The method
How Math Ladder works
Short daily practice, small steps, and moving ahead only on mastery. Here is everything a parent or teacher needs to know.
Every day
The student does one session a day, about five days a week. A session is today's sheet plus extra practice: fresh versions of sheets from this step and the steps before it, chosen to fill about 30 minutes. In Stages 1 to 3, for the youngest learners, a session is about 15 minutes. The times are estimates; stop when the session is done. A steady session every day works better than a long one now and then.
Sessions are made in the parent app, with the student's name on every page. A printed stage book has the same sheets in order, one per day, without the extra practice.
Steps and checkpoints
Each stage is split into steps, and each step has five sheets, one per day's session. Sheets 1 to 4 are practice. Sheet 5 is a checkpoint: do it first in that day's session, while fresh.
Sheet 1 of each step has a New skill box with worked examples that show every step of the work. Read it together before the student starts. Sheets 2 to 4 repeat one example as a reminder.
Checking the work
Every sheet comes with its own answer key as a separate PDF. Mark each answer, then have the student fix every mistake before the sheet counts as finished. Fixing mistakes right away is part of the method.
Timing
From Stage 3 on, checkpoint sheets are timed. Time the student from start to finish without helping. The target time and pass mark are printed at the top of the sheet.
Time is about fluency: an answer that is right but slow means the skill is not automatic yet. Practice sheets do not need to be timed, though many students like to beat their own time. Stages 1 and 2 are not timed at all. There the goal is correct counting and neat, correctly formed numbers.
After each checkpoint
Enter the score and time in Math Ladder and it applies these rules for you and shows the next sheet to print.
Stage tests
Two stage tests, A and B, come after the last step of a stage. The student finishes the stage after passing both, one after the other, ideally on different days. If a test is missed, look at which steps the mistakes came from, do sheets 3 to 5 of those steps, and start again with test A.
Placement checks
Not sure a student belongs in a stage? Every stage has a placement check. Pass it and start the next stage instead. If the first part is a struggle, an earlier stage may be a better start. Starting a little too easy is better than starting too hard. Placement checks are free for every stage. More about placement.
Fresh versions
Any sheet can be printed again, and Math Ladder makes a fresh version of a sheet whenever you need one. Each student gets versions they have not had before, so repeating a step means practicing the skill, not remembering the answers.
What you can make
- A sheet: one day's practice.
- A 5-sheet set: a whole step, sheets 1 to 5, for the week.
- A book: a whole stage with the how-to pages, every step, the placement check, both stage tests and a progress tracker.
- A test: a placement check or stage test A or B.
All of them print on US Letter paper with the student's name filled in, and each comes with a separate answer key.