Effective Strategies for Increasing Basic Math Fact Fluency

The action research study was conducted to focus on improving math fact fluency through the teaching of strategies. It was done in a small group setting with second and third grade students at a suburban school in Minnesota. These particular students receive Title I math intervention 30 minutes a day because they are considered high risk for not meeting the grade level targets in math. Preassessment data were collected using student feedback forms to determine their feelings toward math fact practice and baseline assessments to determine their math fact fluency ability. After the pretests, they completed activities to practice each addition strategy for 10 minutes a day for one to two weeks before being introduced to a new strategy. At the completion of the study, the students again completed the feedback form and took the math fact posttest to determine if their fact fluency improved. The results from the feedback forms indicated that the students felt they were able to use addition strategies effectively after the intervention period. The addition fact posttest also indicated that many students improved their addition fact fluency; however, a possible next step would be to lengthen the duration of the study to see if it could have a greater impact with more students