One of my earliest memories of teaching a math concept to a struggling student was trying to teach one of my children fractions. It was the third or fourth day and I had pulled every idea out of the bag to help this child understand their work. They were getting frustrated and so was I! After all I thought what is so hard about fractions!!!! In desperation I rang a friend and went over for a cuppa coffee to regain my sanity and shared what had been happening in math class. She calmly called over my children did a quick lesson on fractions to which said child looked over at me and asked "Why didn't you just say that?" Oh boy ...
The greatest lesson I took home with me that day is that if they don't get it the way I teach it ask a friend. There is no one right way to teach math or any other subject for that matter. We all see the world in our own unique way.
History and Research on the Teaching of Math This article takes a fascinating look at mathematical learning and teaching over the years and how this impacts our ability to learn math easily. It has helped me be far more relaxed in my approach in doing math with Sir N. Our brain development plays an enormous role in our ability to learn math than we realize. I highly recommend this insightful article if you have a child struggling to cope with math.
Some solutions
- Step away from the text books for a while and play games
- Slow down. Sometimes the text book we are using moves along at a pace that may be just a little too fast for some students. Get to know your students learning curve and move at that pace.
- Use online games to learn math facts. Math facts do not need to be understood to be learned. This is route learning but plays a very important role in the highschool years.
- Play card games
- Use dominoes to learn math facts. Drill work.
- Ask a friend to teach a lesson.
- Ask the child to teach you (I have found this helpful as it helps to clarify their point of misunderstanding)
- Do practical math application learning. (banking, area, shopping, etc)
- Ask questions
- Keep the manipulatives for as long as possible. It's been shown that pushing a student to abandon the use of manipulatives hampers a students progress in later years when doing more complex equations. Manipulatives are very important in math competency. Allow the student to drop the use when they are ready.
On the Net
- Math Curriculum options
- Searching for the Perfect Math Curriculum ? by Julie Cerdas "Look for the right fit, not the perfect fit."
- Top 10 Ways to Help Your Kids Do Well in Math
- Jimmies top 10 math games
- Jimmies Ultimate List of Printable Math Manipulatives & Games
- Staying Alive...with Real Life Math Stories
- How do we fix math education ? Computer Based Math
- Six FREE Maths Resources over at Delivering Grace
- Math ... all about Math
- Meet the Squeebles app maths
- Let's Play Math! shares The Game That's worth 1,000 Worksheets "This blog is about the ongoing adventure of learning, teaching, and playing around with mathematics from preschool to pre-calculus."
- Math 4 Love shares “Help, my daughter hates math!”
- Pinterest Math
- Pinterest Math Worksheets
- Pinterest Math on YouTube
- What if my child hates math? at Inspire Math
I have enjoyed TED talks on the subject of math. They have helped me think through my preconceived ideas on teaching and learning math.
- Dr. Padmanabhan Seshaiyer - Mathematics, A Multidisciplinary Universal Language
- Dan Meyer - Math class needs a makeover Dan is a high school math teacher. Great insight about the differences between computation and math reasoning. Cause and effect of loss of reasoning. Really interesting talk. He shows how text books hamstring students learning.
- John Bennett - Why Math Instruction is unnecessary John is a home school Dad who is also a highschool teacher. This is one of my favorite talks.
- Arthur Benjamin - Lightning calculation and other "Mathemagic" Interesting show demonstrating how quickly math calculations can be computed. This one is more for fun :)
Conrad Wolfram: Teaching kids real math with computers
"Stop teaching calculating, start teaching math"
I would love to know your thoughts and how you approach math
Blessings
Chareen
This post is part of the Homeschool Help series brought to you by a group of homeschool Mom's from around the globe. Do not forget to visit and read their inspirational insight.
- Bernadette Learning Flexibility Via Math
- Julie Math Curriculum Not Required
- Savannah shares Math, Tears, and Frustration – Not the Perfect Arithmetic Trinity
- Lucinda How to Help Your Child Fall in Love with Maths (Even if They Hate It)
- Nicole When Math Brings Tears
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Thank you for this helpful post.
ReplyDeleteWe have often used the Khan Academy videos when someone else's explanation is needed. It is strange how often that is all that is needed.
We use a spiral approach to maths and find that often a topic that causes real trouble one year is fine the next. If it still causes difficulty, going back to the previous year's book and exercises usually helps.
Thanks for the great list of resources. I'm excited to check them out.
ReplyDeleteThose videos look great - thanks for putting all this together.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful resource list, Chareen! Sharing on Facebook page.
ReplyDeleteGreat resource list that I'm going to bookmark/pin for reference! One of the best things I've learned is that even (or especially!) with math, one size does NOT fit all. The curriculum we used in K-6 with the boys worked fine for them, but not for my daughter. The algebra the boys were doing worked okay but there was a world of difference between something that worked "okay" and finding the thing that really suited their style. And my daughter continues to need math instruction that is completely different in approach. Finding something that taught the way my kid's brain could comprehend makes a big difference.
ReplyDelete