Strategies for Teaching Math to Slow Learners

Children who are slow learners are not learning-disabled. In general, they want to learn but lack the ability to process information well. Often children will be considered slow learners in one subject but not in others; a child who excels in language arts, for instance, may have difficulty in mathematics. Specific techniques can help the slow-learning child with mathematics.

Time

Slow learners need more time to understand and figure out how to use basic concepts. They may require more thorough revision and review for the basic concepts to make sense to them. They also require more time to perform math computations while practicing or testing. Pressuring a child to perform at a time standard beyond his abilities will only reduce his confidence, making learning more difficult.

Concept Building

Slow learners have difficulty with new concepts, so wherever possible new concepts should be related to previously learned ones. The connection with the previous concept helps to build confidence in the subject and provides a framework upon which to build mastery of new skills.

Real World Examples

Many slow learners use their fingers when performing calculations at an age at which the faster learners have left this behind, so teaching a new skill such as addition or multiplication is made easier when the instructor gives real-world examples or allows for physical representations of the math problem. Because slow learners have difficulty with imaginary concepts, the physical example provides guidance and structure.

Review

Because slow learners need more time to absorb new concepts, frequent reviewing can be helpful. More frequent exposure to the new concept, in shorter blocks of time such as five- or 10-minute review sessions, can speed up the learning process slightly for the slow learner.

Reward

Slow learners tend to have low confidence levels. They know they are learning more slowly than others and may have been teased at school for it. Low confidence impedes anyone's ability to learn, so it's important to reward the student's performance. Giving her a special treat for improved performance in school or finishing an assignment on time will create positive associations with math that outweigh the negatives. To know more visit coolmathguru.

Homeschool Teaching Methods

Types of Homeschool Teaching Methods
There are many different approaches to teaching your children at home. Finding your teaching style and your child's learning style is a key in successful homeschooling. When you find what fits your family best, you can best seek out your curriculum. Below are just some of the more popular "methods" of homeschooling your children.

Classical Education Homeschool Method
A Classical Curriculum includes reading great works of literature and studying rhetoric and logic. Advocates of this approach are critical of progressive trends that, they believe, water down education. Their main goal is to cultivate independent thinkers, and develop great communicators and leaders.

Charlotte Mason Homeschool Method
Charlotte Mason was an influential educator in the 19th century who advocated developing the soul and spirit of a child. Her method is literature based, with English and other subjects taught in an integrated way. This approach has become wildly popular with homeschoolers with many curriculum providers utilizing the Mason Method.

Montessori Homeschool Method
The Montessori Method is based on the work of Dr. Maria Montessori and is primarily concerned with the education of young children. Her theories are based on a belief that a child learns through freedom in a structured environment. The Montessori classroom gives children free access to materials, exercises, and resources designed for sensory and motor training that lead to later skills mastery. Instead of teaching, adults become encourages and guides while students express and explore.

Unschooling/Child Directed Homeschool Method
Unschooling allows children to take control of their educational choices. Unschooling is student-directed instead of teacher-directed. Unschoolers often take issue with the current, expert-based education system, choosing instead to trust the individual’s ability to guide their own education by following their interests. Parents who choose an Unschooling or Child Directed teaching style base their approach on the interests and natural learning patterns of their individual child. This style avoids the use of textbooks, reviewing, quizzing, or even formal testing. The child's natural curiosity and interests are the key to the daily activities. There is a large emphasis on imagination, nature, art, music and almost no formal curriculum is used. There is no use of lesson plans, a defined "school" time, or even any type of grading. The child's environment, though controlled, is used as the bases of learning. A great curriculum choice for this type of teaching style is Unit Studies. Unit Studies allow the child's interests to control the basis of study.

Eclectic Homeschool Method
Eclectic Homeschooling is a term that has become popular as homeschoolers gain confidence and become savvy consumers of different methods. It simply means picking and choosing what works best for you and not being afraid to make decisions or change your mind. An eclectic homeschooler may use one publisher for math and another for science. Or, she may even use a different math for each student. Eclectic homeschoolers are confident that they know what is best for their children and are highly independent in decision making.

Combined Parent & Child Directed
Parents who choose a combined Parent and Child Directed teaching style feel more confident in their family's ability to decide what's important to study and what isn't. The types of curriculums available for this style involve more hands-on creative activities and also more independent study and thought time. Many time nature and art play a larger role in the lesson plans. There is more emphasis on your child's personal interests and imagination. The use of varied curriculums works best with this type of teaching style.

Traditional Homeschool Method
This approach mimics what happens in the public school classroom. It compartmentalizes subject areas, uses textbooks, and relies on teacher-driven content. Parents who choose a Traditional teaching style tend to focus on classic literature, such as works by Charles Dickens or Nathaniel Hawthorne. Many times this type of style leans more toward a conventional public school teaching style with clearly defined student and teacher roles; clear lesson plans and schedules; clearly defined hours of "school"; more work based on textbooks; and more dependence on worksheets, quizzes, and continuous review. Traditional teachers also tend to teach lessons in such subjects as Latin, Greek, formal logic, large portions of classic arts, and may include a large biblical emphasis.

Accelerated Learning Homeschool Method
Some homeschoolers reclaim the wasted time in traditional education by accelerating the pace that they do in school. They typically graduate high school very early and many go on to home school college and graduate school.

The Principle Approach Homeschool Method
This approach is uniquely Christian and encompasses the idea that all learning centers on God’s word. Students learn the methods of America's Founding Fathers; specifically Research, Reasoning, Relating, and Recording. For more information , click Cool Math Guru.

Effective Teaching Strategies for Math

Teaching math is challenging because many of the concepts are abstract, and most math problems require multiple steps for completion. There are also many rules to remember, and students may have trouble recalling or knowing which ones apply to each skill. Teachers should use methods in the classroom that will ultimately enable students to apply math skills independently. There are effective techniques and strategies teachers can use to help students comprehend what they learn, enabling them to master this subject.

Direct Instruction

A math teacher should always teach new concepts using systematic, direct instruction. This involves introducing a concept, explaining and modeling the procedures and skills to be used, then guiding the class in applying and practicing these skills. When this method is used consistently, students learn how to determine which strategies are best for solving particular problems. The benefit of this method is that teachers give their students the tools they need for independent learning.

Collaborative Learning

Teachers should use partnerships or small groups several times a week to practice math skills. This strategy is most effective when students of different ability levels are grouped together. Advanced students can explain the concept, which increases their own knowledge while helping a struggling classmate. The group can then practice the skill or complete the problem with each person in the group contributing by checking or reviewing.

Peer tutoring is another collaborative technique that can help students who are not on grade level. This should be a structured process. Teachers can model how to review math facts and how to observe for understanding.

Teaching with Manipulatives

Teachers need to use visual representations that explain abstract concepts. For example, teachers can use plastic linking cubes to explain counting, adding and subtracting. Geometric shapes can be used to teach fractions--one-half of a circle and one-fourth of a rectangle. Base 10 blocks are effective for teachers when introducing division. Graphs, charts and number lines also help students see what the concept conveys. Visit coolmathguru for more information.

Top Methods to Home School Your Kid

Making sure your children get a good education is one of the most important jobs a parent has. Homeschooling is one way of making sure that your children are raised with your values, and given opportunities to develop their own unique talents.  Homeschooling is a lifestyle: one that has brought our family closeness, time to learn and grow, and joy in being together!

If you are planning on homeschooling your youngster, you may have to understand the many styles of homeschooling that is available in order that you can pick which would work well for you folks.

Eclectic Homeschooling - With eclectic homeschooling you use commonplace activities and feelings to educate your youngster about a subject.
Regular Homeschooling - This goes way back to the middle ages. Children are learning the basics – reading, writing, and arithmetic. After learning the fundamentals, they move on to learn basic grammar using collections and compositions.
Next, the kid moves on to what’s called the dialect stage. Here is where the major study of reading, writing, and mathematics starts. Here the kid learns in stages unlike public schools that use grade-appropriate materials.
The Charlotte-Mason System – This is among the most well liked systems of homeschooling today. Charlotte-Mason developed this style to improve a child’s tuition through nature, literature and real life experiences.
Although a kid must be taught with a regular curriculum according to your country’s laws, they can learn how to love learning with nature lessons, poetry understanding and lots more. When learning is more enlightening for a kid, they are more inclined to soak up the info than when they’re given some facts to learn.
Montessori-at-Home - this sort of homeschooling permits a kid to learn their basics thru the utilization of their environment and by employing all their senses – not by memorizing facts from a textbook.
The Moore Formula - this technique is divided into 3 separate parts. It is a way of teaching with studying for a decided quantity of time every day based mostly on the child’s wishes. Firstly, it promotes manual work. Secondly, it promotes entrepreneurship to coach responsibility. Thirdly, it promotes home and community service to build personality.
The Reggio Emilia Approach – targeted at preschool-aged kids, this approach promotes learning through exploration without causing the basics. Kids find out what they need to learn at their own speed.
The Structured Homeschooling Approach - This approach uses a structure like a public college curriculum. It uses grade levels relying of the student’s educational capability and age.
The Unit Study Approach - This approach to homeschooling permits a kid to learn a subject in total rather than just reading chapters in a textbook. A kid learns a subject through the use of reading, science, maths and other strategies to learn that subject. Kids can keep nearly fifty percent more than the normal study strategies applied in public schools.
Unschooling – This is the most straightforward home schooling system. You let your kid establish their learning wishes. By not following a stern curriculum, you’ll discover what to educate based primarily on your Child’s interests.
Waldorf Homeschooling - The philosophy of this home college strategy is to permit the kid to explore their environment and to teach them using their spirit, soul, and body.

By researching your child’s learning capabilities and your comfort-level with each sort of instruction, you will be in a position to find a technique of homeschooling that meets you together with your kid in the instructional journey the 2 of you take together. To know more , go coolmathguru.

A Successful College Career: You Can Do It

Make sure you’re not setting goals that aren’t realistic for you. If you struggle with waking up each morning, don’t set yourself up for failure by choosing morning classes if possible.

It is time to graduate and go off to college. You just need to think about a few things and make sure you are prepared for the challenge. Colleges vary widely and making the right choice is critical to your future. This article will give you some great advice for picking the college that will serve you best.

TIP! If you need help, visit your professor during their office hours. If you’re having trouble in a subject, do something about it.

It may be wise to come up with a sleep schedule during the time you are attending college. College students find that academics, jobs and a social life can all take a toll on the way they look, feel and perform. If you are not getting enough sleep you might not be able to concentrate on your classes.

TIP! Search the web for better deals on books for school. If you do this way ahead of time, shipping time should not be an issue, and you might find your books at a good price.

No matter what you decide to major in, you will have to take some classes that are outside your field of study. You must attend to these courses and perform your best in them to keep your grade point average up.

TIP! When you go to college, bring along shampoo, conditioner, soap and so on. These are important.

A loan is a valuable option if you cannot pay for college. College is something that can pay great dividends in the long run, so it should be okay to acquire a little bit of debt for the future rewards.

TIP! Study abroad, even if you have kids. Lots of students who have young kids tend to think study abroad is impossible.

Familiarize yourself with the route you will have to take to get to your classes prior to your first day. Don’t forget to calculate how long it takes you to get from class to class and look for alternate routes. Mark your classes as well as other important locations, such as the library, on a map for easy reference until you learn them.

TIP! Never overload your class load in any single semester. Burnout is a certainty otherwise.

Going to college can really help you out in life. This is why choosing a college is so important. Use the information from this article to help you find the college that is right for you. Keep in mind that your decision has far-reaching implications, and therefore needs to be a smart one. For more information go coolmathguru.