Extra Help in Math

In my math classes this year I’m trying to develop and encourage a thinking classroom. Best practices include dialogue and problem solving, along with spaced practice and with guided examples. For some students they have entered math 8 with less than ideal fluency. The question for me is, what is the best way to approach this?

I think lots of students would benefit from increasing their fluency and speed with math facts. How can this be done though? Some of the students have a skills block, where they can spend time working on assignments with help from a teacher. However, this would likely end up being more of the same type of assignments or “learning” that hasn’t worked great for them up to now.

I also have practice questions set up on my Moodle course. It’s practice and it could benefit them, especially if they feel invested. Again, I don’t expect that would be successful because it’s probably repeating the same kind of thing that they’ve had in the past.

My guess is that they need one on one help with someone that really knows how to break down barriers. I wonder what else would work? What other methods could we try?