When it comes to math, some students get it right away. And for others, they struggle. They may lack confidence. They may even have math anxiety. They get worried about not being fast enough with math. They don’t solve math problems because they are afraid of failing.

That is why in this blog post, I want to share three simple steps you can take on how to overcome math anxiety with your students.

How to Overcome Math Anxiety

Ditch the Timed Tests

Teachers often drill with timed test on math facts. This may be the only math fact practice some students get. However, drilling students on timed tests can increase math anxiety.

Timed tests show students that being good at math, means you are fast at math. But really there is so much more when it comes to mathematics. Even though math facts are just a small portion of the math we teach students, students base their math abilities on how fast they take the test.

So what should we do instead? We need students to practice math fact strategies. We need to teach them explicitly. We need to model how to use the strategies regularly in our math lessons. And we need to get them plenty of practice with them.

I share a free workbook on how to implement this with your 1st grade or 2nd grade students. Download it here. I even share a single page guide to all addition and subtraction fact strategies. Get your free guide here.

For posters and task cards to help teach each math fact strategy, check out Math Fact Strategies Bundle I use in my classroom here. You can also check out this blog post: Math Fact Strategies that Work

Focus on Reasoning

When students see that math is not about being fast, they will understand that it is about reasoning. Here’s how I do this with addition and subtraction math facts. I call it “Math Fact of the Day.” I put up a math fact on the board and then give my students a minute or so to think about it. Then I ask, “how did you solve it?”

I call on multiple students because there is always more than one way to think about it. I record the students’ thinking on the whiteboard. Students’ confidence in math will increase as they see their thinking get recorded. It will increase as they hear other students saying they had the same thinking. Their math anxiety will decrease because they are focusing on reasoning, rather than speed with math.

Find my “Math Fact of the Day” resource here. It makes it super easy to be consistent with this everyday. Best part about it is that it only takes a couple minutes a day. Find it here.

Encourage Mistakes

Help students have the mentality that, “mistakes help us learn.” Whenever students make a mistake in math, celebrate it! When you are modeling math concepts in your lessons, make mistakes so students can know it is normal. 

They then know that they don’t need to be scared of making mistakes. Students can see if they don’t get it the first time, they can just try again. When students are not worried about making mistakes, it will decrease their math anxiety.

I also like to help my students see their growth. I create a little Math Progressing Booklet for each student. When they pass off math facts, students record it in their booklet. Then students can see their growth. They are encouraged to keep trying.

I hope you have been able to see that it takes simple, little steps to help students overcome math anxiety. To get a more in depth guide on how to increase math confidence with math facts, download my free workbook: The 7 Steps to Ensure Math Fact Fluency.