Super-Advanced Levels

When I first built MathFactLab, it only covered the basic facts. What I found with my fifth graders was that when a good percentage of the class graduated out of the program, those still working on their multiplication facts began to feel labeled, and MathFactLab began to be seen as a remedial program in the kids' eyes.

To make the program something that would keep all students challenged, I created the advanced, super-advanced, and super-duper-advanced levels. In addition/subtraction these help students practice solving double-digit addition and subtraction problems mentally. In multiplication/division these include all remaining 'facts' up to 20x20. Since the introduction of these enrichment levels, the taint of 'something only the kids who aren't smart do' has entirely vanished.

Do kids need to know 14x17? Absolutely not. Students are not expected to know by heart any super-advanced fact. Rather, they practice strategies that make it possible for them to solve such problems in their heads. These strategies help them to become very flexible, creative mathematicians. To solve 14x17 mentally (or any other super-advanced problem), students need to develop a toolbox of high-level math strategies and the brain power to hold so much in one's head at once.

To make is more reasonably possible to do this, as the levels get more challenging, the number of allowed seconds to be considered fluent automatically increases. So a student with a 4-second assigned fluency rate may actually be given up to 12 seconds on some problems. Last year, in my relatively small school, we did have about half a dozen 5th graders who worked their way through the entire program. They were challenged throughout, and very proud of their success.

By default, super-advanced Level Lifters are turned off. This makes it easier for students to work their way through the super-advanced levels. If a student graduates, you can turn these Level Lifters on, reassess them, and have them work through the program again, this time facing a little more challenge.

To Turn on Super-Advanced Level Lifters for an Individual Student:

1. Click that student's edit icon on the Students page.

   

2. At the bottom of the Edit Student popup, toggle the 'Super-Advanced Level Lifters' on/off switch.
3. Make sure to hit 'Save'.

This help doc was written by Mike Kenny, Grade 5 teacher and founder of MathFactLab.