Arithmetic
by Cliff MorrisThe Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8: Mathematics, 1997 is intended for use with all students, including exceptional students. Students who have been identified as exceptional by an Identification, Placement, and Review Committee (IPRC) may have their program adapted. Parents will discuss appropriate adaptations with school staff, and to understand how these adaptations affect the assessment and evaluation of the student's work. Some exceptional students may need to be given the opportunity to participate in special programs that will help them achieve at the highest possible level. Current legislation applies to this curriculum and may affect both those students who have not reached the expectations for the grade and those who have exceeded them (Source: Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8: Mathematics, 1997, p. 7).
The above quote expresses the mathematical expectations for all (Ontario) students. During the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties, I modified different classroom mathematical programs to adapt to the needs of numerous types of learners. Often some of these students had to be taught in other ways before they were able to 'UNDERSTAND' the mathematical concept under investigation. As stressed, the key word here is 'understanding'.
Restated slightly differently, students cannot memorize mathematical procedures; key logical concepts must be firstly fully understood. If comprehension occurs when solving a problem, all cognitive process utilized will stand a stronger chance of being remembered when subsequent problems of a similar nature arise. Speaking of solving problems, click here to go to an interesting problem solving web site.
This is where the knowledge of using other learning styles and tapping beyond the mainstream intelligence quotient (IQ) format becomes first and foremost. During home tutoring sessions, I try to incorporate all of the aforementioned into my hourly sessions.
I have often used one's dominant or 'secret' intelligences and preferred learning style to facilitate a home tutoring session. For example, recently I was teaching a unit on common fractions. I used a fraction chart to make the abstract chalkboard fractional symbols easier for the tutee to perceive. In other words, if a child is a strong visualizer, an arithmetic explanation ought to contain numerous images, visualizations, pictures or/and diagrams. Sometimes a mathematical picture is thus worth a thousand words. Similarly, if a student has a intellectual dominance beyond the linguistic-verbal or logical-mathematical domain, then it is incumbent upon the tutor to use those other and more dominant intelligences as an initial entry point for teaching the concept under investigation to the tutee.
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