Comments for Learning Differences, Cognitive Challenges, and Best Practices - Resilience Based Educational Therapy

Comment on Math Homework is not a Hungry Lion: strategies for cultivating math skills and curiosity by Josh

Josh — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 23:50:05 +0000

I have to agree with your last point there, Rebecca. A lot of the problems I have when tutoring is the difficulty in figuring out conceptual errors, when it’s a hard problem. It’s a shame there isn’t a one size fits all solution to it, it would be really great to have one.
Fortunately, when I’m working on problems for students, I try to broadly approach an answer, with the intention of providing a lot of resources to practice with, something that isn’t necessarily done consistently with video approaches.

Comment on Math Homework is not a Hungry Lion: strategies for cultivating math skills and curiosity by rebeccaerobbins

rebeccaerobbins — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:32:51 +0000

First of all, thank you for leaving my very first comment! This blog is still hot off the press, and I feel encouraged by the well thought out feedback. Are you a teacher?

You’re right – it’s difficult to spot the conceptual cannons, and hard to tease apart the differences between poor visual processing, weak executive functioning, sheer boredom, and low number sense. I use 100′s charts and simple, but multi-step tasks such as the Sieve of Aristophanes as a way of learning how student around grade 4 to 6 thinks, follows directions, and approaches problems. I also watch for finger counting, and creative workarounds that fill in for a deeper comprehension.

The fact remains though, that unlike reading and cognitive processing, there’s no single surefire way to detect a weakness in mathematical comprehension.

Comment on Math Homework is not a Hungry Lion: strategies for cultivating math skills and curiosity by xiousgeonz

xiousgeonz — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:16:53 +0000

I like this list. I work with adults and it’s sometimes *really* hard to get things away from “what’s the answer!” but when they start taking control of math they recognize the value. Going back and teaching those “weak strands” is a real challenge because at this level, the procedural emphasis of the math courses makes it a little harder to diagnose conceptual canyons; often a student can make the numbers look like the examples and come up with the “right answer,” but if I ask why they didwhat they did… that awful panicky look sets in and I have to work on building enough confidence to think about why…