As a college student studying mathematics and secondary education, I am worried about meeting all my students needs whether they be above-average, average, or below average students. What are some simple math related activities, on a high school level, that will challenge my below average students yet keep my above average students interested?
If this is unclear please ask me for clarification. I would appreciate any recommendations.
-Matt in Salisbury
Re: LD and High School Math
Thank you very much for your input. I really do not know whether my classes will be tracked but hopefully so. I definitely understand that it may be tough to keep all my students on the same level but that is exactly why I am trying to get some feedback. Thanks again.
Re: LD and High School Math
You might check out some of the geometry materials from Key Curriculum Press. They have a software program called Geometer’s sketchpad that you can do some very interesting things with, and I think there is a curriculum available too, but I don’t remember the title. Since they use a very hands on approach, your struggling students will probably be able to tackle these problems, but your advanced students could still be challenged by working out equations, theorems, etc. based on their work with the problems. My kids are a lot younger than high school, so I’m just relating info from a friend who’s used their software. I think their web site is www.keycurriculumpress.com
Jean
Re: LD and High School Math
Hi Matt,
As an adult who grew up with a significant learning disability in math, I hope you will NOT have to try to teach a class with markedly different ability levels, all at the same time. If it’s difficult for the teacher, think about how hard it is for the students! In my opinion, it is a disservice to ALL students when they are placed in classrooms that are either too fast or too slow for them.
I hope you will be allowed to give students what they need, rather than what the school wants.
JJ
There's more to it than "average"
There are students with very different ways of figuring out Math — ones who understand it best through words, others through pictures… and a whole *mess* of people who only learn to manipulate the symbols and don’t understand it either way.
Check out some of the articles on Math in theLD In Depth section for some good reading on teaching Math.
In a math classroom, your classes will be tracked, won’t they? In math classrooms, you usually don’t have a mixture of students.
I taught math briefly and I would never teach it again if it wasn’t tracked. There aren’t a great many activities to keep below average math students challenged that will also keep above average students interested.
It’s like asking for the moon to be full while it’s new. Even if you can find a few activities like that, and you can find a few, you can’t find an entire years’ worth.
Kids who don’t “get” math and kids who “get” math …it’s like trying to teach a foreign language to a class where half the kids already speak the language. What activities would you plan for a Spanish class where half the kids didn’t speak the language and half the kids did?
Good luck in your search.