Math LD

(A) If the instructor actually read the guidelines for teaching elementary school math, she would find out that kids are supposed to use manipulatives. So why not someone teaching the kids?
From what you say, this ,ogic will not reach her, unfortunately.

(B) Normally I tell people to work on it. Most people can learn basic math if they go into it with a solid base and willingness to work. A head injury changes the landscape a bit, however.
I have never met you and don’t know what your abilities and limitations are. Your counsellor at the center may be truly knowledgeable and may be really giving you a prescriptionn based on your needs; or she may be giving you the same cookie-cutter accomodations she gives to everyone (this is all too common.)
In a lot of cases — and I really don’t know if this is yours — the student got off on the wrong foot in math many years previously and has dragged through on memorize-and-guess ever since. The solution, if they want a real education and not more fake paper, is to go back and get the basics right (in which case manipulatives are a *good* plan) and then to move up really understanding what is going on.

(C) Try getting a tutor. The counselling center probably has a list. Do NOT go for a “peer” tutor, a fellow student who has taken this class — these people generally just share misconceptions, and they certainly have no knowledge of learning problems. Get a tutor who is an instructor who donates time, or a retired teacher, etc. — someone who has lots of experience. Work through everything from the basics up. Use those manipulatives until you really understand the process, and then see if you can do the abstraction on paper. Sure it takes time, but you get something out of it. After all, this is exactly what you are going to be asking those little kids in your class to do, isn’t it?

(D) Change to another class with another instructor! Even if this is against school policy, your disability gives you leverage.

(E) You have the perfect setup for a lawsuit under the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act.) Your instructor is deliberately rejecting specific accomodations required for a well-defined disability. Check with the people at your school — the Equal Opportunities Office or something similar takes care of this. You just need to go though the paperwork; your case is good. Now, you can probably get all kinds of accomodations or even an exemption if you want it. My suggestion would be, if you really want to get the most out of your school and be the best-prepared teacher possible, to try to get them to pay for extra tutoring first before you give up on learning.

Thanks for your reply. I spoke with the disabilities counselor on campus today. She said that if the teacher denies the use of anything on my plan, she cannot count the answer as wrong. She is going to contact the head of the math dept. They have explained this to this teacher on other occasions, with other students and she is still not complying.

I can do basic math stuff. The problem comes when I am asked to change from base 2, 3, 4.. to base ten and reversing. I don’t get it, without using unifix cubes and stuff. My hands know how to do the problem, but my brain doesn’t. I know that is wierd, but it’s the way I am.

I can waiver out of it, if I flunk 2 times and prove that I have gone to the tutoring center on campus and that I just can’t pass it. But the F will stay on the transcript. I am trying to get into graduate school and don’t have room for Fs.

I wont’ be teaching anyhow. I plan to go on for a doctorate in psychology and possibly teach on the college level. No one cares if you can do math on the college level.

I thought it was your right although sometimes we must struggle to have our rights recognized. Does your college take any federal funding? Most do in one way or the other and the ADA is a federal law.

Call your congressman - ask what the consequences are of non-compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Tell your counselor - nicely- that you are calling your congressman.
There was a case where a teacher was sued and lost for not upholding the IEP of a student.

Good luck.

The base 2, 3, 4 stuff is supposed to ilustrate the idea of a base for a number system, and to show that you can have a number system with any base — that ten is a historical accident, arbitrary. By using these various bases you are supposed to learn a new appreciation of how and why we use base ten. Now, interesting as that may be, it is a very very minor topic of mathematics. If your instructor is spending a whole lot of time on it, she is really out of line with modern thinking. Get yourself into a different class with someone who is not thirty years out of date. You can take classes at another college and have the credits transferred over, if there is no other instructor at your colege.

Amen.

Though — with bases… could you use your imagination and turn your fingers into manipulatives?

With base ten, every time you get to that last finger, you have to bump to the higher place… if you used the “base” number of fingers and then made hatch marks as you’re counting off the number to change, something like that?

(But… Vic’s right… that base stuff is sorta like having to know the names of commutative and associative… part of the strange ritual of doing useless mental gymnastics because That Is The Way We Do It. You could still teach without it and of course no grad program gives you quizzes on base X.)

Hi,

Other writers are right here. The law is on your side! If you can’t do anything else, can you withdraw from the class with a withdraw “pass”? Then you could try and hand pick a teacher to “complete” the class.

I wish you good luck on this. I have a math disability and had about
a fifth- sixth grade math level. I agree with Victoria that the best way to
build up math skills is going from the bottom up and even relearning old skills that you thought you might have known. I actually remediated myself but I do have a special ed background and my ld is an ld that might be inherited vs brain injury. As Vic says this does change the mix a bit.

—des

Wow. Sounds like you have a real witch for a teacher.

Many teachers simply don’t understand about learning disabilities. Have you showed her the documentation? That might help.

If that still doesn’t work, talk to your advisor and see if you can drop this class and get into an individualized math program. Some schools call it PACE or self-paced learning. This is the program I am currently in and I have made much progress. The PACE people will also be nicer about letting you use a calculator or manipulatives.

Good luck!

Hi, would like to comment on the teacher who would not allow the accomodations for math. Were you aware that there is Math courses offered through distance learning? I too have a disability that hinders my thought process. I checked into the Distance Learning Program with Upper Iowa University. Then chose an understanding Professor to be my Proctor. This took a lot of pressure off. Just make sure that your college will accept the course, and get it in writing. I also go through the Disability Services at my college. If you have a documented disability you are eligible for the services and accomodations are given within reason. They will also go to bat for you if a professor gives you a tough time. I would suggest you reading up on your rights as a student with disabilities you have many of them and an organizations that will be more than willing to back you up. :wink:

Tracie

I’d really encourage you to take Victoriah’s advice about getting a good tutor and learning the math. As a Ph. D. student in psychology, in many of the better programs, you could be expected to take as much as 12 credit hours of graduate level statistics courses. So it would really help you in the long run to get much more comfortable with math. That said, I agree with everyone else that you are entitled to the accomodation. Sadly, I work with a fair number of professors who have the same uninformed attitude as your math prof. Good luck to you.

Tracie

I am at a University in Memphis where I am currently an undergraduate student. If your university recieves federal funding, for example, if it offers financial aid in the form of pell grant as well as grants from state funding, then they have to let you use a calculator at least. When you give your professor your test accomodation form, you put on there that you will be using a calculator and whatever else that is deemed appropraiate and ethical for you to use. I do not want to tell you about manipulatives and whatnot, it is not my place to do so. I do know that it is a real law that you can have tests taken in a separate area of the halls of mathematics at your university where you can take time and a half for tests or double time for tests. I also know that just as you can use a lead pencil for math, you can use your ti 83 or what have you, it is a very ethical accessory for a mathematics student to use. I know that I, with my mad wicked dyscalculia, am legally allowed to use my ti 83 and graph paper (I have to write out everything for every equation, and I do it all in long hand and staple it to my test for the professor to see and for future reference) and time and a half for tests (I am almost at the double time part) because that is in accordance with the law. I even bring my ruler with me as well as my own stapler to the room for folks with ld to take their tests.

As I have a mad wicked math ld, as a result of having water on the brain as an infant (I feel you, my sister) I have just grown accostomed to the fact that I cannot do integers without a calculator or strings of fractions on an equation without a calculator. I have already downloaded the quadratic formula into my calculator, becuase I know myself well enough to know I cannot follow it for beans. Now, maybe the Ti’s in the 90’s would be unethical to use? You know, the ones that can do all that algebra and look like a PDA? That might be pushing it, but then again it is up to what you know you can do and what you know you need to use as a supplement. And as long as you are being true to yourself and ethical I think your professor should be told to go to heck. I could tell you really dreadful stories of my last elementary algebra professor, so I know what you are going through, man.

I do not know what planet your professor is from, but he/ she cannot contradict a law! You might have to have the head of the offices of student disabilites speak with this person or maybe the ADA complainace officer. And, I will tell you something, I am taking elementary algebra for the second time and have to spend all summer taking intermediate algebra. Where I am at, you can take a remedial class where it is the final passing grade that goes on your transcript. When I qualify for University Level Math, I am going to take the course until the week before the withdraw and get a W on your transcript rule (that is thr rule of my university) and them hire a tutor to go over the rest of the course and then drill it and take it over the following semester. This is the only thing I have figured out to do with regards to University level math. In part, because a F at the university level courses looks really bad for grad school.

One thing that has worked a bit for me and my nice sixth grade level of abstract thought…I do everything. The homework, I write out in long hand everything from the book and then I cross reference that with a Barrons book, and write that out in longhand too. I just do everything short of my actual mathematics professor! That is horrible, but I had to add a little levity. One thing that takes a long time but may help you…I write out every equation on an index card, the equation on the front, then the answer (with every step written out) on the back…then I memorize and just visualise the equation until I can write it out in long hand without looking at anything. I do this until I just become the equation. Like a yogi or something :) then I take the papers where I have written out all those main equations that the professor has focused on and I just read it over and over until it just becomes ingrained in my skull. I do this to overcompensate for the fact that I have no real conceptualisation skills for math. I just dont. Maybe sometimes you just have to will yourself to do it, even if you do not fully grasp it by heart. And just so you know, I do all this so I can go to graduate school and then enter a PHD program to study the British metaphyiscal poets, so go figure. Ain’t never gonna use it, eh? You do not need the quadratic formual to read Donne or Blake, you know it?I hope that maybe some of this helps and GOD bless you.