Using ActivExpressions for Math Fact Fluency

ActivExpression2

At our school, students can arrive 30 minutes before the actual school bell rings. Mostly, they sit outside our rooms in the hallway and read books. Talking is highly discouraged! They are mostly too sleepy anyway to talk - who isn't at 7AM? When our new campus technologist started, he gave me the greatest idea for practicing math fluency with my students. He said that his students used the Activexpressions to practice their multiplication facts.

Immediately I went to work showing my students how to take a self-paced test. This is great for math minutes or mad minutes.  The great thing about making these self-paced tests is the software, ActivInspire, generates the questions for you! You don't have to copy/paste or type in any of the math facts.

Generating questions allows you to do the following:

• choose the numbers for the math facts (0-9 for 1st, 0-10 for 20, etc.)
• choose the operation for the math facts
• add as many or as little math facts
• set the time
• set feedback for correct or incorrect answers
• randomize the question set

What it won't do is level the questions for you. That is up to you, and honestly not particularly necessary for these tasks.

Once you start the assessment, you can see how quickly the students are progressing and if they are getting the answers right or wrong.  Students don't all have to start the assessment at the same time, they can just begin when they arrive. When the school bell does ring, simply stop the assessment and don't worry if they didn't finish.  

You can save the results to look through them later. This is especially helpful for making groups or seeing which fluency facts are being missed the most.

Tips:

• assign devices to students so they use the same device each time (most just number them)
• have them in a place where they are easy to access when the students arrive
• ask your technologist to install the ActivInspire software on a classroom computer to free up your laptop or computer you use
• start with easier facts and move up to more difficult ones
• add more problems as the year goes on
• don't make a new test for every day, remember the facts are asked randomly
• use the feedback and have students make flash cards with the facts they got incorrect

If you've made it this far, you are probably thinking GREAT! now tell me how to do this.  Well, here is a link to a great handout from Grapevine-Colleyville ISD. Check out their resources wikispace for more great and concise handouts. 

Have fun! Let me know how it goes.