individual Student Graph in their student folder. They graph the number of problems they answered correctly in two minutes.

You will have to label the vertical axis individually for each student AFTER they complete their first two-minute timing. See four examples in this picture. You set the starting point based on the student’s first timing. Set the starting point at the nearest ten below the student’s score on the student’s first two-minute timing. For example, if the first two-minute timing is 9, set the starting line at zero. If the first two-minute timing is 18, set the starting line at 10. Here’s a video explaining how to set up the Individual Student Graph on You Tube. As your students progress through the program and learn more facts that they know instantaneously, they will be able to answer more within two minutes. In the beginning they will only “know” a few of the facts and will have to figure out as many as they can in two minutes. [This makes this test different than the One-Minute Daily Timing where they should know all the facts and are not allowed to skip any. Because the Two-Minute timing includes facts they don't know, it means you must allow or even encourage students to skip facts they don't know and move on to the ones they do know, during the Two-Minute timing.] See the blog: "Skipping, when is it OK?" Eventually some students will instantaneously “know” so many facts that they can answer about 40 per minute, or 80 in two minutes—but only if they can write that quickly. There are enough spaces on the graph for each week in school. Have the students color in the bar with the date closest to the date they took the test.

Question 3

X—How do I monitor students’ progress?

Holly Stassens · Accepted Answer

How do I monitor students’ progress?

You monitor progress by the two-minute timings. You can find the two-minute timings clearly labeled in the drawer of the “filing cabinet on the web.” Once a week or once every two weeks (I, of course, suggest every week.) have your students do a two-minute timing of all the facts. (I made the tests so that a good many of the entire world of facts for the given operation are represented. You do not have to figure this out. I wouldn’t wish that on you. It was a lot of work to get it just right.) The purpose of these two-minute timings is to see if students are improving in their knowledge of the facts. (These timings don’t really teach; they just help you monitor progress.) On days when you do a two-minute timing, do NOT do the regular practice sheets. (Even I, Dr. Overdo wouldn’t do that.) Each time the students complete a two-minute timing, they will graph their results on their Individual Student Graph in their student folder. They graph the number of problems they answered correctly in two minutes.

You will have to label the vertical axis individually for each student AFTER they complete their first two-minute timing. See four examples in this picture. You set the starting point based on the student’s first timing. Set the starting point at the nearest ten below the student’s score on the student’s first two-minute timing. For example, if the first two-minute timing is 9, set the starting line at zero. If the first two-minute timing is 18, set the starting line at 10. Here’s a video explaining how to set up the Individual Student Graph on You Tube. As your students progress through the program and learn more facts that they know instantaneously, they will be able to answer more within two minutes. In the beginning they will only “know” a few of the facts and will have to figure out as many as they can in two minutes. [This makes this test different than the One-Minute Daily Timing where they should know all the facts and are not allowed to skip any. Because the Two-Minute timing includes facts they don't know, it means you must allow or even encourage students to skip facts they don't know and move on to the ones they do know, during the Two-Minute timing.] See the blog: "Skipping, when is it OK?" Eventually some students will instantaneously “know” so many facts that they can answer about 40 per minute, or 80 in two minutes—but only if they can write that quickly. There are enough spaces on the graph for each week in school. Have the students color in the bar with the date closest to the date they took the test.