Teach thinking strategies (like using 10 as a reference) Use retrieval practice—but only when kids are already accurate Include timed drills sparingly, after fluency begins to form ...

Nagarajan’s district sets aside time for what it calls a “math workshop” where students play “fluency games” that allow them to practice using particular math concepts in an engaging way.

Just because you teach kids correct ways of doing things, that doesn’t mean the incorrect strategies disappear. Students really need help thinking and reasoning through why those are wrong.

What's the best way for children to learn arithmetic—memorizing number values and multiplication tables, or studying math at a deeper, conceptual level?

One way for students to develop fluency is to listen to an expert reader while following along in the text themselves—an experience quite similar to watching a video with captions.