I received quite a few emails asking how I create my progression videos, so I figured I share the process. I wish it was as hard as it appears but it’s really not. But like everything else in education it front-end loaded. Starts with the plan…. Standards and progression documents from the University of Arizona are a must. I use a piece of chart paper and cut it in half to model the actual model itself and then go to town in the planning process. Test each marker… Lay out the manipulatives and other resources I’ll need in order… Double check that my “high-quality camera tripod holder” is ..read more

Learning basic facts through tricks or a mnemonic song leads students down a path of memorization, not understanding.  I previously discussed the idea of conceptual development here.  When students practice their multiplication facts, they’re expected to move from concrete to abstract too quickly.  This takes time!!! Moving too quickly forces memorization and avoids any possibility of multiplicative thinking.  First students are asked to model 3 rows of 6 using colored tiles… Then after a day or two of exploring arrays, students are magically expected to remember that… In ..read more

Over the last two years, I’ve been playing around with ways that help build fluency and I am super excited to finally share what I’ve been up to. I’ve been teaming up with my good friend Tracy Zager and Stenhouse Publishing to create a fact fluency kit that is nothing like I’ve seen before. It’s been so hard to not talk about it but as of today, there’s no holding back. I’m sure you’re probably wondering what’s in the kit and how will it be different than what’s already out there, so I created a quick video that explains what’s coming your way below. The goal is to have the kit ready for fall ..read more

I’ve recently been working on two new progression videos that will focus on the operations of fractions. Here are some sketches from the addition and multiplication progression… In planning and researching the flow of each progression, I encountered lots of rules we teach and I wanted to share them.  It’s for this reason that I teamed up with Christina Tondevold to present an hour-long webinar that Demystifies The Fraction Rules We Teach. In the webinar, I tackle a few of the rules that completely undermine the fraction reasoning we’re after. One of the rules I unpack is KEEP-CHANGE-FLIP for ..read more

A few years ago, I was in need of a resource that would help students build fluency beyond 20 so I created some Base Ten Cards. I’ve referred to the cards in presentations but I haven’t shared them in this space…until now. Below you’ll find a downloadable set of the cards as well as some videos of us playing around in a first-grade classroom. I’ll go ahead and admit that there is a speed element in the videos that makes me a little queasy but with that being said, the student was comfortable so I felt like we were working at the speed of learning. Some food for thought before diving in and te ..read more