“I hate math!”
“Math is too hard!”
“Why do we even need math?”
Have you heard any of these comments before? Sadly, I have heard them all and many, many more.
What’s the Problem
From my 25 years of experience, the problem seems to stem from fear. Not fear of the teacher, or of other students. Not even fear of cafeteria food. Fear of FAILURE! Why would a child want to go to a place where they constantly felt like they are drowning?
Being afraid to fail combined with too much technology, the state’s constant need to change the curriculum (every time we almost reach our goal, TEA moves the finish line), the “fun” stuff and the always dreaded state testing, students are hating school more and more. Let’s break it down.
Tech Time
Don’t get me wrong; I love technology. It makes life easier. Who doesn’t want to be able to look up random information and receive an answer in 2.5 seconds?
The problem is that it is hard to keep kids off their phones, computers and gaming consoles and get them to read a book or maybe study their multiplication facts. You’d think with all the apps geared toward education, including multiplication facts, that you would see an impressive number of students having memorized them.
You’d Be Wrong!
The truth is that I have seen a decline in the number of students that know their multiplication facts good enough to be confident in the classroom when solving problems. Why is that? No shocker, I have an opinion on this.
Many of the online educational games the kids can play have some sort of reward system where they get to advance in their game or what they can do with the number of correct answers. I assumed that this would be encouragement enough for my students to try their hardest.
Nope!
After the first few times of letting the students play an online math game, I noticed that the percent passing was very low. It didn’t matter that they were actually earning a failing grade on the assignment because they were still allowed to play the games. I wasn’t shocked that my struggling students were not passing, but I was blown away to see my top students were also failing.
Once I let them know I was able to monitor their progress and they would be reassigned the skills to complete again, they all started busting out the scratch paper and began working the problems out. Not surprisingly, all grades improved tremendously.
I’ll Never Be As Entertaining As That
Let’s be honest, I, as a teacher, am just not as entertaining as the latest game on the market. While teachers do their best to make lessons fun and exciting, there is only so much we can do before we have to get down to the business of making sure skills are taught.
It’s at this point that we start to hear phrases like, “This is boring!” Compared to the fast-paced gaming world, I can see where some students would not be entertained by 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication.
You Want Me to Teach What!
Don’t even get me started on the Texas Education Agency. The agency is continually revamping something. Teachers are constantly dealing with how to integrate new TEKS into their curriculum.
In 4th grade math, we have about a million (an exaggeration, but not by much) TEKS to teach. Yes, some TEKS are just supporting and have already been taught, but not everyone has mastered them. A lot of time is spent reteaching. We also have many new skills that must be introduced and taught to mastery. It is that last part that I feel like we are not accomplishing as much as we need to.
A Bright Idea (Just Kidding)
A couple of years ago, the state came up with the bright idea to move financial literacy to the 4th grade. On the outside, it sounds like a good idea. The problem is 4th graders don’t pay the bills or buy cars and houses. It is tough to get everyone to understand the difference between fixed and variable rates when it is not even in their realm of reality.
Wouldn’t the students’ time be more wisely spent learning how to complete division problems to mastery? I’m pretty sure the surgeon that performed my emergency appendectomy last year did not study financial literacy or how to create strip diagrams to solve word problems in the fourth grade. Spoiler alert: I lived! Just saying.
How the “Fun” Stuff Goes Down in the Classroom
While all the education gurus will disagree with me, I began to realize that all the extra isn’t helping ALL students.
Let me set the scene. Expanded form and expanded notation have just been introduced. You’ve explained the difference and have taken a few notes. You’ve glued some examples into your Interactive Notebook (Someone made millions off this idea!) which took about 15 minutes to accomplish because of an unfortunate glue explosion. We got that mess cleaned up, and the class practiced writing a couple of numbers both ways.
Next, you pass out half sheets of paper and have everyone write a 4-digit number. They crumble it up. When you give the go-ahead, they throw it up in the air and not at someone.
After you’ve dealt with that one kid who didn’t listen and chose to nail a student in the forehead from across the room, you have everyone pick up one “snowball” and change the number into expanded form and expanded notation, so they can present their results. Sounds simple, right?
Wrong!
There are typically 3 different outcomes.
Group 1: This is Awesome!
There is the group that will be able to crank out both with no problem. They totally understand just by listening. These are the students that already have a basic understanding of math and thrive on the competition of being able to finish first. They are secure in their skills and are not afraid to put themselves out there. These students love this type of activity.
Group 2: This is Kind of Fun.
The next group will struggle but get most of it right because they refer to their notes. I like to call these kids street smart. They use what they have around them to figure out how to survive. These are the ones that will usually take a little longer but will mostly get their answers correct. They are the rule followers that participate because their teacher told them to.
Group 3: Who’s Stupid Idea Was This?
Then there is the group that will look at you like you have been smoking crack. They are clueless. Some of them will try to use the notes to help, but they only copied what you wrote. They don’t have a clue what it really means. Others will just scribble something down. A few will even try to take a quick peek at their neighbor’s work to get an idea. Then there are those who will suddenly have to go to the bathroom, claim they feel sick and want to go to the nurse, or just burst into tears.
This is the group that would rather gouge their eyes out than participate in an activity like this. They just don’t have the confidence needed to be successful with that skill BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOT PRACTICED IT ENOUGH!
It’s the last group that really concerns me. This is the group that needs to practice a skill over and over and over before they can internalize it. But they don’t get the practice they need. Students have been rushed through the lesson to get to the “fun” activity because it was supposed yield amazing results. Instead, it has only caused some to fear math more.
Fear
As adults, we know that fear is something that holds us back. We understand that it needs to be overcome if we want to be successful in whatever it is we are doing. Now imagine a 10-year-old walking into a building 5 days a week full of fear because they know it will just be another struggle in math. Even I have had this feeling.
My story takes place approximately 39 years ago, when I was in Mrs. Fuller’s 3rd-grade class. The day of our multiplication test over the 7’s, 8’s, and 9’s facts had arrived. Our loving teacher would quiz us by flashing us the cards at the back table. If we answered incorrectly, she wrote that fact down on a piece of paper and we had to write them 100 times each. That is not a typo. ONE HUNDRED!!
The Walk
My heart started racing when Mrs. Fuller called my name. I can still remember the nervousness I felt as I walked to the stupid little horseshoe table. Nothing good ever happened at that table. (This is probably why I do not have one of those tables in my classroom!)
I had not prepared enough for the quiz. Those dang facts were tough. No one had bothered to teach us the nine’s finger trick back then. That would have helped a little. I wanted to throw up as the cards were flashed and the list kept growing. By the end of my “test” I had a list of 7 missed facts.
After school, I went straight to my mom with tears in my eyes because I had to write 700 multiplication facts that night. Her response went something like this, “Well I guess you should have studied more. Now get in there and write them.”
While studying more would have definitely helped me that day, that isn’t always the case for every student. Sometimes, it is not about their effort. The problem is that they take longer to internalize skills, and the fast-paced classroom is a constant source of anxiety. Again, they just need more of what we don’t have enough to give: TIME!
The Worst 4-Letter Word in Education: TEST
Today’s math class has to move fast to get everything taught. I remember the Good Ole Days when I could spend two weeks on the multiplication process. Now we can only allow a matter of days for each skill. We have to move on to the next topic to make sure all skills are introduced by standardized testing time.
I sometimes feel like my only goal is a test and not whether or not my students are able to apply all math skills. Sorry! No time to practice. Got to move on to the next topic. The test will be here before you know it!!
When Art Imitates Life
A line in the book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix spoken by Professor Umbridge always makes me think about education today. She says,
“Now, it is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination, which, after all, is what school is all about.” (Rowling, 2003)
That last part gets me every time. Raise your hand if you have felt this way! School is perceived to be all about testing.
In the movie, the students decide to take it upon themselves to learn and practice the basic skills they need to defend themselves.
While I don’t think we need to defend ourselves against the Texas Standards, I do think some students need more time to practice the basic skills so they can protect themselves against the anxiety caused by having to complete tasks with just a vague understanding of the necessary math concepts.
The Result
Kids are struggling more and more, and parents and teachers are struggling to come up with ways to help them. I have comforted many parents while they cried during parent/teacher conferences because they can’t figure out how to help their child do 4th grade math.
I started wondering…
Why Didn’t My Kids Struggle with Math?
My three kids never really struggled in math. My husband and I have successfully graduated one, and the other two are efficiently navigating high school.
I’m not saying there were never issues, but theirs were more like speed bumps as opposed to road blocks. After spending some time contemplating why our kids were generally successful in math, I came to the realization that it was because both of their parents are math teachers. So, in essence, they got to take a math teacher home.
When there was a problem, I didn’t bust out a box of manipulatives or a high-yield strategy. I sat down with them and went over the process with them again and again. Then I made them practice it until they had the confidence needed to be successful.
A Few Suggestions
Although it can sometimes be a slow process, it is possible to create confident students who no longer fear stepping through the door of the math classroom.
Here are a few suggestions to accomplish that:
- Depending on their grade level, have them memorize their math facts. Start when they are young and have them memorize their addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. Test them on their facts. This may sound harsh, but make them write the ones they miss. I’m not saying it has to be 100 times each, but make them write them multiple times.
- Go over their homework with them every night. This allows you to catch mistakes and any misunderstandings about concepts.
- If they do struggle with a skill like multiplying large numbers or long division, sit with them and go over the process step by step. Then give them additional problems to solve in order for them to master the skill.
- Your child needs to read every night. Yes, a math teacher is recommending reading to help develop math skills. Solving math problems requires a lot of reading. Students need to have a good grasp of the written word so they can decipher what a problem is asking.
Something A Little Different
Helping your child get caught up or get ahead will be worth every minute of time invested. While parents typically have the best intentions when it comes to their children’s education, life can get in the way. Sometimes families will choose outside help for their kids. There are many tutoring options online and in person to help struggling students in all educational areas.
Having a little different perspective on the educational process, I came up with a solution to helping elementary math students. It is basically a way for students to be able to take a math teacher home. I have created multiplication courses that are in video format and allow students to follow the step-by-step process for multiplying numbers. If you want your child to have more help, but don’t always have a lot of time in the evenings, give a couple of my FREE video courses a try.
