Movements

A movement is an active response. In math, writing the digit ‘3’ would be considered a movement while in reading, saying the word ‘dog’ would be considered a movement. Writing the number ‘16’ would be considered two movements since there are two digits, 1 and 6. Saying the number 16 would still be considered one movement since saying 16 is similar to saying 3. These are called ‘write’ or ‘say’ movements.

A movement can be a thought as well as an action. In the math problem 8 + 1 = __ writing or saying the answer 9 would be considered a movement and therefore this problem would be credited with one movement. In the math problem __ + 1 = 9 the answer 8 would be credited with two movements. One movement would be credited for the digit 8 and a thought movement would be credited for reorganizing the problem into a subtraction problem 9 - 1 = __.

My Learning Partners and Dr. Matt's Math uses movements to control the different complexities of math problems. Simply counting digits is not sufficient. The problem 847 X 32 has a five digit answer but is credited with 18 movements. Our manuals explain how movements are determined. We have determined the movement counts for all our problems to assist you in scoring.

My Learning Partners monitors student's correct and incorrect movements. Only active movements are tallied when counting incorrect responses; there are no incorrect thought movements. If a student does not attempt a problem there is no movement, therefore it is not counted as incorrect.

Suppose your student is taking their one minute daily timing and the last problem attempted is 8 X 3 = __. They write the 2 in 24 when the timer rings. They will receive one correct movement count for this problem. Since they did not write the digit 4, it is ignored and not counted as incorrect. You will need to determine the movement counts on a partially completed problem on your student’s one minute daily timing.

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