Advice for When Student(s) Are Not Making Expected Progress

Passing through levels is the way that students are rewarded for their efforts in MathFactLab. If students are not passing Level Lifters with some degree of regularity, they may begin to feel dejected and lose interest in the program. With that, their efforts may wane.

If a student is not making sufficient progress, it may be wise to consider the following:

1. The frequency of sessions. Regular practice is necessary (in almost all endeavors) to make progress. We recommend three or more sessions per week.
2. Familiarity with models. MathFactLab is a practice tool that reinforces classroom instruction and practice. The models and strategies that students encounter when using MathFactLab should not be new to them. If students are unfamiliar with the ways that problems are represented on the program, we encourage teachers to introduce and practice these with their students using either manipulatives, pictorial representations or our 'Teaching Tools' tab on the teacher dashboard.
3. Level of Preparedness. Have the students working on multiplication/division, mastered their addition/subtraction facts? Do students already have some hands-on experience solving the problems they working on in MathFactLab?
4. Appropriate individualized settings. Our default settings may work for a majority of your students, but they won't work for all of them.
   1. Consider giving the student more time by changing their fluency rate. If students are working on multiplication/division facts for the first time, you may wish to set them a fluency rate of 10 or 15 seconds. When they get through the basic facts at this pace, you can lower their fluency rate and reassess them.
   2. Try assessing them with a Level Lifter Interview instead of our typical Level Lifters.
   3. Increase their number of 'Whoopsies'. This determines passing requirements.
      1. We now recommend 6 to 10 whoopsies for most students, and our default is 8. For some students, a higher number may be more appropriate.
   4. Learn more about differentiating MathFactLab.
5. Manually changing a student's level. Check in with students not making progress. See if you think they know the facts at their current level well enough to be promoted. If you think a student is ready to move to the next level, then they are ready to move to the next level. This guide will show you how to manually promote a student.
6. Teacher involvement. This is key to student success. A teacher who is moving about the classroom helping students as they work on MathFactLab will foster a much more productive working atmosphere than another who uses MathFactLab time as an opportunity to complete other tasks.
7. Student engagement. Think of ways to foster excitement as students work on MathFactLab. I like to play a game with my students which we call the Level Lifter Challenge. My two classes compete each day to see which class can get the most level-ups. The winning class earns two minutes toward their bonus recess at the end of the week. A bit of friendly group competition or a team effort towards a class goal can certainly energize the atmosphere in a room.