My son is in a school for smart learning disabled students. He is 14 and passed his RCT last year and is taking Algebra 1…He has nonverbal learning disorder and discalculia. He worked so hard and did so well last year that he past the 8-9th grade end of the year exam NY gives for LD kids instead of the regents and earned the right to go into algebra. HE IS TOTALLY LOST! I am due in the principal’s office tomorrow as he has overnight become rude and disruptive to his classes…AND he is not like this at home. It was so hard to get him into this school, and we had to sue the bd of ed…He is being taught Algebra I think with a blackboard, etc…HOW TO HELP HIM??? Thanks so much! This is so hard. :(
algebra
the book victoria mentioned is great. they also have a series for chemistry. there is another book called the; “REA, Problem Solvers, Algebra and Trig.” that book has really good examples for algebra I and algebra II; they write them out and before the examples are wrote out, there is a little overview of the topic at hand. I have mad wicked dyscalculia and all those lovely issues that go along with that and I think that either the Schaum’s or the REA books are really good investments for schooling if you have nvld or dyscalculia because they give good examples and do not rely on the spiral learning method. You can use either set of books to enhance your schooling and not fair horribly.
It is hard to follow the old school black board teaching. I wonder, just to put ths out there, if the teacher could give your child a write up of what he/she is to lecture upon in the class. Do you think the teacher could do something like that? Also, could the school hook your child up with some sort of teacher’s aid for when they are doing their math and any other course that your child might have trouble with; like geography? I am just putting that out there is all. But, what Victoria posted makes the most sense, really.
Re: HELP I am at my wit's end!
There are different ways of teaching algebra, and it may be that the method taught in the school is not compatible with your son’s learning style.
You may want to take a look at Teaching Textbooks (http://www.teachingtextbooks.com ). This is a rather new self-teaching program for homeschoolers. I think it might be especially helpful for a child with non-verbal learning disorder since each lesson is provided in verbal form on a computer CD (same lesson that is in the written text). All of the problems likewise have the solutions explained verbally on CD. It seems to me this might be a good curriculum fit for a child with NVLD, although he might still benefit from a tutor (especially to work through any difficulties verbally).
Nancy
Some thoughts from a math teacher/tutor:
Algebra needs to be taught as logic and reasoning and problem-solving. The big picture is vital, the heart of the subject.
Unfortunately a lot of math books try to make it “easier” by splitting it up into little tiny chunks to memorize; this makes it “easier’ for the memorize-and-forget person, as long as they are OK being stalled out with very weak math skills after having forgotten almost all of it. But it kills the subject, takes most of the value and interest out of it, and is a nightmare for people who do not take to memorizing unconnected unreal trivia.
Look at his text and if possible talk to his teacher — if the text is one of the trivia types that jumps all over the topic, OR if the teacher has weak qualifications and can do nothing but follow the text, then that could explain some of the confusion and frustration.
Consider getting a private tutor if you can afford it. A tutor who really knows math — at least several college courses in math for mathematicians, not just math education — and who also has some experience teaching — can make a night and day difference in both learning and attitudes.
You can get books and work on your own, but the problem is getting books that don’t have the same flaws as the ones that are confusing him already. One which I recommend is Schaum’s Elementary Algebra, one of a very large series of self-teaching books by Schaum’s, a series that most science-tech college students live by. No wowie-zowie, no multicolours, no games, just straightforward and clear explanations and lots and lots of model solutions and practice problems with answers. You have to supervise the work steadily, no easy way out, but it is a way to really get a grip on the subject.
Definitely, take grade pressure off him. If he gets an F or two on a couple of quizzes at the beginning of the year, it’s no big deal. A school for LD should know this too but they may have forgotten.
Blackboard teaching — well, it wasn’t invented by people from Mars. It is the simplest and clearest and quickest way to get certain complex concepts explained. If your son has a negative attitude about blackboard teaching — it does happen, I had experience one time with a kid who told me to my face I “wasn’t teaching” when I stood up at the board, because he had learned that “teaching” meant someone sitting down reciting a scripted manual in their lap — then he may be attending to the wrong things — the kid I mentioned was acting up and disrupting because he *thought* he had no work to do.
Talk to your son about this and make sure he understands what the lesson *is*. I have had a number of algebra students who were very frustrated with my teaching because all they wanted to know was how to get the answer, and they could not grasp the fact that a multi-step thinking and logic process *is* how to get the answer, and that this multi-step process *is* the lesson - they insisted on searching for the secret place where you copied the answers from, a good way to fail the class. Again, your son may be frustrated because he is attending to the wrong things, the answers rather than the process of how to work them out.
Good luck and feel free to ask for particular algebra help when needed.