I have written about Multiflyer before as it qualifies as one of my top 5 Times Tables resources. We begin the year with a test of the children’s multiplication knowledge to ascertain their strengths and where they need to focus their practice, we also like to be able to see how quick they are. Using Multiflyer we can do this all and have it marked within 15 minutes.
Previously we used to give the children a paper test of 100 multiplication facts, but timing did not come into it. Although it did when we had to manually check 3000 answers from the whole class! Using Multiflyer addresses the work life balance we all battle with.
Here is how we do it.
- Access the site and choose Practice from the options.
- Select what you want to test the children on – we choose 1-10 from both sides.
- Ensure that the children choose to have the Table OFF otherwise they will be able to find the answers using a multiplication grid.
- Clicking START will display a practice question – ensure the children know what they need to do.
- Remind them that they do not need to move the mouse and that the quickest method is to enter the answers and press enter on the keyboard.
- We give the children 15 minutes to answer as many questions as they can. We find that this gives us a really deep picture of their times tables ability.
- You might like to ask them to turn their volume down before they begin as the sound effects can be off putting for children trying to concentrate.
- When the children have had 15 minutes, or however long you have given them, ask them to click on End MISSION.
- This will display a chart displaying how they got on. We ask them to choose PRINTABLE CHART from the top.
- They enter their names and the date of the test and print if needed – this could be filed in their folders or with their other maths work.
We use the information provided in the report in a number of ways. The individual tables results reveals to us the level of understanding for each one and so we can tell the children what they need to work on. This week I have told the children their own targets for practice, the weakest of all of the results.
The overall percentage is important but perhaps the most important is the number of questions answered correctly. We enter this into a spreadsheet and divide it into 900 (the number of
seconds in 15 minutes) This calculation provides us a per correct answer time in seconds – we can basically see how fast they can recall their tables. We will complete this every month and involve the children in tracking their own progress.
No marking means we can focus on the diagnostic side of helping the children improve the speed and accuracy of their times tables – I would urge you to take advantage of this resource or others like it to do the same. We completed the task with the children using the class laptops but it could be easily done over two sessions in a computer suite.
Not only will it help you address the balance but also stop you getting bogged down with marking and allow you to focus on helping the children improve.