Middle School Math Fluency Toolkit
Strengthen mathematical fluency across Tier 1 and Tier 2
Too often, the skills students develop during intervention are not directly connected to the concepts and content of core instruction—making it difficult for them to build confidence and momentum toward grade-level success.
In our work with partners across the country, we’ve found that intentionally building students’ mathematical fluency is a powerful strategy for creating coherence across tiers and supporting access to grade-level content.
Introducing the Middle School Math Fluency Toolkit
We designed this toolkit to help instructional leaders and math teachers effectively plan and differentiate Tier 1 instruction and target specific learning needs in Tier 2—creating a more cohesive learning experience across tiers through shared language, representations, and routines designed to build students’ fluency.
The toolkit includes practical planning resources for intentionally building all students’ mathematical fluency by using familiar visual models—whether students are engaging with grade-level content in core instruction or revisiting earlier concepts during intervention.
What’s inside
1) Progression of Visual Models and Big Ideas Across Math Domains
This resource presents the progression of visual models and big ideas across key domains in grades 3–8, along with a reflection exercise to help educators deepen their understanding of mathematical fluency progression.
Teachers use a variety of models to develop students’ understanding of math ideas. Understanding the progression of big ideas across domains helps teachers make decisions about where to leverage visual models from prior grade levels to support students in addressing unfinished learning and accessing grade-level content.
2) Instructional Routines for Building Fluency
The toolkit includes two instructional routines that teachers can use alongside their curriculum to intentionally develop students’ mathematical fluency during Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction.
- Connecting Representations: Support students in connecting different forms of the same math idea (e.g., equations, tables, and graphs) to strengthen flexible understanding.
- Recognizing Repetition: Help students notice repeated steps or patterns in problems to uncover underlying structures and strategies.
We created companion guides for each routine to support planning and implementation. For both tiers, the guides include:
- Instructional planning questions and considerations
- Teaching strategies, student discussion prompts, and probing questions
- Post-instruction reflection questions