Ep 36: 6 Tips to Help Struggling Mathematicians

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Let's talk about seven tips to help struggling mathematicians.

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2016, I want to say.

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Hello and welcome to Making Number Sense Make Sense, a podcast for elementary teachers,

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specifically early elementary teachers, looking to really make an impact in the number sense

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of their students.

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Something you may not know about me is I'm actually a weightlifter.

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I have been lifting weights since 2016, I want to say.

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And let me tell you, the first time I walked into a gym, the two and a half, five pound

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weights were, might as well have been a hundred.

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But I kept going because it was a rough year and I just needed a way to decompress.

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And for me, it became a escape, kind of.

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And it's crazy when people say that because I never thought I'd be the person to be like,

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I really enjoy going to the gym.

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But now it's kind of like me time, nobody's bothering me, put my headphones in, get in

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the zone.

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And I'm doing things I never thought I would do, like squatting with a barbell, deadlifting

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more than my own weight.

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I never thought that that's something that I would be able to do.

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But when you keep doing something, you get used to it, you get stronger.

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And that's exactly what these seven tips will help your students do.

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Now these tips will help any student, but what you're doing with implementing these

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seven tips is giving them opportunities to make the connections between what you're saying

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and the concepts stronger, such that they'll be able to pull from them and develop deeper

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understandings about what you're saying.

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Enough chatting to the tips.

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Now I'm sure that as early elementary teachers, a lot of these might be things that you are

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already doing, but you can consider adding one or two new things to your repertoire to

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help students really remember and develop a deeper understanding of the concepts that

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you're working on.

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The first one is to use manipulatives.

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Manipulatives are the concrete, the first representation that your students need.

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And as kids get older, a lot of times those concrete manipulatives fade off.

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But a go-to if a student is struggling, make it concrete, make it things that they can

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touch and feel and move and use to support their thinking.

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The next is to involve emotion.

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If what you're talking about is so far removed, kids can't see any connection and they're

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already struggling, it's kind of an opportunity for them to check out and not consider what

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you're saying at all.

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Especially if you have students who struggle with attention, students who are learning

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a new language, there can be a lot going on that you're just saying to them that can go

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over their head.

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So if you involve emotions and stories and bring the concepts to life, it can help students

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remember and use what you're talking about.

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And in that same vein, you want to use all the systems that students know to take in

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information, to process information.

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Your working memory is not necessarily something that all students can access for whatever

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reason.

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So you're going to want to speak, yes, auditory, but also auditory in terms of music, sing

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songs, poems, things that rhyme, things that they can hear, that they can remember.

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Include movement.

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So it might be small movements, fine motor movements, or big movements to bring that

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together and again build that muscle, build those connections.

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So with our auditory, we're going to sing it, say it, and repeat it.

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And I don't just mean repeat the same thing over and over.

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There are things that kids need to hear repeated often to kind of get the flow.

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I've shared before that since I was an immersion teacher, I had two classes.

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So I would have one class that I would do math and science with in the morning, and

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then I'd switch with my partner teacher, and then we'd have another class that would do

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the same thing as the first class, math and science again.

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So I was doing the same lesson twice every day and counting to 100 every day twice was

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rough.

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I was just over it.

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I didn't want to do it anymore.

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But the kids needed to hear the number sequence over and over to really get it.

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Just like the alphabet song, just like any other song, kids might not be able to remember

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a number name, but they can sing for you entire songs because that's something that helps

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them.

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It's a way for them to remember.

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And when you can, leverage singing repeating in your classroom.

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Another is to use fingers.

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Fingers are a great tool for math.

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There's already 10 of them, which goes with our base 10 system, and it's 10 manipulatives

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that they won't ever lose.

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And studies have shown that students who are really proficient with making finger pattern

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when they're younger, that even when they're not using fingers, the same area of the brain

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that lights up when they're using fingers will still light up even when they don't need

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to use them anymore.

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So fingers are definitely something that you can encourage your struggling mathematician

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to use.

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The next is to get moving.

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Whether that be standing instead of sitting, or if you're using a number line or addition

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and subtraction, you're having kids hop forward and hop back.

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They can see, visually see a student hopping forward and backward to see the spaces and

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the person who's actually doing the hopping can feel the distance.

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So you're not just using your fingers to count, which you definitely should.

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So on top of using their fingers to count, they might use their whole body for counting.

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You can even use this when you are counting for every group of 10, have a new movement.

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So maybe you're clapping from 1 to 10, you're jumping from 11 to 20 to bring in the auditory,

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the visual, the movement, and so on.

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And the last thing that you want to try and do, the last kind of tip to help struggling

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learners is to get them talking, talking about what they're seeing, talking about their strategies.

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Word problems can be really difficult for kids, but if they have somebody to talk through

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it with, that can help them with their processing.

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And if you have students who speak another language, especially if they're explaining,

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it can be helpful to allow them to explain to their partner in their home language so

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that they can focus on the math that you're doing instead of trying to figure out what

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word they need to say to explain themselves.

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So sentence frames can help with talking if you're wanting those students to speak in

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English, but sometimes you just need to let them go in the language that they prefer to

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help solidify their understanding.

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So to recap, the seven tips were to use manipulatives, involve emotions, use a lot of systems, sing

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it, say it, repeat it, use fingers, get students moving, and get students talking.

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Now, hearing these tips, you might already be doing some, but I want you to think about

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one that you might want to add to your repertoire.

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And if you don't feel comfortable singing yourself, there are tons and tons of videos

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that you might want to use on YouTube for any math concept that you can think of.

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I hope those tips were helpful, and I will catch you next time.