Monday, September 24, 2012

Noticing Blog Week 4- Berger


One memorable experience that occurred last Friday was when we were working on double-digit multiplication. The 5th grade students use a spiral math curriculum at this school, which I personally find to be very frustrating. Some of the students don't fully know their higher number, one-digit math facts so it makes it very difficult to move on to two-digit multiplication. We really need to practice a lot so that it just becomes habit. They understand the general concept but forget to put a zero when they go down to the next line, or when a number needs to be carried. One particular incident with this math was when I noticed that one girl was getting very frustrated. I went over to her and she said she just didn't understand why it wasn't working and that she really doesn't like multiplying. I explained to her that multiplication is just a lot of practice and eventually it will become a lot easier. She asked if I could tutor her after school, but with my schedule unfortunately it wouldn't work. I said that if she wanted extra help, I could help her during recess. These kids really enjoy their recess so I was shocked when she eagerly said, "Yes, please!" That afternoon I met her outside and we sat on a bench while the other kids were running around playing. I slowly explained the process of two-digit multiplication and worked out a problem first so that she could see the order in which to perform the task. Then I had her do problems by herself while I watched so I could see where she was making errors. After she made an error I would have her pause and ask why she did that. She then would figure out her mistake pretty quickly and re-do the problem. After a few times of making similar errors and then fixing them, she really began to understand where she needed to correct herself. I told her that she could go play once we got 3 correct in a row. Just as the students were lining up for lunch she had done 3 correctly. I could see how proud she was that she had learned how to multiply in less than 30 minutes. It was so adorable/touching that she was wiling to give up her only recess time of the day in order to learn the math that she was having trouble with. I also felt a sense of accomplishment that I was able to help her understand this concept in such little time.
It is important that this student has a desire to learn and was motivated enough to miss her recess. I think it is also important for students to occasionally have individual instruction for clarification purposes. Sometimes a student just needs to explain their problem and receive some extra instruction with extra practice. It is not only important for students to recognize that they are struggling and need extra help, but for the teacher to realize this while they are still at an appropriate place in the unit, and not too far along. I was able to understand what was going on, mostly because she came to me for help and explained her confusion. Also, as she was doing the problems, I was either able to see what she was confused on while she was doing the problem, or looking at her work after she was done I was able to see where the errors were. The larger principle is that sometimes students just need some extra time with a teacher one-on-one in order to actually understand a concept. Also students will learn better when they are motivated to do so. In this student's case, she was clearly motivated to perform better in math and learn multiplication because of what she chose to miss out on in order to improve.

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