Before You Rush Out and Hire a Math Tutor Think M.O.R.

HOW A PARENT CAN HELP A MIDDLE OR HIGH SCHOOLER SUCCEED IN MATH

It's only October of your son's freshmen year and already he has a D in math. How could he fall behind so quickly. How will this reflect on the first semester of his permanent high school record? What might this do to his chances of getting into a reputable college?

As a high school math teacher I'd love to jump in and discuss learning math content, but the truth is that for most kids math content isn't the main reason they aren't doing well in math. Before rushing out to hire a math tutor at $60 an hour, do your own homework by stepping back and looking at the big picture. Doing so will benefit your son, cost you less money and address the biggest stumbling blocks first. Look more closely at your son's needs so that you can match his needs to appropriate resources. Is he motivated to do well in math class? Does he have healthy relationships with people who can help him with math? How good is he at organizing when to turn in work and when to study? Think about MOR : Motivation, Organization and Relationships before digging into the particulars of his Math Content challenge.

Seek To Motivate: Why is motivation so important? Because there has been a fundamental change is the type and quantity of student electronics and communication within the classroom and between the classroom and the outside world. Years ago parents complained that video games and TV competed for student attention during homework time. In many cases, that competition for attention has penetrated the classroom. Many teens have a cell phone with text capability and in some cases WAN Internet access. Students can be in constant communication. Thanks to text messaging the world of drama, emotion and distractions can now cross classroom walls at any time. Add to this the practice of sharing earphones on an IPOD and the stage is set for constant bombardment in the classroom. Learning math in this environment can be like attending a Weight Watchers meeting at a donut shop. Somehow students need to be able to focus on complex math concepts in this environment.

To successfully navigate these distractions each student needs a powerful motivator. Is your child motivated to take advantage of the math resources already available to him? Is there a reasonable connection between doing well in math and participation in the other things in his life he loves? If not it may be time to create that connection. In addition to motivation, now more than ever a student benefits from an experience with math that is engaging enough to contend with the wireless gadgets at his fingertips.

While the approach you choose is highly personal, one method is to fight fire with fire. That is, to appeal to the same social forces that tear a student away from homework. The following story illustrates how Gail and Bob used social incentives to change their son Jacob's paradigm.

Gail and Bob started the process in earnest in middle school. They were hoping for a residential college experience for Jacob. When Jacob was in 8th grade, they arranged to visit a college campus where their neighbor Tony was attending. They didn't get carried away with academics. This visit was intended primarily for motivational purposes. They arranged for Jacob to accompany Tony and his friends for a day, playing volleyball, listening to music, eating pizza and staying up late. They wanted their son to experience the social side of college. They arranged another visit during his sophomore year of high school so Jacob could see, feel, smell and taste the energy of the college campus and contrast it with his high school experience. The message stuck. While high school is fun, it pales in comparison to the freedom and community of college. Their son learned to work hard so he could play hard without a lecture from his parents.

Organization :

How well is your son managing the logistics of school work, tests and assignments? Is he using his class time wisely? With many schools on block schedule, students have an 8 course load each term. The schedule accommodates more schedule variety, more units for the students and higher quality lessons from teachers. This leaves your son with a tricky organizational challenge. Are assignments getting turned in on time. Does your son know when the next test is? Is he getting side tracked in the math classroom?

Weekly Progress Reports : It's amazing how simple these little pieces of paper are yet how seldom they seem to be used. At the end of each week your son brings a form to each class for his teacher to sign. The teacher writes the grade and a comment about missing homework, use of class time, etc. Tie an incentive to the report to ensure your son doesn't forget to have teachers sign it. Getting a running summary of his progress is only half of the purpose of the form. Equally important is the fact that your son knows he is being evaluated on metrics he has absolute control over like “use of class time".

Establish a communication plan with the teacher up front at the start of the year and stick with the plan. Too often parents don't start a progress check until it's too late. In many cases the progress reports wax and wane throughout the year. It's wise to do as much of the work as possible rather than assume the teacher will attend to the details. Create the report yourself and have your son walk the paper around to his teachers once a week. Check in with the teacher to be sure the format is reasonable and use paper as the medium for communication rather than email. Faster is not always better. Emails can leave your son out of perhaps the most important part of the process, physically interacting with the teacher and you and physically holding the paper showing his effort.

Build Relationships

For any assistance to be effective your child needs to be motivated to seek it AND open to receiving it. Most students aren't likely to learn the math content on their own. Rather they require human attention, understanding and explanation. The supporting relationship you're son needs requires a mixture of influence, patience, focus, availability, and knowledge. Some sources of help are by nature stronger in one area and weaker in others. Let's have a look at common sources of math assistance with these five qualities in mind

Parents: Ideally you need someone with a strong enough emotional connection to your son to have an influence yet display the patience to go at the same pace as your child and the ability to maintain focus on the content. This may describe some parent-child relationships. However, what many of these relationships lack is specific math knowledge and limited availability. The challenge for the parent is how to quickly become proficient in math concepts which change from week to week. While parents are totally capable of remembering or learning the math material, learning or remembering the material comes at a time cost that can exceed a child's attention span and cuts into a parents available time to help.

How can a parent quickly come up to speed on material they learned decades ago? One recommendation is to visit SavvyMinds.org. The free website has time saving math note cards like the one below that are great for parents. For example, all of the core concepts of a Geometry course are summarized on a single note card. A parent can just scan the card, find the concept their son is stuck on and read a quick summary of the concept. If a parent still needs more, the website also provides detailed lessons on each topic using a friendly pop-up menu. The menu allows a parent to search for topics by looking at sample problems from a list of topics because sometimes parents forget the names of concepts like "rational expressions" and "polynomials".

Savvy Minds Note Card

Peers: Can rate high on the influence and availability scales especially if the peer is a friend but a peer can be low in terms of patience ,focus and knowledge depending on the student. It's amazing how hard some kids will listen to a half baked math explanation from a friend. It's equally surprising how impatient and inarticulate peers can become when explaining math concepts to friends. Many peer tutors learn the fastest way around this challenge is to simply do each homework problem. The less back and forth conversation between your son and the peer tutor, the faster the assignment goes. Peers can be far more invested in navigating the complex and sometimes ruthless world of social relationships than communicating an explanation to a homework problem. As a result the focus tends to move away from math quickly to other areas of commonality like gossip.

Here is how you can help. Lets say your son tells you he's getting help from a friend. Getting help from a friend can mean anything from asking a single question to learning an entire chapter. Rather than taking it at face value, get involved in the tutoring process. One parent paid the friend wtih pizza. Of course the pizza came to their house. This enabled the parent to meet the friend and ensured that the tutoring took place in the home where the parent could confirm the quality and quantity of time spent studying. The tutoring took place in the kitchen where the pizza would arrive (and the boys would be plainly visible to the parent studying math). The friend shared the pizza with her son which meant she didn't need to make dinner for him. This turned into a regular weekly ritual that all parties enjoyed.

Teachers : Rate high in terms of knowledge , patience and focus but depending on the teacher, lower in terms of influence and availability in the eyes of the student. However, the teacher can do something no other resource can. The teacher can direct your son toward what to focus on specifically to attain the grade your son is after. The challenge is getting your son to warm up to a person who teaches the class he is doing poorly in. This is a particularly tough if your son hasn't been using class time wisely. It' can be easy for a student to associate difficulty with the math content with a conflict with the teacher's style.

One solution some students use is to ask another math teacher at the school for help. This allows the student to benefit from a knowledgeable, patient and focused instructor without the interpersonal challenges. Perhaps the biggest challenge is availability. With accountability for 150 students, teachers are clearly short on time. It benefits a student greatly to come up with a specific list of topics or questions he needs to discuss with a teacher. This is an area where you can help. Too often students don't know what they need help with or worse, they come to a teacher's office hours with a list of frustrations and complaints that require so much attention that there is no time to discuss content. Help your son sift through his emotional baggage before he comes to see a teacher.

Tutors: Can rate high in knowledge, patience, focus, influence and availability. This explains why you pay over $60 an hour for a decent math tutor. And of course like any professional coming to your home you're also paying for trust and integrity. It will benefit you greatly to figure out specifically what you need. Math tutor expertise, cost and availability vary greatly. You'll pay far more for a math major who is experienced working with your son's specific trigonometry book than a general tutor who helps in Algebra, science and social studies. On the other hand, if your son is having a trouble graphing lines, a general tutor may be the best fit. This is especially true if your son needs an academic coach more than a content specialist. Like most knowledge workers, tutors have to wing it at times. They may not be familiar with the book, the unit in the book or the teacher's style. This is especially true if you hire tutors on an as needed basis. A tutor may take some time to come up to speed on the material, book and your son's style. Too often parents hire a tutor after their son has fallen far behind. This puts strain on the tutor's ability to come up to speed on the material, stresses the budding relationship between the tutor and your son and results in your son cramming for his math class. This can be an expensive, ineffective and frustrating for your son.

One recommendation is to interview and select a tutor before you have a pressing need. The tutor selection process also serves the purpose of providing a forum for you to talk to your son about how he learns math and who he prefers instruction from. Most parents find teenagers to be far more receptive to discussion and assistance arrangements before a crisis than after they've received an F on a progress report. Just as you search for a tax accountant before tax season, having a tutoring arrangement made in advance will ease your mind and put you steps ahead should your son need extra help.

Learning Centers: Many specialize in providing focus, patience, influence and availability for younger kids . They can be less helpful when it comes to specific technical math knowledge because rarely are their tutors, who are paid $25 per hour, also licensed math teachers. Many learning centers focus on math education below Algebra 1 which can make them a poor fit for high school math students both in terms of expertise and in terms of educational culture. High school students aren't crazy about getting tutored in an environment where elementary and middle school students are present. The other challenge is that learning centers tend to have their own agendas. They focus on remediation using their own curriculum rather than digging into your son's math challenges in his his current math class. Also remember you're so is usually not getting 1 to 1 assistance as the tutor to student ratio tends to be 3 students for each tutor.

If you strongly suspect specific deficiencies in your son's math background, it may make sense to pay $45 an hour for these programs. Visit the center during business hours and take a look at the age of the kids receiving tutoring. Ask for specific examples of the high school math curriculum they propose to teach and which tutors specialize in teaching this group. Find out if the same tutor will be working with your son every session and what other subjects and students the tutor will be working with simultaneously. Keep in mind that many learning center programs have a remedial aspect to them.While some students gain confidence from doing repetitive problems they understand, other students loathe having to perform rote work they consider below their ability. If you're not sure how your son will respond, ensure that the program you enroll in will allow you to pay by the visit and is amenable to a trial relationship. Many programs offer a satisfaction guarantee which involves more free tutoring. These guarantees aren't very helpful if you've paid $1000 and have a boy who is turned off to the tutoring center. Finally have a clear picture of where your son will go after the program is over. Does your son's learning center tutor have the knowlede and availability to continue to tutor your son on classwork after the learning center program has ended?

No matter who you decide to help your son with his math, know that every resources option you choose involves participation, thoughtfulness and coordination on your part as a parent. By knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each relationship you'll be steps ahead. Once you've addressed M.O.R. (Motivation, Organization and Relationships) you're ready to dig into the math content.