Pick Your Bucket

HOW A PARENT CAN SUPPORT MIDDLE OR HIGH SCHOOL MATH CONTENT CHALLENGES

Having addressed motivation, organization and relationships (M.O.R.) you can now address what you thought was the root problem, the math. While every student's challenges are different, as a math teacher I find difficulties tend to fall into three buckets: Trouble with concepts, problems with accuracy and a need for remediation.

Concept difficulties are perhaps the most frustrating for the student and most difficult to correct. For example Gail and Bob's son Jacob just can't seem to grasp the concept of using the sine ratio in his Geometry class. He's read the material and seen the instructor's lecture on the topic but it just doesn't seem to click. He's confused about how or when to use the sine ratio. Jacob is having trouble with the concept of the sine. Learning new concepts is difficult for most of us as it requires a balance of logic, analysis and flexibility on the part of the learner.

When it comes to learning new concepts, most students benefit from a variety of instructional practices including traditional direct instruction by the teacher, demonstrations, hands on activities and games. Better still is math instruction that is highly engaging. Some math classrooms seem to have a perfect match between teacher enthusiasm, math curriculum, student body and administrative support that results in an engaging learning environment.

What can you do to ensure a variety of instructional practices and an engaging math classroom? One option is to try to learn about the styles of the math teachers your son might have the next year then try to petition administration to place your son in that class. Another option is to enroll your son in a summer math preparatory course like those taught by Savvy Minds. The preparatory math courses provide a fun and engaging preview of core concepts in a highly engaging environment so students already know what they will learn in their upcoming math class before stepping into the classroom.

Susan enrolled in a Savvy Minds Geometry preparatory course and spent two weeks during the summer doing fun activities with her classmates like using the sine ratio to calculate the height of the school's flag pole. She won a prize for her estimate which was closest to the actual height of the pole. During the year she became sick with the flu and missed two weeks of school. Her summer preparation enabled her to complete her assignments on the sine ratio by reading the explanation in the book. She required no additional instruction. When she returned from her illness the class had moved on to a new chapter on congruent triangles but Susan had already been introduced to this topic as well and within a day was caught up to her peers.

Accuracy is a different ball game. A student who has a habit of not showing his work or who gets two concepts he understands pretty well mixed up on a test has an accuracy problem. It seems many math textbooks address this problem with drill and practice. Like learning to swing a golf club or ride a bike the approach is to simply do the activity over and over. In some cases it works. In others cases students become drilled to death as a result of focusing primarily on procedures at the expense of concepts and application.

While practice is one way to fix the accuracy problem, focus and double checking one's work is another. Many times a student is capable of finding and fixing his mistakes if he's willing to invest the time and attention to the task. Many math teachers are willing to give more time for more accurate work.

One recommendation is to establish a procedure with your son for him to follow during a test. Gail and Bob learned that Jacob liked to finish the test as fast as possible. Rather than fight his behavior, they created a plan with Jacob to work with his need for speed. The plan went like this: Jacobs was to do the test as fast as he wanted then turn it over and count how long it took him and how many other kids were still working. He'd record his performance then take a walk to the restroom while gloating about how fast he'd finished. He'd then come back for part two of the test. Part two required Jacob to redo the steps of each problem starting from the last problem and finishing with the fist. He'd then record the number of corrections he'd made. The plan worked. Jacob enjoyed being fast and finding errors. The two skills worked together to substantially improve his test scores.

Remediation focuses on the past and can be very helpful in finding misunderstandings and setting them straight. If you and your son are willing to make the investment in time and money, remediation can ensure a strong math foundation. This is a good option for some students and parents who make building a math foundation their highest priority. It can be a good fit for students who lack the confidence to progress into new math topics. For other parents this additional time and money commitment results in tough scheduling and financial choices. Especially when the remediation focuses on total mastery based on specific math assessment tests. Jacob's parents found the $2,500 cost for 50 hours of tutoring hard to swallow as well as the time conflicts with his basketball practice, their work schedules and afternoon traffic. The remediation solution was too intense for Jacob and his parents. Especially when Jacob's parents considered the fact that they just didn't have the time and money to both remediate for past skills and get Jacob help for his current Geometry class. Plus the remediation solution didn't have Jacob's buy in. Jacob found this sudden intense focus on math overwhelming. To him, the only thing worse than spending more time on Geometry was having to explicitly repeat 8th grade math topics until he mastered them. There was only so much math he could handle before he'd simply turn off to math altogether.

Our recommendation is to focus primarily on the current topic. In Jacobs case Gail and Bob focused on the Geometry, and provided remediation for specific topics that were directly related to ensure understanding of the current material. This gave Jacob instant results with his Geometry grade and kept him from burning out on math entirely. Most high school students don't master concepts until they have built upon them. For example, when Jacob finished Algebra 1 he was familiar with the topics in the course but hadn't mastered them until he enrolled in Algebra 2. In his Algebra 2 course Jacob had to apply the concepts he'd learned in Algebra 1. The more difficult Algebra 2 concepts prompted Jacob to reexamine the Algebra 1 topics he'd learned in his previous class. Likewise the Algebra 2 concepts Jacob learned weren't mastered until his subsequent Precalculus class. For students like Jacob, feeling good about math and continuing to progress through the math sequence is the key to building a successful math foundation.

Strive to Engage: Nearly every adult I encounter has a math horror story to share. The stories tend to be focused on at least one of the following key themes; math is confusing, math is difficult, math is demoralizing and math is boring. Whether the trouble is with concepts, accuracy or remediation, there seems to be a consensus that a more engaging math experiences do wonders for struggling students. When you look for supplemental math opportunities for your kids try to move beyond more drill and practice. Just as too much wood can kill the embers in a fire, too much rote work can kill the fire in your child. Look for ways to get inside their soul to rekindle their math spirit by keeping your eyes open for opportunities to engage them in math.