David / Math Status

Something wonderful is happening in the Algebra II / with Trig course - David is starting to get it much better than before.

As not only his teacher, but his accommodation, I have done more hand holding than ALEKS recommended. This was done deliberately - and with the knowledge that it would have to change. This year, as David is coming up on times when he will have to test independently for various things, I have been using some of the ALEKS features - mostly quizzes but also Worksheets - to get him to do the math without the "crutch" of either Grandma or the online ALEKS environment. And I told him he would have to do his Assessments all on his own - no Grandma to interrupt with comments like, "Watch the signs!" or "you remember, we did that kind of problem - here is an example" during it.

His first Assessment result was --- less than stellar. He "lost" most of the pie pieces he'd earned since the last assessment. (David tends to rush through things and either skips problems or makes careless errors.) His quizzes were a tad bit better; I also have started giving "timed" quizzes - 5-10 quick problems with a 10 minute limit. The first of those he panicked about and did not do well.

"David," I admonished, "the purpose of the timed quizzes is to get you used to doing them and NOT worrying about the time. Next time, please take the time you need to do the problems RIGHT, and don't worry if you don't finish them all. These are just there to help you learn to take the tests."

I like ALEKS but in my book it does not really "force" the kids to understand the topic - it lets them learn the "pattern" of how to do it - for those of you who have gone through calculus, think of learning how to differentiate a function mechanically without understanding what's going on - so I have been stopping the online lessons, moving to the white board, and taking the time to help him understand what's happening (at least, I hope that's what I'm doing ...).

Over the past month or so,  he has improved immensely. His last three timed quizzes (10 problems) he has gotten 90%, 100% and 90%; his last "recent knowledge" quiz he got an 88%. In the past he was averaging a "D."

But better yet - he did his last Assessment this morning. As of his prior assessment, he had 77 pie pieces. During the Assessment - I was sitting nearby - I heard him talking to the work, and occassionally saying, "No, no, no .. it's NEGATIVE" and equivalent remarks.

Right before the Assessment started, he had 97 pie pieces. After the Assessment? he had 97 pie pieces!!! When  I looked at the detail, he had "lost" one piece on a section he'd covered - and gained one piece of something we have not "had" yet!! This is the first time he hasn't lost at least 1/4 of the pieces he'd earned during the learning sessions.

Wow!

Tidbits

Mikey says ..

Mikey has limited verbal skills and issues with things like time and tense. He does know his phone number. He will dial the number but does not like to "wait" for ringing and answering, so he'll hand you the phone. If you hand it back, he will hang on.

On the days the boys are with us, we always have one of them call Mom right before we leave to let her know we're on our way. Mikey has learned some patterns: "Hi, How are you." etc. On the call-to-let-Mom-know-we're-on-our-way, he often adds, "Are you coming home?" I think Mom will repeat the question back, and then he'll say, "Yes."

Similarly, when Mom drops them off, there is a "leaving" routine - hugs, and something on the order of, "Bye-bye. I love you. See you tonight." Yesterday, Mikey added, "No smoking!"

Must be something he is learning in school - Mom hasn't for a while and Grandma and Grandpa never did. I don't think any of the aides/therapists do around Mikey (even if they do elsewhere).

In addition to that, Mikey is growing up - there are signs AND he has taken a great deal of interest in anatomy - his, and other people's. Last night, at bath time, he announced, "Shrek has a green [named male anatomy part]." I don't know for sure but my guess is, he's right!

David and Math and Attitude

We still don't know - even though David is much for advanced than Mikey - what really sets him off sometimes. Friday, he was totally Mr. Attitude and didn't want to buckle down to do math. Part of it was there are some hard concepts that are just a struggle for him; part is impatience. Both Mom and I came down pretty hard: She told him that if he didn't fix his attitude, he'd lose both his favorite video game and Mac privileges for the day. And after she went to the store some of it continued until Grandma said, "David, we are going to stay here and do this until it's done, even if it takes hours."

Things improved after a while. I did try to probe what the issues were but David was not able to verbalize them (not sure he could identify them either).

Friday he had an assessment and did reasonably well; Saturday we started new material. If you had seen him Saturday v. Friday, you would have thought you were looking at a different kid. Cooperative, happy and he GOT it. Bunches of stuff. Multiplying monomials, factoring quadratics, perfect squares, etc. It just worked.

After our Saturday session, I create his assignment for the week. He is expected to do some math every day. I had been assigning review items. For a change, I've assigned him NEW pie pieces (ALEKS math program) instead of review. And I think he's going to do just fine with them. There is one that is a bit of a challenge ... we shall see!

Assessment!

Lost 2

GAINED 12!

Got another email from David. I Lost 2 Pie Pieces :-\ but gained 12 :-$ , so i really have 10. :-)

Woo-Hoo!!

Periodically, and without any warning whatsoever, ALEKS presents an assessment. Once that happens, you cannot do anything else - including looking at the Dictionary or Review items - until you have completed the Assessment.

For the past few assessments, David has gained and lost roughly an equal number of pie pieces (see earlier blogs for more info on ALEKS - http://www.aleks.com). My assessment is that he is not retaining some of what he has learned. Mind now, he has retained a LOT. I hear it when he gets a problem on an assessment and says, "That's easy."

But ALEKS does not give a person as much review on items as a regular classroom might. Which is fine IFF you GET it and REMEMBER it. So I have approached the issue this way. Each week I assign 10 lessons from ALEKS (they are not that long). I select 7-8 from the REVIEW topics, and then 2-3 new topics for David to try. David is reponsible for completing them and recording what he's done. He's also to let me know what gave him problems. On Friday (my regular teaching day), we look at what he's done and spend time on the ones that gave him problems. Then we usually do 1-2 new pie pieces together.

I am assuming this is working! given the fact that, per his assessment, he was up 10 pie pieces for this review period.

HORRAH!

"40 millimeters does not equal 6 meters!"

David was interesting with math this week. One set of problems we worked on related to proportions and used the notion of map scale. David uses an online math program called ALEKS. He read the problem, said, "I don't understand" and pushed the "Explain" button. He went right to the mechanics of doing this problem - I could see he didn't really understand. He (and his brother) are very good with patterns, so he can learn "how" to do a problem without learning the underlying concepts. The Evil Math Grandma made him stop looking at the screen so we could talk about What Was Going On in this set of problems.

Starting out with 40 millimeters = 6 meters caused him enormous angst and discombooberation. He raised his voice (not yelling; this is his I'm-going-to-talk-fast-and-loud-because-this-disturbs-me voice). "Forty millimeters is not 6 meters! That's stupid! I don't get it! You're trying to make me to busy work!"

I tried, "David, do you know how wide the United States is?" "No." "About 3,000 miles. If we were to draw it that big, you wouldn't be able to see it. So when we draw it, we ...." Let's just report now this approach did not work.

This did - well, it did enough for today. I have a sneaking suspicion this is a concept we'll go through again.

"I'm going to draw a picture of David. [standard stick figure here; I'm not an artist, and won't pretend to be one!] Does this look like you?"
(Giggles) "Yes!!"
"Let's see, this figure is about 1-1/2". How tall are you?"
"Five feet."
"Ok. This 1-1/2" represents th 60" tall that you are. How tall is Mom?"
"She's 5' 10"."
"Ok. So if I want to draw Mom in the right proportion to you, how tall would she be?"
We then went through the example and drew "Mom" and were able to understand the math problems.

David and the "Important .5"

David is being home-schooled. He is learning math from an on-line program called, "ALEKS." It's a pretty decent program with a lot of interactive / response code built. For example, if he fails to get a problem right, he will have to practice the problems associated with the concept more times; if he gets it quickly, he will only be required to do 2 exercises. There is an "Explain" option that explains the concept and walks through how to solve the problem.

The issue with David is that he learns the steps and does not always get the "concept." This is where Grandma comes in.

On this particular day, the program wanted David to calculate the surface area of a prism. He wanted to jump right in.

"David, how many sides does this figure have?"
"I don't know," was the immediate, frustrated response.
"Well, let's figure it out."
"One, two, three ..." he started counting, "... four, five, six, seven, eight, nine ..."
"David, don't count the edges [at least, I think that's what he *might* have been doing], count the sides. What shape is the back?"
"A square." [It was a rectangle but he knew that.]
"What shape are the sides?"
"Triangle." Etc.
"So, how many sides are there?"
"Five."
"So to get the area, we add up ..."
"The sides."

Ready to start the problem. He uses the calculator way too much for my liking.

Open paren. '9' '*' '5'
"David, HOW MUCH is 9*5?"
A glance. A momentary lull. "45!" he announced. Backspace, backspace, backspace ... "45" gets typed.

Perhaps I should have let that one go. As he started entering information about the five sides, he had to stop and figure out which sides he's already done. Had he left the "9 * 5" it might have been more obvious.

As he got to the triangular sides, he announced, "... and the .5, that's important."
"What?"
"The .5. You have to use it."
"Why?
"I don't know."
"OK, David, do you remember we talked about this before ... [drawing paper] Suppose we had a triangle with 3", 4" and 5" sides. If we complete a square using the two shorter sides, what is the area of the square?"

(3" * 4") = 12"

"And if we cut it in half with a diagonal line, that forms the traingle. See? That's where the .5 comes from."

Had to repeat it a couple of times, and may have to again. But he gets it. Score one for David (and for Grandma) today.