Digging Deeper Class 5 Articles and Videos

In the Digging Deeper Class 5 Articles and Videos, there were three articles that ere related: Procedural Fluency, Making Ten, and Undoing Rote Memorization.

In the article, people were both pro and con for either methodology. I think because of the Common Core, and the public’s unfamiliarity with pedagogy, we are seeing extremes in the polarity of opinion in support of the traditional (rote memorization) and the popular (procedural fluency, such as making ten).

I am in both camps. I think that we need both. I believe that it is important to teach procedures so that when, for example, we encounter an equation (algorithm) we know how to solve the problem economically. To do that, we need to know which procedure to use and why. That is Procedural Fluency. Speed is also important. That is where rote memorization comes in.

Writing also demonstrates the need for procedural fluency and memorization. To write correct sentences, a student needs to know grammar. Grammar is taught explicitly, and it takes time to learn the rules to write and speak English correctly. Spelling is also needed to write correctly. Spelling is usually learned by rote memorization, sorting, and noticing patterns in word formation.  Could you teach writing without focusing on these integral parts of language?  Maybe.  However, I think students benefit by explicit instruction (procedural fluency) and practice (rote memorization).

If the public understood this, maybe there would be less polarity of opinion in the need for both procedural fluency and memorization.