Making Math Work for Under-Achieving Students

Earlier this month I attended a workshop hosted by SDR (www.SDResources.org) called Making Math Work for Underachieving Students. This workshop was presented by Steve Leinwand

In this case underachieving students are the students that tend to get “left behind”. Their home life may be such that there is no one home to assist them and they haven’t grown up in a “math rich” environment. Here are ten strategies for making math work for underachieving students.

1. Embed the math in contexts and problems.
Which is more interesting to solve?
1. F=4(s-65)+10 Find F when S=81 or 2. The Speeding fine in Vermont is 4$ for every mile per hour over the 65 mph limit plus $10 handling fee. What would the fine be if I was pulled over at 81 mph? The context of the problem helps keep students interested. Another example would be: A Big Mac costs $2.23, how many Big Macs can you get if you have $10. vs divide 2.23 by 10. Both of these problems require division but there is more thought required for the first problem than the second.

2. Incorporate on-going cumulative review into instruction every day
Give a small mini quiz everyday reinforcing past concepts and number sense skills. Five to eight questions will provide enough practice to reinforce their learning.

3. Create a Language Rich Classroom
Just like we create word walls for language arts classes, we can create them for our math classes. These walls will help students increase their math vocabulary and learn to speak the language of math. Look at the standardized tests that use for vocabulary words that might cause trouble for your students and focus on those words. Include the language of math in classroom discussions throughout the day.

4. Use every number as a chance to build number sense and reasonableness.
Use numbers from the problems they are solving to build number sense. Ask them to list three things they can tell about a number. Ask them to put numbers in order from largest to smallest.

5. Draw pictures, create mental images, foster visualization so that numbers make sense.
Drawing pictures helps students to visualize the math concepts you are teaching. Encourage them to show fractions in different ways.

6. Build from graphs, charts and tables
This strategy works well with building number sense. Have students tell you five things about the graph they see. Have them try to guess where the data comes from

7. Tie the Math to How big? how much, how far?
Measurement skills are often weak skills for students of all ages as they are generally left to cover at the end of the year. By including these skills in every lesson they have a greater opportunity to improve them.

8. Adapt what we know from Reading. Incorporate literal, inferential, and evaluative comprehension to develop stronger neural connections.
Ask questions to help your students make sense of the problem they are solving. Questions such as: How did you get that answer? Why? Can you explain? Convince me? Is it reasonable? all help to increase their understanding. Encourage different approaches to solving problems.

9. Omit what is no longer important.
Look through your standardized testing materials and see which benchmarks/standards count the most and focus on those concepts.

10. Make questions such as: why, how do you know, can you explain, convince me as classroom mantras.
Asking questions such as those listed above helps students to clarify their understanding of the concept being taught. Its also good to ask them to give multiple answers. Asking follow up questions such as: Can you tell me another way? How else do you know this is true? will help all students’ understanding. These questions can also be used in other subjects to extend your students thinking.

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