A reader asked the following question:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nThis topic of \u201cknow from memory\u201d is something I have been digging into as a special educator. I wonder what your thoughts are about whether certain accommodations from these \u201cknow from memory\u201d standards would actually be modifying the curriculum?<\/p>\n
For example, if we used \u201cextra time to respond\u201d and the student had to use their fingers or some other method to count, would they then not be doing the standard?<\/p>\n
This relates to where I\u2019m at in middle school math, but I think that it\u2019s reflected in the continuum of the common core maths.<\/p>\n
Thanks.<\/p>\n
Dr. Don’s response:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nActually, your example is very clear that it is not \u201cknowing from memory.\u201d You are describing \u201cderiving from a strategy\u201d or what I call, \u201cfiguring it out.\u201d When you know it from memory, when you recall the answer, then you stop having to \u201cfigure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knowing from memory and figuring something out are two very different things. I used to ask workshop participants to imagine sitting next to me in a bar and asking me for my name. What if, instead of saying, “Hi, my name is Don,” something different happened?\u00a0 What if, like the man pictured above, I was puzzled and said, \u201cWait a second, I have it here on my driver\u2019s license.\u201d Most people would likely\u00a0turn their attention elsewhere\u00a0while wondering what kind of traumatic brain injury I had sustained! They would very likely say to themselves, \u201cOMG, that man doesn\u2019t know<\/strong> his own name.\u201d<\/p>\nThe purpose of the verbal rehearsal that is a daily part of Rocket Math is to cement these basic facts in memory. Then when a student says to themselves, \u201c8 times 7 is,\u201d the answer pops into their mind with no effort. It takes quite a bit of practice to achieve that. However, the ability to instantly recall the answers to basic math facts makes doing mathematical computation a relative breeze. It make seeing relationships among numbers very obvious. It makes reducing fractions and finding common denominators easy. That\u2019s why the Common Core thinks \u201cknowing from memory\u201d is so worthwhile. It\u2019s why I began promoting Rocket Math in the first place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most people, for example, know their name, by memory. In a previous blog I discussed\u00a0\u00a0What does CCSS mean by “know from memory?”\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 A reader asked the following question: This topic of \u201cknow from memory\u201d is something I have been digging into as a special educator. I wonder what your thoughts are about whether certain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":837,"featured_media":34848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0},"categories":[42],"tags":[35,43,36,52,47,61,38],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34844"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/837"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34844"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34847,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34844\/revisions\/34847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}