In some classes, in particular Basic Math, when a student misses the point
on an assignment or quiz, I give them little or no credit and ask them to
come see me for help and to get credit for the assignment or take a
replacement quiz. If the student does not contact me within a day or two, I
talk to them personally and say, "What is you schedule like? I want to help
you get you on track before you get too lost, so let's make an appointment
to talk about assignment ***." I am careful to tell the class that it is my
goal that they pass Basic Math the first time, and then pass Intro to
Algebra the first time. The student can see a tutor instead if that fits
the schedule better or he/she would feel more comforatable. In general
students are a little annoyed when they get their first 0 instead of 70%,
but do seem to appreciate over the long haul that they are correcting their
misconceptions.
In a team-taught, Basic Math/Reading combination class last semester, we
involved the counselors in establishing the group dynamics. They did some
activities with the students (and teachers) to get acquainted, get to
understand each other's values a bit, and to better understand their own
learning styles. At about mid-term, we took a couple of days for one-on-one
conferences with the students. During those class periods, the groups had a
project to work on. The individual conferences were very good. Some
students told us of some very traumatic experiences with math or reading or
education in general. All of those things opened the channel for
communication.
Here is an in-class technique that works for interaction in lecture format.
Instead of call roll, have all student's names on a note card. Throughout
the class, go through the cards and call on students for various questions.
These can be very simple, like:
Put the problem on the board:
Solve for x:
3x - 5 = 2(4 - 5x)
Pull a card from the stack and say "Mary, what kind of answer are you
looking for, an equation, an expression, or a value for x?"
Then discuss the answer of concepts if necessary, then pull another card and
ask. "Jerry, what would be your first step in solving this equation?"
Then whatever his step is pull another card and say "Khristopher, what would
the next line look like after doing Jerry's step?"
If a student is stuck, I let them ask someone else to help them. When an
answer is wrong, I try to say things like "You've got some good ideas here.
Let's review where you would do that kind of process and see how this
situation is similar." If the answer is vague, like "move 5 to the other
side of the equation, I ask for clarification: "Do you mean
multiply/divide/add/subtract 5 from both sides?"
It is amazing how many concepts you can cover and misconceptions you can
uncover by asking these questions. It is important, however, to build an
atmosphere of trust in this process so that when an answer is incorrect, the
student feels safe to learn from the mistake and ask questions about why
their answer is not correct.
Martha
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