How to Successfully Teach Eureka Math (Engage NY Math): Fluency Practice

Now that you’ve prepared your lesson and gathered all your supplies, the next step is to teach! ​

A typical Eureka lesson is broken up into 6 components:

• Fluency Practice
• Application Problem
• Concept Development
• Problem Set
• Debrief
• Exit Ticket

We will take an in-depth look at each of these components so you can feel comfortable presenting each one to your class.

FLUENCY PRACTICE

Most of the time, your lesson will start off with a few fluency activities. ​

​The types of activities used will vary by lesson; however, they always tie into the main skills students will be using. Fluency practice may be easy to skip if you’re short on time, but it is incredibly important.

​According to the Common Core, the definition of fluency is “fast and accurate.” With Eureka, this is more than just taking timed tests. The fluency portion of the lesson helps students to quickly and accurately apply strategies for mental math.

There are many different fluency activities, but here are a few examples:

• ​Happy Counting: Happy counting involves counting or skip counting forwards and backwards from a particular number. For example, students may be counting by hundreds starting with 253. On your signal, students will start counting forward. Once they reach a certain number, the signal will change and students will switch to counting backward. This continues until students are able to transition smoothly between counting forward and backward.
• More/Less: The teacher will say a number, and the students will respond by saying a number that is a certain amount more or less than that number. For example, if students are to say the number that is 10 more, and the teacher starts with 26, students would respond with 36. 
• Making a Ten: The teacher will say a number, and the students will say the number needed to make the next 10. For example, if the teacher says 14, the students will say 6. Then, students will put it in a number sentence: 14 + 6 = 20.
• Renaming Units: Teacher will give a number of ones, and students will rename the units as tens and ones (or hundreds, tens, and ones). For example: 45 ones = 4 tens 5 ones.
• Say Ten Counting: When the teacher gives a number, students will say it the “Say Ten Way”. For example, if the teacher says 34, students will say “3 tens 4.” Sometimes, they will also add to make the next ten. For example, 3 tens 4 + 6 = 4 tens.

These are just some of the examples of fluency activities that Eureka uses. You have some flexibility with how you use this portion of the lesson - whether you just do a whole group choral response, or get more creative with it is up to you.

However, I do NOT recommend skipping it altogether, as it really is an important part of the lesson. As mentioned before, you do not have to do ALL the activities - simply pick one or two that would be of most value to the class, and focus your time on those activities. Remember to do your best to stick to the suggested time limit.

Sprints

Some lessons have timed tests called Sprints. However, these are not traditional timed tests in the sense that students are expected to complete a certain number of problems within the time limit. These are just a written form fluency practice.

Each lesson will have 2 sprints - Sprint A and Sprint B. The two sprints are very similar as they practice the same skill, but the problems will be slightly different. The purpose is for students to first complete Sprint A, then check their work, then try to improve their score on Sprint B.

Contrary to how timed tests typically work, students are NOT expected to complete every problem in the time given! Students are only expected to do their best on Sprint A, and then to try to improve on Sprint B. That’s it!
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Here is the suggested routine for doing sprints:

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1. Students will have a certain amount of time to perform Sprint A (I always did 1 minute, but this can be flexible depending on where your class is at).
2. When time is up, all students mark where they stopped at the end of the time and put their pencils down.
3. Teacher goes over answers and students check their work. The teacher may choose to do a quick number talk about the best strategy(ies) to use for these types of problems.
4. Students write the number they got correct within the time limit at the top.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 with Sprint B.

It is important to remind students that they are only in competition with themselves. One of the issues with timed tests is that students often feel discouraged if they don’t finish. Therefore, it is critical to really establish a classroom environment where all students understand that they are not expected to finish - only to do their best. This is the key to making sure your sprints are successful!

Successful Fluency Practice

One of the most important things to remember with the Eureka lessons is to customize them to meet your students’ needs, and to stick to the time suggestions. Remember that more is given to you than you can reasonably complete in an hour. Choose the aspects of the fluency practice that would be most beneficial to your students, and stick with those.

Also realize that while the activities are very scripted and give you numbers to use for the fluency activities, you do not have to stick with those numbers! Feel free to do more or less as needed for your class. Customization is key with Eureka!

Next time, we’ll talk about the another important component of  Eureka lessons: the application problem.