Reply To: Lesson 4-2: Automaticity vs. Memorization

[Kami Fevery]

I have struggled immensely over the past couple year with my own beliefs about inquiry based learning and fact-based memorization, essentially jumping back and forth over the fence many times. It is not until recently through my own exploration of numeracy strategies that I have realized how understanding how numbers can work can lead to quick fact recall. While I used memorization throughout most of my life for math fact recall, new learning of various math strategies has help my brain when the fact recall is just not coming. Here I can use my own reasoning strategies to help. A specific example is the 9 x table facts. I used to use the finger trick all the time, sharing this trick with many students, until I was taught the strategy of compensation where I could use my understanding of 10 x table facts in order to help me calculate 9 x facts.

Ex 9 x 7 = 10 x 7 = 70

70 minus one group of 7 is 63