	AllExperts > Teaching Advice
	Search

About Ken Jensen
Expertise
I can answer questions related to secondary math and science. I specialize in problem based curriculum and instruction.

Experience
I am a 20 year veteran Math and Science teacher. I have taught at both the middle and high school levels, and I am currently a Math Coach in the Aurora Public Schools, Aurora Colorado. As a coach, I train other math teachers in the use of research based best instructional practices. I post regularly to the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM) list serve as well as to my district's standards based grading website. I was honored with the Colorado Teacher of the Year award by the Colorado Council of Teachers of Mathematics three years ago and have presented at their conference in past years. I particularly enjoy working with parents who question why math is taught so much differently then when they were students.

Organizations
Association Of Supervision and Curriculum and Development National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics

Publications
NCSM list serve CoMath list serve National Science Teachers Association: The Science Teacher.

Education/Credentials
Master of Arts: K-12 interdisciplinary studies. University of Northern Colorado Adminstrative certificate: Denver University

Awards and Honors
CCTM Colorado Teacher of the Year

Past/Present Clients
I currently provide professional development both directly and indirectly to 45 high school math teachers, 12 middle school math teachers, and 8 building level adminstrators.

You are here: Experts > Parenting/Family > Special Education > Teaching Advice > Math

Teaching Advice - Math

Expert: Ken Jensen - 11/4/2009

Question
My son is thirteen years old. He doesnot like writing and studying and so doesnot score much in Math. Also he is quite knowledgeable about things but finds it difficult to put it down in a proper way on the paper. This is affecting his percentage. As a parent how can I help him study systematically.

Answer
Many times adolescents who are good at Math struggle communicating especially through writing. I was one of those students myself when I was 13! The first thing I would do is to express to your son that simply knowing some math is not good enough. If you cannot share what you know with others; if you cannot share with them what you know and learn from them what they know, then you are keeping the learning environment in your classroom from being as rich as it needs to be. A strong learning environment requires all members to actively share, and learn from what is being shared. All members have the responsibility to participate.

One way of participating is through spoken conversation. Hopefully the teacher gives the students ample opportunity to talk to each other about what they are learning. If he/she does not then you might want to discuss this with the teacher and/or principal. Another way of participating is through written conversation. Giving the class the opportunity to analyze what individual students have written increases the understanding of both the reader and the writer.

It has been widely researched and documented that the best way to improve writing skills to improve reading skills. Having your son read will model how he is suppose to write. (How well does he write in his language class?) Unfortunately many math texts are still rote procedures and calculations with very little written contextual problems to be solved- which the teachers tend to skip as well. If this is the case with your son’s class, I would suggest you look into the Core Plus math program. I would suggest book 1 at his age. It is very rich in contextual problems and so well written that I find many adults who work through the investigations will walk away saying, "wow, I finally understand some math, why didn't I get to learn it this way?" Once you have a language rich text available, help you son to read it effectively. Help him to search for the meaning in the context, find the essential parts of the problem, and decide on a strategy to employ for solving the problem. Then use what has been written by the author as a model for how he is to write about what he has read. In this way he becomes an author as well.

Hope this helps. Reply back if you have any further questions

Add to this Answer Ask a Question