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Math lays new learning on old
learning, perhaps more than any other subject. One of the biggest pitfalls for students in
the higher levels is weak learning of the fundamentals. About 90% of my 11th and 12th
grade students have forgotten how to correctly add fractions, for
example. While fractions seem like only an
elementary or middle school topic, they are actually fundamental to algebra and much of
the math beyond. Your kids will use them again and again. A weak foundation in fractions
will truly hinder them.
Another reason for high school students to be masters of
fractions is that they appear throughout problems on the SAT and ACT college admissions tests.
Students will need a real facility with them, not just a sense of, "oh yeah, I sort
of remember that."
And since fractions represent parts of something, they will
be used in many situations in "the real world," even if the word
"denominator" is never uttered.
Most high school students are woefully weak in fractions, but
they don’t know it. One reason is calculators. Calculators are fine mathematical
tools, but since they use and deliver their answers in decimals, rather than fractions,
students are not getting the reinforcement with fractions that they need.
Now, I know you’ve forgotten fractions also. Relax. You
can help them, anyway! Disclaimer: This suggestion is less
"fun" than some of the others that have and will appear on these pages, but
it’s important, and it works.
- Go to the library, book store, a used book sale, or a younger
student’s backpack, and find a book with some basic fraction problems. Simple ones:
adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing.
- Copy some pages of problems. Simple ones - get a collection of
about 15 pages or so of problems. Basic fraction problems.
- Tell him speed is going to be important. Eventually, by the
10th or 20th sheet, he’s going to be quick.
- After he’s refreshed his memory of how to do them, give
him a sheet and say he has 5 minutes, or some small, but reasonable number.
- He won’t get them all correct, but that’s okay,
there are 14 more.
- Repeat this, until he’s mastered it, and then repeat it
until he’s really mastered it.
- Use whatever motivation works. A chart and stickers may not
work with an 11th grader, but who knows? If not, perhaps five minutes of work on the sheet
relieves him of doing the dishes one night. Or use bribes - a chocolate cake, a new car,
whatever works.
Many years ago, I was in an advanced math class with a group
of very bright kids and a dynamite teacher, Mrs. Polly Finch. Though we were only in
elementary school, she took us as far into the high school math curriculum as we could go.
But every Friday, she gave us timed tests on the fundamentals. "Just because
you’re smart," she told us, "and just because you’re doing advanced
stuff, doesn’t mean you don’t need to know how to do the basics - backward, and
forward and inside out." Timed tests are a hot issue right now, but speed in
the fundamentals is important, and a timed test at the kitchen table, without the tension
and trauma of a timed test in school, can actually be fun. Your child is aiming to
better his previous sheet, and not worried about a grade or a consequence.
There are many ways to adapt this, but find a way to make it work for your child.
A ready command of math facts and fundamentals makes your child far more able to
understand the more complex and interesting parts of high school math, and beyond. |
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See "Mathematics:
One of Life's Big Pluses"
The Washington Post, August 19, 1996.
"Oh yeah.
I sort of remember
that."
"'Find the common
denominator...'
Haven't they found it
YET?"
"Hey, I thought
this was supposed
to be a fun
web-site.
Fractions?!!
Get me outta
here!"
"Is she crazy?"
"Did she say
'car'?
Do
It. |
