I was doing math with a student on the Mainland today using FaceTime and some interactive online tools. His is a teen with an unusually quick and wide-reaching mind. He readily can take an idea to a new and higher level. However, it has caused him some difficulty in math. When we began working together this summer, he said he couldnt really learn math unless the bigger context of any process was completely and broadly explained. But because he so readily takes big-idea leaps, he has stumbled, having failed to approach math in a systematic, step-by-step process, building from the ground up. After working out a great procedure for doing math together in our on-line sessions, he has found he is really happy and motivated by going way back to low levels- doing problems at lower grade levels that reveal his little missing links while rapidly progressing through and building confidence in other areas of mastery. We ended the session as follows: I typed: Your brain likes to take big leaps. That is because you are skilled in higher-order thinking. That is a great match to certain kinds of learning and really a fun and interesting quality in a person. However, in math, that tends to lead to confusion: I asked him to finish the explanation. This is what he typed: big leaps lead to bigger slips, small steps ensure you walk forward in learning, think of it like walking on a slippery floor small steps make sure you don’t fall big leaps will make you slip.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 03:48:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015