Objective: Students will have individualized math facts goals for both accuracy and speed so they can focus on their own progress and develop self-confidence rather than feel they are competing with peers.

Teacher Takeaways: a) Give each student daily practice specifically customized to his needs and goals. For example, all students could have five minutes of math fact practice, but student A works on addition while student B works on multiplication. b) Fact goals should be chunked into manageable pieces. Start with 1 fact family and build slowly from there. c) Have each student track her individualized progress on a mastery chart. d) Help students understand that math facts speed is not nearly as important as math understanding. However, if they do not automatically know their math facts, it will interfere with their math learning in higher grades. Just as they had to learn their letters and sounds to read, they must know their math facts for math.

OER Resource: Goal Setting & Monitoring (Digital Promise Learner Variability Project)