As a teacher, you’re probably already providing extra practice problems for your students to complete independently. But did you know that not all independent math practice sets your students up for success and long-term learning retention? In this blog, we’ll uncover the true value of independent math practice, and the strategies behind supporting your students’ path to concept mastery.
Meaningful independent math practice helps students cement long-lasting comprehension built on solid conceptual understanding. Independent practice provides students with crucial opportunities to sharpen their problem-solving skills.
With the regular habit of effective independent math practice, students are building their confidence toward mastery and retention of concepts. With the right supports, students can practice persistence over time.
Two research-based strategies to incorporate into student independent math practice are interleaved practice and spaced practice.
Interleaved practice is when problems are crafted such that back-to-back problems cannot all be solved with the same approach. This gives students room to determine the best way to approach a problem, in addition to solving the problem.
The other key strategy is spaced practice. Spaced practice, or spiral review, is when we return to learning and concepts over time rather than exhausting a topic area and then moving on with no intention to return. It’s important to note that spaced practice means that students re-encounter key ideas over time with short prompts that require retrieval, not reteaching.
When independent math practice incorporates these two strategies, students begin to feel comfortable with the math, building their confidence as they move toward concept mastery.
Giving students the space to be independent doesn’t mean that they are unsupported. Providing them with in-the-moment modeling of a difficult problem can help them get unstuck and persevere through that difficulty. Families can also help support students, and this is most successful when they are given step-by-step problem support and at-home application activities.
Apply books were designed with and by teachers, incorporating research-backed best practices to make independent practice purposeful—not busywork. Each lesson in the Apply books supports fluency with interleaved and spaced practice strategies.
Apply books are available in English and Spanish and support fluency and concept mastery through four components:
Earlier in this blog, you may have noticed the phrase “with and by teachers.” This phrase holds a heavily valued truth. It is not uncommon to see teachers use up their own personal time and money to pull from a variety of resources just to gather additional at home practice and support for their students.
This is why Apply books were crafted with and by teachers: to fill all those gaps in one convenient resource that seamlessly integrates spiral review. With print versions of Apply books, students can confidently complete problems at home because lessons are comprehensible, and families can actively participate to confidently to support their student’s independent math work.