Brad Oster, Superintendent of Education for the Rainy River District School Board, says educators in the district now focus on “math fact fluency” with interactive ways to gamify learning. Moreover, Oster says math fact fluency differs from “drill and kill” memorization techniques by creating positive classroom learning experiences and memories. Furthermore, Oster describes the benefits of second chances for learning and metacognition.
“When students were learning [math facts,]” said Oster, “there was a lot of ‘drill and kills’ they call it … which is … a lot of memorizing.”
“We know, through research, that ‘drill and kill’ does not build that positive mindset for learning.”
According to Oster, drill and kill “would be using flashcards.” Or, it could be “old-fashioned games … called around the world where students would face off against each other in classrooms. Those are some of the, I would call them, archaic types of things that kids would use to remember their math facts.”
Oster says students in the Rainy River District School Board will now have “dice games” where students will practice things like multiplication to build confidence in math.
“Now, what the Rainy River District School Board does is we, we provide teachers with a variety of different games, dice games, where kids can roll dice. If you’re in the primary grade, they might roll some dice and play a dice game called the ‘Game of 500’ with students in the junior grade.”
Oster says these dice games will begin with two six-sided dice.
“So, you have two six-sided dice, said Oster, “when kids are first starting to learn their facts, you’re only going to use the six-sided dice. That way, when you roll up the highest multiplication fact that you might be learning is six times six.” Adding, “when the kids have confidence up to that six times six, then you can add in a ten-sided dice, or a 12-sided dice.”
Oster suggests gamifying education aids students in being engaged with a topic.
“What students in my classroom used to do [is,] they would play a game where they would determine what physical activity they were going to play for,” said Oster.
“So they might say, ‘Well, the first person to 500 doesn’t have to do ten push-ups!’ And, then the non-winner of the of the game would have to do ten push-ups. So, we try to incorporate physical activity … into some of those games. That way kids are engaged with learning their facts.”
Oster says there are also digital tools available, like Reflex Math.
“We also have a digital tool called Reflex Math,” said Oster, “Reflex is, it’s a game where … kids are learning their facts, and the program tracks their progress intuitively.” Adding, “Teachers can monitor kids’ improvement through that digital tool.”
Additionally, Oster thinks it is important to have agency in how they complete their schoolwork.
“There are many, many ways that kids can show their learning versus the old school paper and pencil test,” said Oster, “And allowing students to have a choice in how they demonstrate their learning is something that is really, really important.”
Another way the Rainy River District School Board wants to give students agency is by giving students “another chance” to demonstrate their learning.
“We [at the Rainy River District School Board] really are trying to push the thinking to our teachers, where, if a student doesn’t score that level three or four on that summative assessment, can we give them another opportunity? Can we pull them into a small group or individually and say, hey, you know what? You didn’t reach that goal of level three or four. Here are some things that you can do, and I want to give you another chance.”
Moreover, Oster thinks second chances are important, “because we are in the business of creating success in schools, and that’s what we need to keep pushing forward with all educators in our system,” said Oster.”If it’s just a mark all the time … it can impact their social-emotional learning.”
“If students are constantly seeing level one, level two, level two, level two, level one, versus not seeing the feedback … they can’t take their learning and move it forward so that they can start seeing those level three and level four marks,” said Oster. “Metacognition is so important.”
Oster thinks Metacognition helps students to understand themselves, and their course material, better.
“I think, you know, teachers are clarifying those learning targets and defining what success looks like, showing kids, you know, previous examples that they maybe had from previous years, showing ‘this is what a level three looks like,’ or ‘this is what a level four looks like.’ Or, giving kids those examples and not telling them what the level is and asking them to talk with their fellow classmates about it.”
