As a mathematician, I feel that I should have the answers for anything and everything related to math. But I don’t. I do wish we all lived in the same small town, so that I could sit down with these children and see if I could reach them using any and every modality to teach them until it clicked…then I could teach YOU how to teach them.
I remember one time a boy I could not seem to reach. I could not for the life of me figure out what his learning style was. I worked with him everyday for 8 weeks…and the 8 weeks was almost over and I didn’t feel we were making significant enough progress except to identify problems. His mom sweetly kept trusting me, and I kept plugging away at it (what else could I do)…and then one day I went to working with him on neg and pos numbers and out of sheer desperation I went to the cabinet and got out some uncooked rice and pop corn kernals (not popped) and did my best (with no lesson plan or guide book but completely on the fly making it up as I went to teaching)…and click…just like that we had the ah ha…but it wasn’t ah ha…neg and pos numbers…though that came (I did send him home with two bags of our new manipulatives :-)…it was learning style. I am by no means an expert on learning styles, but in my lay experience I have found that most people have two learning styles…a dominant one and a secondary.
For instance, I am AUDIO (really strong audio…but my secondary is kinetic…I need to do it, touch it…etc.)…so writing something down in college put it right to my brain, cause as I wrote hearing the professor say it, I said it to myself as I wrote it and physically I manipulated that pencil and felt the scratching it into the paper…I am even thirdly a bit visual (much smaller) and after training myself for years as a mathematician to be more visual…I also saw it in my mind’s eye or even saw where the professor was standing in the room when he said it (one reason that sitting in the same spot each day can help some students). I rarely had to ever look back at my notes, because I was using my dominant, my secondary, and even my weak third learning modality.
Well, with this boy, I only ever discovered ONE style. It was kinetic. And because it was so dominant as to overshadow any others…if he didn’t act it out, touch it, move it, physically manipulate each and every thing for each and every concept…nothing happened in the learning department. NOTHING. When this light bulb exploded for me…and his mother later that day…we rejoiced. And sure enough the rest of the 8 weeks was great. I coached his mom, and when I heard back from her, math had become his favorite subject instead of the dreaded hated one.
I am telling you this to try to encourage you to not be weary in well doing. And dare I say it, not to rely heavily on curriculum. Sometimes curriculum is not necessarily the answer. They all have different sequences/scopes. And none of them are necessarily RIGHT. Take the time to think about how your children learn. Find ways to incorporate that into the lessons. This might require thinking, research, trial and error, asking for help, etc. Your child is an individual. The 3rd grade or 4th grade label is just that, a label. Don’t beat yourself up over the “grade” level they are at. Try to reach mastery of the basics before it is time for Algebra. I suggest trying to teach Algebra in 8th or 9th grade IF possible. SO ALL of the elementary and middle years can be spent getting the basics down (see previous posts about the basics—if can’t find, let me know.).
I wish I had the answers. I wish we all lived close. I wish I really could sit down with these children (someone would have to watch my littles! :-), and that I could help you come up with some real workable solutions. But since I don’t, please know that I know YOU can do it. And I will add you to my prayers. If ANY ‘woman’ lack wisdom, let her ask of GOD, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it shall be given her. AMEN!
May the Lord God uphold you during this time. Keep on pressing on!
Jo
