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

[Kristie D’Arcangelo]

I really appreciated the discussion around memorization vs. automaticity. In the seventh grade I work with a very inquiry based learning style in my math classroom, but given that my students have a lot of prior mathematical knowledge it means that they have more strategies in their toolbox so to speak to use to help them work through things. Those students who have their times tables memorized tend to be the same students who are not sure how to connect what they know to a new situation and ask me for the formula or steps to follow so that they can just do it. I would have to say that although their facts are well established in their memory bank, they do not have that mathematical fluidity one would have if their facts were understood on a more conceptual level. Hoping this makes sense as my long covid brain fog seems to be hampering my word retrieval at the moment…