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

[Susan Eaton]

I definitely learned to read and do math through memorization. When I was in fourth grade, I was pretty far behind my peers in most in reading, spelling, and math. My mom took me to a tutor where I memorized my math facts, worked on spelling, and developed my reading skills. I really took to memorization and my confidence grew. However, I notice that I tend to fall back on what I know and sometimes struggle with tackling something unfamiliar. A very good example of this is when reading, I tend to have difficulty with sounding out names of people or places that are not common.

As a teacher, I notice that many of my students do not have their math facts memorized or have automaticity with them. Even more important that knowing math facts is making meaning out of the concepts we are learning. I would much rather give my student a multiplication chart and watch them solve a problem than worry about their memorization of math facts.