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About Matthew Hiebert
Expertise
education, study strategies, pedagogy, sustainable education, hidden curriculum,
classroom
management, science, math, learning materials
Experience
Extensive experience teaching at the elementary/jr. secondary level, including experience at prestigious international schools; recent work has been as pedagogy specialist and education project coordinator for teacher training projects in east and southeast Asia, and in Latin America
Education/Credentials
M.A., B.Ed. (distinction)
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You are here: Experts > Parenting/Family > Special Education > Teaching Advice > 3rd grade math
Expert: Matthew Hiebert
Date: 9/3/2008
Subject: 3rd grade math
Question
Hello, my 8 yr old son is in the 3rd grade, and he has a problem with math( he sees things in black and white...very literal, hard for him to "see out of the box"...can you offer any advice for teaching and improving his math skills. Thank you! Gordon
Answer
Hi Gordon,
Thanks for your question, and apologies about my very slow response. I'm working in some remote rural areas right now, and the email access has not allowed me to respond until now.
I taught grade 3 for a number of years, and I've met many students like this... but each different in their own ways.
Most times I can say that a student who had trouble seeing or thinking outside of the box had trouble because they spent most of their time "concentrating on the box itself". Stay with me here :) What I mean is that if a child is struggling in any way with their basic operations, basic math facts, it will be very hard for them to think about the higher level aspects of a more complex question. Someone who does not have rapid recall of their basic facts will have trouble with problem solving questions which require us to build on or manipulate the knowledge of those facts. They will be hung up at the most basic level of the question, so their mind doesn't even get a chance to think outside the box to solve the question. So, most of the time, the best solution for the child is to spend extra time with them working on their basic facts. I really recommend some regular, consistent practice, such as "math minutes", flash cards, math games, or even math-based computer games... those are all the same math content, just packaged in different forms, so whatever your child likes, just run with it!
It really makes a world of difference, once they have thoroughly memorized their basic facts in math, it means that their complete cognitive function can be devoted to other aspects of a math problem. It frees up mental space to get creative with solutions etc. So I do recommend simple rote memorization in some form. (gosh it sounds terrible to say so, but it's a reality) Of course, it is first and foremost important that the child understands those basic operations how and why they work, but once they have that basic understanding, there really comes a point where memorization becomes essential.
If your child has the basic facts all down pat, then we'd need to look more closely at where they are going wrong, and on what kind of questions. There are good programs out there for incrementally helping children to improve in computation and problem solving. My students who took Kumon math (google it) were always quite strong. The key with all such programs is consistency and incremental rises in complexity of the questions.
Let me know if I can be of any more help. I love math, and always loved getting weak math students to love math as well...
Again, sorry for my slow response.
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