With many states ordering schools to remain shut for the remainder of the school year AND the prospect fall quarter may also be waived, there are certainly going to be gaps in math education. Parents and teachers must try to make as intelligent decisions as they can...
“LIKE” Terms in Algebra Don’t Let Words Get in the Way
Many students get confused about "like" terms in Math, but it's not their fault. The terminology is confusing. Purple Math has a nice page on this post. In Algebra, "like terms" refers to terms that have the exact same variable raised to the same power. WATCH YOUTUBE...
Learning Doubles to Boost Math Facts Fluency
Learning doubles math facts can help with number flexibility. After learning how to count and "count on", doubles may be the next skill to learn. Origo Education has a nice post about how to introduce and practice doubling facts with students. First, students look for...
Understanding Decimals
WHY DECIMALS ARE HARD There are many confusing aspects to decimals that are helpful to recognize when helping students. Contrary to working with whole numbers, longer sequences of numbers are not larger than shorter ones. For instance, with whole numbers, 245 is...
MATH: The Problem of Showing Work
At right are the states that have adopted Common Core State Standards. If you live in a Common Core state and your student attends public school chances are they frequently are asked to "show their work". There can be significant challenges for dyslexic students...
[PREMIUM] Could you have a MATH-GIFTED Student?
It’s really not easy to tell. “Some mathematically gifted students do not demonstrate outstanding academic achievement, display enthusiasm towards school mathematics programs, or obtain top grades in their mathematics classes. It is important to know that there are such students, because their abilities in mathematics are easily overlooked by teachers and parents. In Bloom’s 1984 […]
Don’t Let Working Memory Prevent Math Learning
We don't spend enough time thinking about how much working memory overload could be impact in learning. In math, the issue is especially dire. CALCULATIONS In the early grades, working memory overload can occur when basic math facts can't be learned to the point of...
Dyslexia and the NEW SAT [Premium]
The new SAT started March 2016. From the New York Times, “What’s true of the writing section is true of the new SAT in general: There’s much more to read. “The most fundamental change is that there are many, many more words,” said Aaron Golumbfskie, education director for PrepMatters. “If you don’t read well and […]
Teaching Math – No Need for Speed
"What do teachers need to know about teaching math? Strategy over speed, and math thinking over rote memorization." - Stanford Professor Dr Jo Boaler Check out Jo's tips from her new article, Speed and Time Pressure Block Working Memory (below). "I was always deeply...
Too Much Homework for Dyslexic Students [Premium]
Teaching Common Core Academic Vocabulary to Students with Dyslexia [Premium]
Academic Vocabulary are words that usually appear in higher educational settings or advanced texts rather than everyday conversational speech. Before the Common Core, most language arts programs had little emphasis on explicit teaching of academic words, but direct instruction is often very important for students with dyslexia because it contributes significantly to test performance and […]
Executive Function: What Smart People Do Differently While Learning [Premium]
When researchers compared high IQ and average test subjects in a learning paradigm, the results were surprising. In some areas high IQ individuals work less, as might be expected by the idea that higher IQ people have more efficient brains for learning tasks, but in other areas, high IQ brains were working harder. When were […]