I generally have tutored high school algebra and trig to students who are wanting to get ahead or who are at least have the knowledge necessary to learn the current topic. Currently as a favor to a friend I am helping her 5th grade daughter but I am finding that she is missing some of the building blocks that she needs to do the 5th grade math.
For example, they are currently converting fractions to mixed numbers (i.e. 22/7 = 3 1/7) but she isn’t proficient in division. The math book they are using is no real help. It’s basically a collection of worksheets that are great if the student is versed with the fundamentals but are no help to her. It also jumps all over the place, I can see doing it this way to keep the student from getting bored but it’s not helpful in her case. Because of this she’s falling further and further behind and mother and daughter are both getting extremely frustrated.
I’m not sure that this is due to a learning disability of some sort but as there are problems in other subjects, I suspect there might be. At some point I need to broach that subject with the mother (I know ADHD seems to be diagnosed for everything but she does seem to have problems concentrating.)
Can anyone forward me to resources for assessing what we need to work on to get her caught up to her current grade level?
In addition, we’re struggling with how to handle her current classroom requirements in math since she doesn’t know how to do them. I guess what I’m asking is whether anyone has any suggestions as to how to balance the teacher’s requirements with the need to slowly catch her up. Would prefer not to make things worse :)
Re: Starting over with fundamentals
Thanks for the reply, we’re going to look at CostCo for the math workbook today (I remember them having them.) Also looking for math software (she just got a computer and maybe that would be fun for her.)
Re: Starting over with fundamentals
Good luck.
Just a caution on software — avoid speed procedural drills, which are either going to cause stress or else produce another pretend success, with a worse crash later. Software has the ability to have wonderful visual presentations, but someone has to care enough to do that and make a high-quality program.
Ask me again any time.
Re: Starting over with fundamentals
The one I’m looking at is Elementary Advantage 2005 from Encore Software:
[url]http://www.encoresoftware.com/dbdriven/detail.aspx?sku=31300&category=education[/url]
unless I find something that seems better. Are there any sites that give good reviews?
I guess a major part of it is making sure that she doesn’t get too dependent on the computer for knowledge and encouragement. I just wanted to make sure that I don’t push to get her math skill level up too quickly so as to frustrate her.
Re: Starting over with fundamentals
You’re absolutely right about pushing and frustrating. WHen in doubt, slow down.
You may not get to where she “needs” to be. WHat usually happens is there’s a brief illusion of arriving at that point — based on lots of procedural repetition of something utterly un- understood, or too often mis-understood. Then the student is expected to proceed gaily forward (or straight ahead :-)) as if there were mastery — only since there isn’t, that procedure is forgotten and other procedures are confused further, and the idea that she “just can’t do math” is hammered ever so much more thoroughly into her mind.
It’s a travesty, because she *could* have actually*learned* something that made sense. You know, “I understand this, this *has* to be the right answer.” THat feeling that too many people can’t remember having when it comes to math…
So stick to the basics. (Note to people who are rending their hair in the name of “all” those students who “understand the concepts but just can’t show their work” — that’s a bit of a different issue. THis kiddo doesn’t understand the concepts. YET.)
Re: Starting over with fundamentals
Had a look at your site and printed out the multiplication table. Realized that one of the things we’d get hung up on is her guessing.
Yeah, that is one major thing, I’d rather students understand than memorize. A certain level of memorization is important (multiplication tables would be one of them), but thinking about what your site said, yeah it’s better that they use the crutch than just guess, eventually the memorization will come (I’m paraphrasing.)
Re: Starting over with fundamentals
And an interesting thing about those tables — I put the chart there because a couple of (college educated) people told me that they only knew their tables because they could remember the numbers on the chart. (They also understood the numbers; the increasing by a little more for each number made sense to them. It wasn’t raw rote visual memorization.)
Other folks need the “fact” connected to it — if it doesn’t say 8 x 7 then it doesn’t mean 8 x 7. Generally I let studetns work with the one that they prefer and athen every once in a while have ‘em switch to get that cognitive flexibility :-)
The rule in math is that you can never build a good house with holes in the foundation. It will fall down, guaranteed. Some people prop it up for a year or two but that just makes the final crash worse. Math is cumulative and there is no way around that.
When I get a student like this, I go out and buy a basic practice workbook. One that is readily available in department stores and bookstores is “Complete MathSmart” for each grade. It is not a great program, but it is oodles of practice in each needed skill, and that is what she needs now. I am sure there are many other titles. The main thing to look for is a big thick book with lots of varied practice and lots of different physical illustrations, not a little thin booklet that shows things once as a quick trick. I get both the year the student is in and the previous year — sometimes even two years back in severe cases.
Then I start with stuff the student has 90% mastered and work through at least a couple of pages each half-hour session. The student gets in the habit of understanding and being correct and then is ready to move forward. We do all the pages on each topic we are studying, and we do every exercise on the page (practice is the goal!) but we don’t follow the books absolutely; since this is review, we choose the units or chapters we need.
In your case, I’d start back with the Grade 4 book and review the multiplication and division facts and the basic meaning of fractions, then work up to remainders (which you need for the present job), then gradually work into what you are doing now.
By the way, if you’ve taught trigonometry you know the absolute necessity of visualizing. It is astounding how badly many students visualize, and in particular with fractions they have no idea whatsoever what they mean or how big they are. I was tutoring one Grade 7 student in December who had finally memorized some recipes for fractions, but I found out when he was supposed to put 3/4 and 5/4 on a number line that he had not a clue what these things were. This particular student is quite bright and grasps concepts quickly, but when he is taught rote recipes they slide out of his brain as fast as they go in. I have had some success in his algebra with working hard on concept development with him — which was then undercut by the school teaching him quick tricks, but after he failed the test badly I was able to get him back to actually thinking.