Karate Math is a program that I implemented in Math my first year of teaching. Noticing that many students still struggled recalling their basic multiplication facts in 4th grade, but lacked the motivation to learn them, and as a teacher knowing how important basic fact recall is to successfully mastering more advanced mathematical concepts, I altered and implemented Karate Math. The concept of Karate Math is very simple and familiar; students take a basic timed test. If they pass, they move on to the next fact set, if they don't, they keep working on the same fact family until they do pass. That's where the similarities in Karate Math and other timed-test programs end.
Knowing that simply taking a timed-test wasn't going to get the inner motivation to learn that I desired in my students, after all, most students have done these types of tests since kindergarten, I incorporated my own hobbies and interests into the program: karate and competitiveness. All elementary students, especially girls at this age, are eager to learn about their teacher, what they like, dislike, what they are interested in, etc. Boys, imparticularly, are somewhat harder to motivate unless you really appeal to something they can relate to. Karate Math is the perfect combination; I am a 3rd degree black belt in karate so my likes and interests are involved, but also fighting and competition, which the boys love.
Here's how Karate Math works in our class this year. Basic fact families are grouped together to form a "belt" color.
White Belt - 0's & 1's
Yellow Belt - 2's & 3's
Purple Belt - 4's & 5's
Orange Belt - 6's & 7's
Blue Belt - 8's
Green - 9's
Brown - 10's & 11's
Red - 12's
Black - ALL facts
Students have (3:15) 3 minutes and 15 seconds, the time length of the song "Kung Fu Fighting" to answer 80 problems. If they pass, they get to move on to the next belt, but if they do not, they keep taking the same belt color test until they do pass. This allows for differentiation and students to work on their own levels. At this point, they are only competing against themselves. Student progress is documented on the wall outside of our classroom. As students pass a belt, their picture is moved under that belt color. Once students receive their black belt in multiplication, they move on to division.
On Friday, the Karate Off! competition ensues, creating competition amongst one another. One at a time, students in each cluster group stand and compete against other students in their group, which coincidently are our Math Station color groups: red, blue, yellow, and green. In an "Around the World" style competition, students are shown a flashcard and must give the correct answer within 2 seconds or less. If the student answers correctly, they stay in, if the incorrect answer is given, they sit and are out. The last man standing wins their color belt for the week. As a reward, the winners of each group are awarded a treat, are announced on the afternoon announcements, and most importantly, get to wear an actual karate belt around for the entire next week as bragging rights.
Karate Math is a fun and educational addition to our classroom and the result has been overwhelming! Students I had last year in 4th grade began the school year as 5th graders wanting to know when we were going to start Karate Math from day 1. As a whole, students LOVE Karate Math and as a teacher, I couldn't be happier!
Karate Math is a fun and educational addition to our classroom and the result has been overwhelming! Students I had last year in 4th grade began the school year as 5th graders wanting to know when we were going to start Karate Math from day 1. As a whole, students LOVE Karate Math and as a teacher, I couldn't be happier!
