Multiplication Facts

The ability to recall facts fluently and quickly identify relationships between numbers is really important to much of the key math skills that are being developed in 4th and 5th grades. Traditionally, students were given flash cards and told to practice recalling them in isolation to memorize them. The thought was that once they were stored in our long term memory, we'd be able to recall them quickly and use them in multi-step procedures. For many learners, this can work just fine and we are able to move along. This method, however,  relies heavily on our working memory and the ability to shift from one cognitive activity to another. For learners who struggle with these two underlying cognitive skills, this way of learning and applying facts is far more difficult. It also stores each fact as a separate language item, entirely disconnected from any quantitative meaning of the numbers involved. As such, the ability to see the connections between numbers is far more difficult when facts are simply memorized.
The recent trend to have students play with numbers in order to develop fact fluency goes far beyond just making it less painful or boring for students. It is not meant simply to find a way to keep the learner engaged for more time, so they will be willing to practice them more, it is also about having the learner practice recalling the facts in the context of some sort of other cognitive activity. It may look and feel like play, but it is actually important practice. And like any other practice, it requires time actually spent practicing in order to see desired results.

The top 6 links on the right of the page target fact recall, with the goal of increasing fluency. Ideally, Skylar should do some (10-15 minutes) practice each day. One reason for having so many options available, is that some may be slightly more effective than others (it may hard to predict for individuals) and it may take some time to figure out which works best for her. Another reason is variety; it may make the daily practice more palatable as well as providing more of a range of contexts within which the fact recall is performed. In addition to the links to the right, there are also several iPad app games that can be helpful in increasing fact fluency. Links to those apps are below.

This is app is great. We weren't able to find it on Sunday while tutoring; I think because it is designed as an app for the iPhone. When you are searching in the app store, be sure that you are including a search for iPhone apps, not just iPad apps. I think the above link should take you to it, but if not, try the iPhone app search.

Another is Door 24 Plus. I believe that this is more easily found through an App store search, but here's a link.  

While continuing to work on improving Skylar's fact recall fluency, I think it would really help her to be allowed to use a multiplication chart when she is needing to use facts in the context of learning a procedure. So for example, if she is practicing long division, to become more proficient with the procedure, if she is getting stuck with figuring out facts, she will likely have a harder time developing proficiency with the procedure. If she can be allowed to separate those learning tasks, it will help make them both more successful. (They will still take time.)