PARCC Says 3RD Graders Should be Fluent and Precise with Multiplication Facts by End of Year

In a new document titled, “Draft Model Content Frameworks for Mathematics”   PARCC’s purpose is to:

• identify the big ideas in the Common Core State Standards for each grade level,

• help determine the focus for the various PARCC assessment components, and

• support the development of the assessment blueprints.

This resource will help teachers know how to implement the Common Core Standards in their own classroom.  For example in 3^rd Grade they suggest, “Students fluently multiply two single-digit factors, and they fluently find related quotients. By the end of grade 3, they know single-digit products from memory.

Students must begin work with multiplication and division (3.OA) at or near the very start of the year to allow time for understanding and fluency to develop. Note that area models for products are an important part of this process (3.MD.7). Hence, work on concepts of area (3.MD.5–6) should likely begin at or near the start of the year as well. “ 

They give this example of opportunities for in-depth focus: “Finding single-digit products and related quotients is a required fluency for grade 3. Reaching fluency will take much of the year for many students. These skills and the understandings that support them are crucial; students will rely on them for years to come as they learn to multiply and divide with multidigit whole numbers and to add, subtract, multiply, and divide with fractions. After multiplication and division situations have been established, reasoning about patterns in products (e.g., products involving factors of 5 or 9) can help students remember particular products and quotients. Practice — and if necessary, extra support — should continue all year for those who need it to attain fluency.”

F L U E N C Y… does this make your knees knock with anxiety or do you have a plan to meet this goal?  This picture was posted on a 6^th Grade Classroom Blog:

The comment under the picture was to ask 6^th Grade Parents to please work with their children on memorizing their basic multiplication facts.

Click here to see the document so you can read your grade level’s  big ideas and focus.

Lastly, a big thank you to Ginger Weincek at Liberty Elementary for making me aware of this document earlier in the summer.  I love how teachers like Ginger support other teachers!!

By the way PARCC is giving you a chance to comment on this framework until August 31 through their website in a survey format.  Here is your chance to respond before the document is finalized.