Math Strategies

Math Strategies

It’s all about work habits.

Learning opportunities: 1) when direct instruction is presented; 2) during one on one tutoring which happens every day; 3) when the students work with their peers on the daily lessons; 4) when the daily lessons are graded; 5) when the homework is completed; 6) when the homework is graded; 7) when the chapter tests are completed; 8) when the chapter tests are graded; 9) when the unit tests are taken; and 10) when the unit tests are graded. It's all about finding out which problems the students don't know how to answer correctly. Then get the teacher or another person to help go over the problems again. Reteach. Multiple times until the concept is UNDERSTOOD. That's more than ten learning opportunities to learn how to do each math concept.

Students should read the lesson and learn the new terminology highlighted in yellow. If they get stuck on a problem, they should read the lesson and think through the examples given.

Students should save their lessons from each day with the incorrect problems they have circled. They should also save their worksheets with the incorrect problems identified. The students should find out what they did wrong so they can learn how to do that particular kind of problem. They can find out from the teacher, another student, or a parent. Parents should ask to see these lessons and worksheets to verify that their child has learned the concept.

Students need to grade their homework in their workbooks and follow the same procedures to learn how to do the problems they had incorrect. Once a week, parents should review the math workbooks to see if they were graded and the problems that were incorrect were identified and learned how to do correctly by their child. Students need to do the homework every day, and stay up with the class when they are absent.

Students should save their chapter tests and review every problem they had wrong.

Parents can help students be organized by checking that their child has the daily lessons and numbered scratch worksheets; their homework is completed when due and graded; returned tests are reviewed.

Some of the problems most teachers notice are: students are not raising their hands and asking for help; students are wasting time and socializing during the daily lessons; students are absent a lot; students don't know their math facts including multiples; students don't write down formulas and do the problems in steps; students don't show their work, many students do too many problems and steps of problems in their heads and not on paper; students are trying to do computation on the printed page, 12 font is too small for accurate regrouping; students write too small, write sloppy numbers, and don't write straight columns; students are not carefully reading the problem or test question; and some students need to learn the meaning of key terms.

The teacher needs to establish a regular routine and pace the class to finish the textbook by the time standardized testing and placement tests start, which is in the middle of April. Teachers can not allow picture day, field trips, and other school activities from preventing their students from working on math at least one hour per day.