Why use Rocket Math?

a student who does not know her math facts is counting on her fingers.

Facts practice: does it belong in middle school math?

Posted on by Dr. Don

It sure does, if you’re seeing this happen in your class!

Most middle school math teachers confide to me that their classrooms are negatively impacted by the number of students who stop to count out facts on their fingers.  Their issue was always what to do during facts practice with the other students who do know their facts.  It has taken a couple of years but I have put together a package of pre-algebra skills that are worth middle school students’ time practicing which are available in the Universal Subscription. Because the routine of Rocket Math is the same whether the students are practicing basic multiplication facts or learning equivalent fractions you’ll be able to manage all these different levels during the same ten-minute session.

Teachers know it is imperative that finger-counting middle schoolers get practice learning their facts.  Rocket Math is an excellent way to do that.  They will develop fluency and automaticity with the basic facts in an operation in a semester and from then on your lessons will be much easier.  Not only that, but a much higher proportion of the students will be finishing assignments.  There is a “Placement Probe” that can identify students who know their facts in about one minute. The students who know the basic facts of multiplication and division can be placed into the pre-algebra practice programs.

Factors Answers AFACTORS. Students probably ought to begin with the Factors program. What are the factors of 24? Answer: 1 and 24, 2 and 12, 3 and 8, 4 and 6. This is what students learn by memory from doing this program. Students practice with a partner, take a daily one minute timing, fill in a Rocket Chart, just like regular Rocket Math. Students learn all the factors for these numbers in this sequence: 12, 36, 24, 48, 18, 32, 16, 64, 10, 40, 20, 72, 8, 25, 50, 6, 21, 30, 60, 15, 45, and 100.

 

 

Fraction Number Line GEQUIVALENT FRACTIONS.  Students need to know that six-eighths is equivalent to three-fourths and that four-twelfths is equivalent to one-third.  While they can calculate these, it is very helpful to know the most common equivalent fractions by memory.  One of the most common problems students have in fractions is not “reducing their answers to simplest form.”  Equivalent fractions will help students commit 100 common equivalent fractions to memory.  Each set (A through Z) has four fractions which are displayed on a fraction number line.  Students frequently learn fractions equivalent to one,such as ten-tenths, as well as fractions that can’t be reduced, for example three-fourths is equivalent to three-fourths.  Using the fraction number line will help with student understanding of why those fractions are equivalent.

Integers ArrowsINTEGERS (Adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers).  Integers displays problems on a vertical number line and then teaches students two rules about how to solve problems that add or subtract positive and negative numbers.

Rule 1: Go up when you add a positive number OR subtract a negative number.
Rule 2: Go down when you subtract a positive number OR add a negative number.

Students gradually learn several variations of all four types of problems.  They practice with the number line on each page and then have a chance to build fluency on the top half of the page as they work with their partner.  You will probably not be surprised that there is a one-minute test on each set.  The goals are slightly different than before.  Students are to be 100% accurate and to complete at least 80% of their rate at answering simple addition and subtraction problems.

10s, 11s, 12s Multiplication and 10s, 11s, 12s Division facts are also available in the Universal Subscription.  If you have students who think they know the basic facts, but need review, putting them into either of these programs will review the 1s through 9s facts, teach them new ones and allow them to save face.

Among these five programs there are good things for ALL middle school math students to learn, even the more advanced students.  This will enable a math teacher to devote ten minutes a day to fact practice without holding anyone back.  Everyone will have something meaningful to practice during that time.  I think this could be a huge step forward for a lot of middle school MATH classrooms.

 

Will finger counting ever go away?

Posted on by Dr. Don

Some “experts” in education think that teaching and practicing rote information, like math facts, is unnecessary.  Just let students do math or do games and they will learn facts well enough to get by.  That is true for a few students, but many students continue to count on their fingers up into junior high and high school if we don’t help them commit these facts to memory!  So the short answer to the question of whether finger counting will ever go away, is “No!” unless we do something.

One of the things that is unique about Rocket Math is that students begin to learn facts well enough so they have instant recall.  By practicing orally with a peer, they are saying the facts and the answers aloud, and from memory, over and over again.  By doing that, students come to the point that, when they say that problem to themselves, the answer pops into their heads without effort, like the words to an advertising jingle.  When the answer occurs to them instantly, they realize they know the answer before they can count on their fingers, and they stop.  This is how finger counting goes away.  Students recall the answer before they have to start counting fingers.  The end of finger counting comes with the kind of daily oral practice that the procedures of Rocket Math provide.

Open letter to parents: Rocket Math HOME Apps

Posted on by Dr. Don

Dear Parents,

I designed the Rocket Math Apps to help children LEARN math facts such as 9 + 7 or 6 x 9.  Most apps have students randomly practice math facts, but aren’t much help in learning the facts in the first place!  The Rocket Math App is different because your child will be successful from the start and will gradually learn all the facts in each operation—without noticing!  They will play the app, but as they progress through the Levels A to Z they will LEARN all of the facts in sequence. Children will learn them well enough so that they don’t have to count on their fingers or stop to figure out the answer.  They will know the facts automatically so they can get on with the rest of learning math.  Take it from a long-time educator, they will begin to enjoy math once they stop struggling with figuring out facts, like this young man is doing.

HOME Versions Try it risk free! I don’t expect you to take my word for this.  If you download Rocket Math Addition HOME or Rocket Math Multiplication HOME you won’t have to pay up front.  Your child can try out the app and pass levels up through Level K for free.  At that point your child has already mastered at least 36 basic facts.  They are learning and probably enjoying it too!  Then if your child wants to continue playing Rocket Math, we ask that you purchase the app for $2.99 through an in-app purchase.  See the two icons to the left.  Please look for these free versions of the Rocket Math apps with the word HOME in their name and on their icon.


Why do we have two apps?  I designed the Rocket Math Apps so that children couldn’t skip around and avoid the “hard” facts they need to learn.  The App follows the same careful sequence in the paper-and-pencil version that has worked in schools have for over 15 years.  Once a child starts on Addition, they have to follow the sequence through addition Level Z and into subtraction.  The app can keep track of up to three children as they work through the levels.  We have two apps because you may have another child who needs to work on Multiplication and Division.  Now you can download Rocket Math Multiplication HOME for that other child and your children can each proceed through their own sequence and take turns working on the same device.

Why do children have to take a 30-minute “battery recharge?”  So they continue to keep playing and learning the facts until they finish Level Z and know all the facts.  Through field testing of the Rocket Math Apps before publishing it, we found that children would keep playing for TOO LONG and wore themselves out.  (Learning is hard mental work!)  Children who played too long stopped playing the app and stopped learning!  Now that they can only play for five minutes at a time, they are happy to open the app after the break and do another five minutes of learning.   Take it from an education professor, learning that is spaced out like this, through short practice sessions over many days or weeks is THE BEST WAY TO LEARN.

Thanks!  And here’s to solving the problem of counting on your fingers to do math!

Sincerely, Dr. Don

PS.  Here’s a link to download a copy of this letter to share with parents.

Why do multiplication facts have priority after 3rd grade?

Posted on by Dr. Don

Because older students CANNOT succeed in math without multiplication facts.

Am I sure? Yes, I’m sure. “But,” you say, “my students are still counting addition and subtraction on their fingers.”

I know. And I am still sure—fourth grade and up—multiplication. Why? Once children are in fourth grade it is critical that teachers make sure they memorize multiplication facts—primarily because you can’t be sure of how much help they will get later to learn the math facts. Sadly, your students may only learn one operation to fluency. If so, multiplication facts have priority over addition and subtraction. Besides complex multiplication and division, the multiplication facts are needed for success in fractions and ratios. Students have to immediately see the relationships between numbers in order to understand topics like equivalent fractions, reducing fractions, combining unlike fractions, as well as ratios. Let’s be honest here…those are the things that state tests LOVE to ask about. Not to mention, these are the pre-algebra skills students need to be successful in algebra and the rest of math.

If you have the students for long enough (at least one year) you may find that they finish and have mastered both multiplication and division facts. Then you can go back and have them learn addition and subtraction facts as well.

Don’t get me wrong — I know that addition and subtraction facts are VERY IMPORTANT — it’s just that multiplication is MORE IMPORTANT.

What is the Rocket Math “filing cabinet on the web?”

Posted on by Dr. Don

Jo asks:
Can you explain the “filing cabinet on the web” a little more? Is this a place a teacher can print copies for the class or does each student have to have subscription?

Dr. Don answers:
A subscription gives you access to our “filing cabinet on the web.” This is a place on the web where we keep all the worksheets and a teacher goes there to print out what is needed. You just click on what you want and print it out. Each operation has its own drawer. Each drawer looks like this:

SubscriptionLayout

There are five drawers that can be accessed with the $29 basic subscription: Forms and Information, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division.

But wait there’s more!
There are currently 8 more drawers, the contents of which are only available to those who have the $49 Universal subscription. The 8 programs added in the Universal Subscription are: Rocket Writing for Numerals, Skip Counting, Add to 20, Subtract from 20, Multiplication 10s, 11s, and 12s, Division 10s, 11s, and 12s, Factors, and Integers. Click on the name of any of these programs and you can get more information on that program.
You can preview (before you buy) the whole subscription site here: Rocket Math Subscription preview site.

Challenge your students with the Race for the Stars Game Center!

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race-for-the-stars-product-imagery-subtraction
How can you entice your students to play the Race for the Stars game in a center?

By letting them post their record/best time for completing the game boards. Race for the Stars is a great game for students to practice their math facts. The game provides 24 problems tiles students can race to put down next to the answers in the game board as fast as they can. There is now a Game Center Kit that give you everything you need to set up a center in your room that students will want to visit. The key is the poster with room for student labels with their names. Then next to their name is a place for them to write their best time at filling the game board. Well, actually their partner with the stop watch should probably write down their time. All the students in the class can rotate through the Game Center to record how fast they can fill either or both of the two game boards. One, for levels A-K are the first facts to be learned in Rocket Math. The second game board, L-Z are the facts learned in the last half of the Rocket Math levels.

But how can you motivate your students to play the game again and again to get the practice they need?

Here is the coolest part of the Race for the Stars Game Center. Students can go back and get someone to time them filling the Race for the Stars gameboard again. If the timer with the stopwatch sees that the student beat their previous best, they get to record the new record time, AND cover the old time up with a star sticker. Getting to put up a star sticker next to your name proves you were able to beat your own previous best–that is impressive! In fact, the savvy teacher will make a daily stop to see who in the class has been able to add a star sticker to the poster next to their name, showing that they beat their previous best time.

And that is how you motivate students to use the Race for the Stars Game Center (item #2112) to practice their math facts in their spare time!

Can we use Rocket Math worksheets at home?

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A parent asks:

I am a parent of a second grader who struggles mightily with her math facts. Her school does not do Rocket Math, although other buildings in our district use your program. I would like to know if your math facts program is appropriate for me to buy to use at home with my daughter. Also, does the Rocket Math basic subscription contain the complete program that a classroom would get?

Dr. Don answers:

Yes, the Rocket Math worksheet program is appropriate to buy to use at home with your child. The basic subscription has everything a parent or classroom teacher needs to run the program. But…

That being said, a parent at home may want to consider using Rocket Math flashcards instead of the worksheets in the original Rocket Math program. Flashcards are designed for one-on-one where the worksheets are designed to run an entire class at the same time. You can download the Flashcard Directions for free–and I highly recommend you doing that, so you know exactly how to work with your child effectively to learn math facts from flashcards. I really like the watch-your-favorite-TV-show-together-and-do-flashcards-during-all-the-commercials plan.

If you are teaching your child math facts at home, you definitely wouldn’t want to work on more than one operation at a time; addition in first grade, subtraction next in second grade, multiplication in third, and division in fourth grade.

The practice procedures are very similar between the flashcards and the original worksheet program. In both cases the student is to read aloud the problems and say the answers from memory without hesitation. The person listening (tutoring) provides the same correction procedure–saying the correct fact and answer, having the student repeat the fact and the answer three times, then doing two more problems before revisiting the target fact (the one on which there was an error or hesitation). The difference is that in the worksheet program students are reading facts from the worksheet, while in the flashcard program the student is reading the facts off the flashcards.

With the worksheet program you will have to print out the worksheets, the writing speed test, the goal sheet and the rocket chart. Each time you give the student the one minute test (to see if they are ready to move on to the next sheet) you’ll use up that sheet and have to print a new one. When your student passes the set of facts on that sheet, you’ll need to print the worksheet for the next set. With the flashcards, no additional printing is required. That alone is reason to use flashcards in my mind.

There is one very special circumstance in which it might be important to use the original Rocket Math worksheets at home. If your child is using Rocket Math in school, AND if the program is not being run correctly, AND if your child is being frustrated–then you might want to get a subscription. Watch our YouTube video on how to tutor Rocket Math.

If you read the Rocket Math Directions FAQs, you will be able to discover what is wrong at school. It may be that not enough time is spent practicing, or practicing the right way. It may be that your child’s handwriting speed was not taken into account when setting their goals. It may be that your child’s student partner in school is not correcting errors or hesitations in the right way. In any case it would be very important to show your child that he or she CAN in fact learn math facts successfully (all children can) and to overcome the frustration that improper use of the program is causing.

So you can buy and use the original Rocket Math worksheet program at home, but think about whether flashcards would be easier than the worksheet program. Teachers can’t effectively use flashcards in their classrooms because they can’t monitor the learning of that many students at once without the testing procedure. But you can when you are home alone with one child at a time–so flashcards can work for you.

Why should it take months to learn addition facts?

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Because you need to remember these facts your whole life!

Learning all the addition facts well should take a while. What’s more, it is important to spread this learning task out over weeks and months. Why? Because the longer you spend learning something the better you learn it and the longer you remember it. Conversely, when you cram learning into a short period of time you will likely forget it soon. Remember, cramming for exams in high school or college? Remember, what you learned? Probably not.

Rocket Math is designed to motivate students to work through a long task of learning nearly 100 facts in addition. It is broken down in bite-sized pieces for a couple of reasons. One, so each piece is not too much to memorize (nobody can memorize ten similar things at once). Two, so students can experience success along the way. Little successes keep them motivated for the long haul, which is a key point.

Rocket Math is purposely demanding. We want student to learn the facts to the point of instant recall, without any hesitation. So we expect them to be able to write the answers to the facts as fast as their little fingers can carry them–without any having to stop and think about on the way. That is called the level of automaticity. One way to do this would be to simply require all students to practice for a week on each set. That wouldn’t be terrible, but it wouldn’t be motivating and it wouldn’t take into account learning differences–it wouldn’t differentiate properly. Some students can learn facts to that level in 3 or 4 practice sessions while others may take 10 or more practice sessions to get to the level of automaticity.

Practice must be focused on learning. It is very important that practice has to be focused on learning, rather than just “going through the motions.” It is critical that students realize they can move on as soon as they learn these facts, and not until then. If everyone moved on every week regardless of learning differences, it would be too soon (moving on too fast) for some students and too slow for others.

Students need to meet the rigorous tests of Rocket Math and it is optimal that they spend several days on each set. With 26 sets to master and 90 days in a semester, we should not expect students to master an operation in less than a semester. It is also acceptable for a student to take up to a school year to learn all the addition facts. If schools routinely taught addition in first grade, subtraction in second, multiplication in third and division in fourth grade, their students would find math computation a breeze. Even better, they would remember those facts, that took them a school year to learn, for life. Isn’t that really the point?

Engage Students in Rocket Math during schedule gaps at test times

Filling testing-created gaps in your schedule.

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Many schools are starting spring testing soon, and it wreaks havoc with the daily schedule. People outside education don’t really understand how much school schedules are disrupted by attempting to test everyone in the school on the available computers. Not to mention catching all the students who are absent during their assigned time. Disrupted schedules create small gaps in the schedule, which are hard to fill, even more so when not every student is present. Let me present an option to fill those small gaps–do Rocket Math! Here’s five reasons why you should.

1) By this time of the year, students know the Rocket Math routine, so it should not take more than ten to fifteen minutes to run, start to finish. So Rocket Math can fill small gaps.

2) Even if Rocket Math has been done once during the day, a second or even third session during the day will NOT harm students, it will actually help them progress faster. (As long as you have at least a half hour between sessions).

3) It is beneficial for the students in the room even when some students are out doing make-up testing. It won’t require you to re-teach a lesson.

4) In contrast to free reading or make work activities, which only fill time, students doing Rocket Math will be learning critical skills that are necessary for future success.

5) In contrast to the stress of the accountability tests, Rocket Math is something students know well and have success at. They know what they are doing and they see their growth. They know they are learning. This is a powerful antidote to the not-so-straightforward tasks, questions and expectations of the accountability tests.

I highly recommend keeping Rocket Math folders handy for filling those small gaps in the daily schedule caused by testing.

Do CCSS expect math facts memorizing?

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Yes!  Without question, CCSS expects students to know math facts “from memory.”  Students should not be counting on their fingers nor having to stop and think about basic math facts.

CCSS.Math.Content.2.OA.B.2 Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies. By end of Grade 2, know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers.
CCSS.Math.Content.3.OA.C.7 Fluently multiply and divide within 100, using strategies such as the relationship between multiplication and division (e.g., knowing that 8 × 5 = 40, one knows 40 ÷ 5 = 8) or properties of operations. By the end of Grade 3, know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers.

Worksheets alone will not get students to that place–it requires oral rehearsal of math facts until there are no hesitations.  That happens best with the kind of peer practice that Rocket Math is designed to provide.
Click here to see my basic math fact recommended benchmarks to use with Rocket Math to implement the Common Core.