So I have a new mentor. It's a parent. The parent of one of my students, who came in to find out EXACTLY what her son needed to do to improve her Algebra grade. I met her first at a school musical that her son took part in--she seemed really nice. Then the Friday before Thanksgiving break she showed up in the afternoon, and she carried with her a quiz her son had spent time working on.
Funny. I just checked my e-mail and I have two parent complaints in my In-box. And one of them is from this very parent--my new mentor! Her son lost participation points by being tardy, and she didn't know that was class policy. Should I give him back his points? She is helping me quite a bit.
She came in and asked about a "symbols project" which I had assigned earlier, which her son earned a low grade on. And after a minute of my explaining to her the nature of the project, she cut me off half way through and said she could tell me, immediately, based on that first part of my explanation, that her son would not get what I was talking about based on my style of presentation. Her son just needed to be told EXACTLY what he needed to do, and any meanderings around the point would lose him.
I can take no credit for what happened next, because typically I am oversensitive and fearful and would normally react to this by getting snippy or getting upset or ... something, but instead I was visited by a moment of grace and I told this lady that what she said about her son probably applied to a great deal of other kids in my classes. And that her insight into this was of great interest to me, and would she be willing to meet with me at some point over the Thanksgiving break to share more of that insight. She said she would.
So I called her, and we met. And since then, I have called her every day to check in and let her know how it's going with the class. Some of her insights.
1. Every student in my Algebra 1 class is, to some extent, math-disabled. The ones who aren't math-disabled are already taking Geometry by the time they get to high school. These students have various types of math anxiety or math phobia or math confidence issues.
2. One of the common problems they have that handicaps them in math is simply "bad memory." Stuff that I remember hearing it once, they don't remember. They might get one lesson I teach, but by the next day they've forgotten it. They need a 5-to-10-minute exercise to get things going at the beginning of each class, to help them recall what they've learned.
3. A lot of them have a real problem with the 2-Dimensional models we use so often in Algebra. Some of them are extremely intelligent when it comes to 3-Dimensional, real-world modeling, and they have a lot of creative intelligences that us math-people often lack.
In reaction to this last point, I said that I generally appreciate that every student is uniquely intelligent, but I am sometimes guilty of taking pride in the level to which I get it. She had a good response to that. She said that ...
4) Far from doubting my math credentials, they think that I am such a fluent math person that I cannot relate to them because of my mathiness, because of the degree to which math comes easy to me.
5) And also, they have come to believe that I (and other math teachers) am trying to trick them. She said I need to overcome this by constantly reinforcing that I am on their side. My line has to be that I am here to find out what they know, and then help them know a little bit more than that.
6) She advocates identifying the "leapers," people who leap to conclusions that happen to be correct. Once they "get it," she said, I want to know this as soon as possible, so that these people can start practicing or helping other students as soon as possible.
7) After 'pealing off" the students that get it, it's time to re-teach to the other students. Here, she said a lot of teachers just re-teach by going at it louder and slower. But lecturing didn't work the first time and probably won't work the second time. She said that to re-teach, my goal might be to get them talking about it. "What does this make you think about?" What might this be used for?
8) If I can get them talking about nothing else, if they have no reason to get into it, if nothing comes to mind for them, talk to them about how Algebra 1 is one of the vettings in our society today, one way in which The Man decides who will get jobs and who won't. Do these students want to be told they can't get jobs because they don't have what it takes to step up to this challenge?
9) I've got to use words like "let's attack this"... That's the energy, that's the mentality which will work with them. I've got to be like a coach.
10) Pass out index cards ... Have them write the grade they want in the class on one side, and have them write what they need in order to get that grade on the other. It could be what they need from me, what they need from themselves ...
11) Color code the problems if possible. Let them know the types of problems they'll be seeing on the final. These kids have enough trouble just doing individual problems; it doesn't help if they're mixed together in ways that they can't figure out which solution they're supposed to be doing. Color coding helps a lot.
12) "You are so motivated." My new mentor said that to me! I always harp on myself for not being motivated enough, and I know she is well-acquainted with my flaws, so for her to say that to me was incredibly gratifying and really ... a gift. What a cool bit of praise! Very motivational! Obviously something I should pass on to my students!
13) Hearing that I have some students who are just not getting it, she said I need to ask them this: "What is it going to take for you to be motivated enough to do the work you need to do to pass this class." She said it's not important what their answer is, and I definitely don't want to get into a long conversation with them about it. But they need to hear themselves speak out loud about it, about this strategy that they've chosen to cope without truly having put real thought into it. Let them speak for 30 seconds, and then say, "OK, let's do this problem." Do a problem with them after having this talk with them.
I tried this once today. It was extremely empowering to me. What a tool! I thought unmotivated students were a curse to me. It didn't occur to me that I could begin to cure them of this demotivation by asking them about it directly!
I'm sure there are more cool things I should add, and of course it is unlucky to stop on #13. But I don't suffer from terskadeckaphobia (or however you spell it) so I'm-a stop there! But it's been really helpful talking to this woman every day. I think I'll just let her son have the tardy points back. I mean, she's under no obligation to help me. But that's what she's doing. I don't know who this lady is, but she really seems to know how to coach and teach and motivate people. So ... that happened.
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