Leveraging+21st+C.+Tools+to+Meet+the+Needs+of+Struggling+Math+Students

David Dockterman, EdD ddockterman@scholastic.com david_dockterman@gse.harvard.edu "If you think you can catch the bus, you will run for it" -Old Singapore saying

What is 27+28= Talk about different solving strategies Studying anxiety - two major causes: public speaking and mental math out loud. We want: Fluency and Flexibility in our students

__ Build Students' Cognitive Math Neural Network __
 * Researched Based To Do list: **

-Synaesthesia - They process information in colors and patterns. Crossing of neural network. Mixing senses. Because of cross wiring, he remembered everything. We all have this on some level. We interpret information based on environmental factors.

Brain activity when doing math: when solving math facts an area lights up the same as when you are reading. Math facts are language. Symbols and meaning (math or reading)

Connect Representations and Relationships: Symbolic to Spatial to Linguistic

Physical too? Yes.

Each person's brain network is different: Unique Connectomes "Where nature meets nurture" Everything we do changes out connectomes

Evolutionary Stories: Physical differences Cognitive Differences Social Differences

Innate Cognitive Abilities: Wired for language Wired for math - Subitizing and comparison. Subitizing means the ability to recognize a number of objects without counting. Humans can do up to 3 or 4. Chimps can subitize up to 6. Wired for pattern recognition Innate sense of fairness

Board Games - great for play, practice and patterns (Chutes and Ladders)

Not all are good: Toxic Stress www.developingchild.org

Map Math Differences: Find the right frustration: What do they know and what can they do? What is the edge of competence? Find the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) Scholastic Math Inventory (SMI) Grid of Quantiles to indicate math levels and abilities Teach students the math that makes the rest of the math easier. Concepts and applicable systems not rote memorization. 3 Types of problems for addition and subtraction: Change, put together and take apart, compare

Intervention Content: for Middle School
 * 1) Fractions
 * 2) Decimals and decimal fractions
 * 3) Number sense
 * 4) Geometry and Measurement

Embrace Mistakes! Learning comes from failures. Mistakes are opportunities to learn. But, we need IMMEDIATE feedback to learn from the mistakes and adapt.

Video tape kids before a unit then after. Show what they learned!