What are some teaching strategies that meet these guidelines for drill?

Edward C. Rathmell
University of Northern Iowa

The following procedure for timed tests has been used effectively. Provide each child three rows of problems. Time each row separately. Make sure that every child has success on the first row of problems by waiting until all of them have finished before you stop them. Select the amount of time so that all children can finish in the allotted time. Then on the second row, allow less time to complete the row. For the last row, allow only enough time to challenge the best students. The times you allow will vary according to your class, but it will not take long for you to get down to 30 seconds for the first row, 20 seconds for the second row, and 10 seconds for the third row. A sample dialogue might be as follows:

"Do the first row as quickly as you can. I'm going to give you 30 seconds to complete the row. Start." Watch the children rather than the clock on this row. Wait about 5 seconds after the last child completes the row and say, "STOP!"

"Everyone got done before I stopped you on that row. On the second row I'm only going to give you 20 second. Start." This time watch the clock and stop them after 20 seconds. "STOP!"

"There were still some people who got done before I stopped you. On the last row I'm going to try to stop you before anyone gets done. This time you only get 10 seconds. Start." Watch the clock and stop them in 10 seconds. "STOP!" "Some of you still got done. We'll have to do it faster next time."

"Now I am going to read the problems and the answers very quickly. Listen closely and put a mark by the problems that are incorrect. Do not try to take time to correct them now."

Read the problems and the answers as quickly as you can. If you have not made an error by the end of the last row, do so on purpose for one of the last problems. The children soon learn to listen very carefully for your error.

"If you answered every problem that you had time to do correctly, put a star at the top of the page. Do I get to put a star on mine?"

Another procedure is to give the students a set amount of time to respond to each fact. The teacher can orally present a basic fact problem, wait 4 seconds (then 3 or 2), then say the answer. After presenting ten facts, the students can compare the number they were able to answer before the teacher did. Ten more problems can be presented with 3 or 2 second wait time. Nearly every student will be able to answer more quickly than the teacher will for five or more facts if they are given 4 seconds to respond. Consequently, they will have success in answering before the teacher does for the first ten problems. Remember that they have an efficient thinking strategy before the drill.

About once every month give the children an entire page of basic facts that they can solve efficiently with the strategies they already know. Tell the children you will give them 60 seconds to complete as many problems as they can. Also tell them that they will not have enough time to complete the entire page. Start them. Stop them in 60 seconds. Collect these papers so you can check for speed (the number of problems correctly answered in one minute) and accuracy (the percent of correct responses). These scores can be recorded and compared to the last set of scores you collected about a month earlier. Children are amazed at the amount of progress they make in that amount of time. They may even want to graph their scores to show the progress they are making.

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