4 Steps You Can Do To Help Students Learn Math

 

The new school year is starting and I know of some school districts in the state who have already had to switch to distance due to an outbreak of Covid cases.  Once all the students have been tested, they'll move to a structure where half the students attend school each day but the four steps I'll be sharing with you today.

First off, ask students why at least once a day.  Ask they why the strategy worked?,  Why does it work in all these other cases?,  Why do you have to do this step?.  We know that students who memorize material do not perform as well as those who understand the concept.

When we ask students why, we are letting students know that what they are learning is contributing to their overall understanding of mathematics and overall ability to do it.  It also helps students see the overall bigger picture better. In a sense, it is showing students the tools and helping them understand how to use those tools while seeing that not all tools are used all the time or might be used in a slightly different way. It helps them understand the math rather than just learning to solve problems by rote.  It opens the door for deeper understanding.

Second, rather than focusing on the answer being correct or incorrect, take time to identify what the student did correctly.  This helps the teacher understand what they've gotten and what they didn't so the teacher is able to identify what the student needs scaffolding in.  It also helps the teacher build on what the student understands to take them to the next level.

When teachers analyze where the student got off when trying to solve a problem, it helps pinpoint where student understanding stops.  Furthermore, if enough students stray at the same place in a problem, it tells the teacher that they should either reteach the material or provide scaffolding so the students can move on while learning the material.  

Thirdly, consider using the textbook as a tool rather than as a major part of the instruction.  Find meaningful tasks in the textbook or change a problem into a meaningful task with a small change in numbers or contexts.  Unfortunately, most problems, even word problems in the textbook, are set up so they can be solved in exactly the same way as the numerical problems.  

We as teachers need to learn to change word problems into meaningful task problems.  A word problem generally has a specific set of numbers, one or more operations that the student uses to arrive at a single answer while a meaningful task often has less information with the possibility of multiple correct answers. Furthermore, they don't have key words to tell you the operation so you can't underline them. 

Finally, allow students to have the opportunity to solve a problem mentally before explaining how they solved it at least once a day. This means they don't use any pencils, paper, or digital device so as to improve their sense making, creativity while helping them feel as if they are mathematicians.

In addition, mental math helps students become more accurate with their calculations, it helps students develop a deeper conceptual understanding, it helps improve student memory, and helps increase SAT and ACT scores.

Making just these four changes will help students understand concepts better so they can improve their ability to do math and raise their grades.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  I'm going to be traveling to Sweden and Iceland over the next couple of weeks but I'll still be posting.  Have a great day.