Effective Teaching Strategies to Teach Math - Term Paper Example

Teaching Math to Elementary This report is a discussion about effective teaching strategies to teach math to elementary What tools and teaching methods a teacher should adopt to make the students get excited about learning math, have been discussed. Different learning styles have been discussed in detail along with examples. How a teacher can help a struggling student to get a grasp of his math lesson and a how a brainy student should be handled has been discussed. Introduction At elementary level, students might not be well aware of the importance of mathematics in their lives. They might relate math to calculating bucks, managing time, calculating bills, solving inheritance problems, computing weights and percentages, and so on. That is almost all that math holds for them at so young an age. And all that is important, of course. Math makes the foundation for most of the courses in a child’s educational career, starting from a very early stage. At elementary level, math teachers teach students numbers, operations, fundamental measurement and basic calculation using data sets. By incorporating effectual teaching strategies, teachers can make the students go through a significant math experience while making sure that the students weak in math start developing their interest in the subject and the brainy ones do not get bored off. Thus, a student’s interest in math depends majorly upon his teacher’s math-teaching capabilities, strategies and techniques. Developing Their Interest Let’s discuss what tools and teaching strategies a math teacher can adopt in order to get elementary students excited about learning math. The teaching method depends upon the concept that is to be taught. The educators can incorporate standards-based materials in math-teaching to enhance learning. They can use colorful and interactive multimedia environment by inculcating the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) to encourage the students to explore mathematical concepts having fun at the same time. Introducing ICT concepts at so young an age helps children discover, examine, explain and solve problems, foresee, argue and judge. When they will learn through practical experience building patterns, their minds will simultaneously be producing mental patterns. This is called constructionism (Papert, 1993). Students can be made familiar with computer aided simulations and educational games. It should be the decision of math teachers where to make use of ICT tools to support their teaching process. Teachers can download softwares which deal with making young children familiar with patterns, sequences, addition, subtraction, ordinal numbers and memory games. They can use spreadsheets and interactive whiteboards (IWB) to help children learn numeracy while interacting with one another and that is why they are called virtual manipulatives. These can be used to help children take hold of main arithmetic and geometry skills together with times tables, word problems, ratio, percentage and mental addition. Burns (2007) describes some essential strategies that math teachers can adopt as their teaching method to succeed in developing students’ interest in math. Students can be made excited about math-learning only when the teaching process is easy for their age. Burns states that mathematical concepts should be taught in the most simplistic way discarding the extraneous information. Student interaction is made sure when the teacher adopts explicit or direct instruction approach. Peer tutoring is another useful method in which students can be paired together and they learn by collaboration. In backward design method, the teacher first determines what is to be taught, plans how he would assess the learning, and then plans his lesson accordingly. Inquiry based learning is also a very good approach as students learn effective problem solving. All these methods are fruitful and enjoyable for students both at the same time and help in making them want to learn more math. Identifying Students’ Learning Styles It is important for the teachers to identify their students’ learning styles so that they make sure that no student is left behind in grasping the math lesson. Some students are auditory learners (just wanting to listen to what the teacher is saying), some are visual learners (wanting to concentrate on the chalkboard or a demonstration) and some are hands-on or kinesthetic learners (keen on doing written exercises). By identifying which student belongs to what category, it becomes easier for the teacher to remove students’ frustration and develop healthy communication. Parents can help the teachers identify their child’s learning style. The teacher will have to use all learning styles and will have to monitor each student individually to come to know what style to continue with which student. Auditory learners may be encouraged to discuss their math lesson with his peers or read the lesson out loud. Hand-on learners may be told to solve problems on a worksheet. Visual learners may be taught using presentations, demonstrations, flash cards, charts, graphs and tables. Students belonging to one category should not be forced to learn through a different learning style they do not feel comfortable with or their frustration will increase. Auditory learners can be taught very effectively using math songs. There are many musical CDs available which teach basic math concepts through melody which retains the information in the young learner’s mind. Visual learners can be handled using flash cards and interactive presentations. Flash cards help the students to follow the numbers and sequences visually. The teacher can help them basic math concepts using colorful drawings and patterns. For example, a visual learner may learn his multiplication table by relating an image with each fact. Hands-on learners can be taught using math manipulatives which help them work physically with numbers and basic math concepts. Hands-on activities for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division may include blocks, pebbles, beads, stones or little plastic toys. Students can be asked to count the beads, add one and count, drop one and count, and so on. Helping Weak and Gifted Students Herrera (2005, p. 2) states that there should be a “resource room” where weak math students can go for extra help after their regular sessions. The resource teachers should be well aware of what approach or leaning style to use with weak students so as to fill the learning gap. If the school does not offer the resource room facility, then the whole burden falls on the math teacher’s shoulders. As for the struggling student, it is like a setback for them if they miss out or miscomprehend even one little stop in a math problem, which gives rise to frustration. Thus, it becomes vital to pay some extra attention to such students after their regular class is over. The teacher should break the concepts into smaller chunks to make the student understand step-by-step. During the class session, the teacher can engage other students in peer tutoring or hands-on exercising and get connected to the weak student or the student who has learned error patterns (Ashlock, 2002). As for the brainy students, the teacher can, as discussed earlier, keep them engaged using playspaces, flash cards, mathematical games and other math activities which will keep them busy along with offering them fun. Animated multimedia presentations and interactive softwares on CDs keep the students full of activity allowing them to think strategically without getting bored. Thanks to ICT, there are a lot of ways now available that help gifted as well as weak students learn basic math concepts very effectively. Conclusion It is concluded that math teachers hold great responsibility in making the elementary students learns math. They should be aware of different teaching methodologies that are to be applied to students, especially if the students belong to a specific learning style. Teachers should know what techniques to use with auditory, visual or kinesthetic learners. They should be able to identify which student is struggling with math concepts and should give extra coaching to him so that he catches up with the lesson. They should also make arrangement for the gifted students so that they maintain their interest in their math lesson through different activities. References Ashlock, R. (2002). Error Patterns in Computation: Using Error Patterns to Improve Instruction. USA: Merrill Prentice Hall. Burns, M. (2007, November). How do we help floundering students who lack basic math concepts? Nine Ways to Catch Kids Up. Retrieved March 22, 2010 from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/nov07/vol65/num03/Nine_Ways_to_Catch_Kids_Up.aspx Herrera, T. (2005). Teaching mathematics in the 2005 classroom. Marilyn Burns Talks About Today’s Classroom, 13(10), 1-4. Retrieved March 22, 2010 from http://www.mathsolutions.com/documents/2005_MB_Talks_Classroom_ENC.pdf Papert, S. (1993). The Children’s Machine. NY: Basic Books. Read More