Math Strategies Instead of Drill [Premium]

Math Strategies Instead of Drill [Premium]

by | Mar 27, 2022 | , , , , , , ,

In the many years Brock and I spent testing and listening to dyslexic students at every level of education, we often heard first hand accounts of how they learned how to tackle difficult subjects and bypass school-related challenges. As research studies bear out (for instance, see Kirby’s study of dyslexic university students), many dyslexic students in higher education have arrived at where they are because they are deep learners, savvy about how they learn best, and strategic in how they approach school.   Brain-Based Reasons Why Math Strategies Are Better for Dyslexics Than Drill But there is also neurobiological evidence that supports why strategies may be a superior route for dyslexic learning compared to drill or simple repetition. By now, anyone who knows about brain […]

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Education During the Pandemic: Preparing for the Unpreparable [Premium]

Education During the Pandemic: Preparing for the Unpreparable [Premium]

by | Feb 11, 2022 | , , , , , , , ,

As I am writing this, omicron cases have not reached their peak in the US, and calls for schools to close again because of the extreme contagiousness of this variant. How do parents, teachers, and tutors prepare for another unpredictable year?   ONE STUDENT AT A TIME If pandemic education has told us anything thus far, it’s that students will tell us what they need as much as any best laid plans. No matter what you decided for your students for the past year, reviewing what worked and what didn’t can be valuable going forward. If you have several children, you might have seen something work for one student, but not another. As before, the goals should be focusing on reasonable fits and not inflexible […]

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MATH: Learning Through Examples, Not Repetition and Drill [Premium]

MATH: Learning Through Examples, Not Repetition and Drill [Premium]

by | Jan 19, 2022 | , , , ,

“… children with dyslexia, because of disruption to left hemisphere language area, use a less optimal route for retrieval-base arithmetic, engaging right hemisphere parietal regions typically used by good readers for procedural-based arithmetic.” — Evans et al, 2014   TEACH MATH TO DYSLEXIC STUDENTS THROUGH STRENGTHS It was a research group at Georgetown University that first made the observations that a group of school age dyslexic students used a different brain strategy when doing single digit arithmetic. As it turns out, an area of the brain (left angular gyrus) implicated in some of reading difficulties associated with dyslexia is also the area of the brain that processes math learning through drill in non-dyslexic kids. So math drill may be the exactly wrong way to teach […]

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Getting a Sense for Numbers [Premium]

Getting a Sense for Numbers [Premium]

by | Dec 6, 2021 | , , , , , , ,

For many, math is a somewhat mysterious subject. From an early age, some students may stand out from others in their mathematical ability whereas others don’t and some may seem to have bewildering difficulty with even basic aspects of numbers and math quantity. The last decade has seen significant advances in our understanding of individual learning differences when it comes to math. If you are a teacher, tutor, or parent working with a student with math challenges, understanding the basic extent of the difficulty will help guide you about knowing how to help.   POOR NUMBER SENSE Poor number sense is a problem noticed at the very start when children begin working with numbers and quantities. A student may memorize how to count (“1,2,3,4…”), but […]

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Writing: How to Start [Premium]

Writing: How to Start [Premium]

by | Dec 5, 2021 | , , , , , ,

WRITING FOR THOSE WHO HAVE TROUBLE STARTING Dyslexic writers who have difficulty beginning to write often suffer from knowing too much and not too little. There will be challenges of spelling and putting ideas into words, but more often there are larger structural issues like how do I narrow what I know so that I can write what is being asked of me and where do I start with what I want to say? For students who may sit with a blank piece of paper or blinking cursor for hours, having a template for responses, developing a keyword approach like the semantic map in the previous article or mind-mapping big ideas may be a way to get the writing process started.   PRE-WRITING TEMPLATES Being […]

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The Strange Case of Reading Small Words [Premium]

The Strange Case of Reading Small Words [Premium]

by | Nov 7, 2021 | , , , ,

A parent may notice it first in a beginning reader or an adult who finds it exasperating when trying read aloud – why is it that the “small words” are so easy to skip or misread? It is a sign of dyslexia?   The skipping or misreading of small words can be associated with dyslexia, but can also be unrelated.   ONE POSSIBILITY VISUAL TRACKING AND “READING TOO FAST” Developmental optometrists have frequently identified visual tracking abnormalities and convergence insufficiency in school age dyslexic children. This does not mean that visual issues cause dyslexia – they just suggest that they may commonly be found in this group of child and therefore contribute to word or line skips. Students who feel pressured to read fast may […]

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Dyslexia Advocacy: Say Dyslexia 2.0

Dyslexia Advocacy: Say Dyslexia 2.0

by | Oct 14, 2021 | , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

From Chalkbeat's story, "NYC plans to screen nearly 200,000 students in the early grades to uncover struggling readers. Then what?"   "In a massive bid to gauge reading skills following COVID-related learning disruptions, New York City’s education department is...

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Understanding Conceptual vs. Procedural Knowledge in Math [Premium]

Understanding Conceptual vs. Procedural Knowledge in Math [Premium]

by | Oct 14, 2021 | , , , , , , , , ,

With math scores lagging tremendously due to pandemic-related school, many of us may suddenly find ourselves responsible for supervising (if not tutoring) math.   If that’s the case, it’s important to keep in mind the big picture of math learning. Of course the issue of conceptual and procedural learning apply to all subjects, not just math, but it especially becomes relevant when problem solving can become complex; symbols and abstractions must be used, and multiple steps for problem solving are necessary. There’s an especially nice description of the differences between conceptual and procedural knowledge in math from Ruthie Sloan’s Teach Math Literacy blog. Many of us learned math only through procedural learning. We didn’t learn “why” we did certain steps like “flip upside-down and multiply,” […]

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I Never Thought I’d Be Homeschooling… [Premium]

I Never Thought I’d Be Homeschooling… [Premium]

by | Oct 9, 2021 | , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

We never thought we would be homeschooling when we started almost 2 decades ago.     What our family can say today, is that looking back, we’re so grateful for our entire homeschooling journey – even though initially homeschooling chose us rather than the other way around. Today there are so many reasons to homeschool and ways that homeschooling can also be a good fit for dyslexic students, so take heart in the adventure ahead of you and may the coming year be one good surprise after another.   WHY HOMESCHOOLING CAN BE A GOOD MATCH FOR MANY STUDENTS   Schooling at an Individual Pace The first reason why homeschooling can be a good match for many students is that traditional schooling can be a […]

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