4Real Forums: What to do about careless math errors?

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Topic: What to do about careless math errors?

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DianaC
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Joined: March 27 2008
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Posted: April 04 2013 at 1:28pm \| IP Logged

Mackfam wrote:

Finally, I considered some of my job to take a non-pressuring, kind of laid-back-looking-on-the-surface approach with this challenge. Does that make sense? I was certainly paying attention to her math and any errors, but I didn't want to add stress or pressure to something my student already knew was an issue by constantly belaboring it, bringing it up, or angsting over it. So, I presented our brainstormed solution and then just let it do its work in its own time. I didn't second guess what we were doing, didn't change curriculum, and didn't really talk about it unless this student brought it up with me - and then I tried to be encouraging while helping her brainstorm and fine tune any issues she was finding.

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I wanted to address two things you specifically mentioned:

DianaC wrote:

but there are still problems with simple things like writing the problem incorrectly or not actually answering what was asked.

:: Just circle (in red) any problem written incorrectly on her paper. Don't mark it wrong - just circle the problem. No words needed. She'll know that if you circled it, she must have written it incorrectly and it's her responsibility to go back, rewrite it, and work the correctly written problem out.

:: Include copywork more in her day. It encourages attentiveness to words/symbols on a page. Use tongue twisters as the source of your copywork because I've found this REALLY makes the child have to be very, very attentive.

:: With the challenge of not answering what was asked - she's being attentive to only half of the direction/problem and then tuning out important info. The key here is building the habit of attention. Try to find some simple logic word challenges to include in your days. Maybe on Friday morning, you do a couple of word challenges each day? Or something else simple like presenting one each morning while you all eat breakfast. Or find a neat book of riddles! Don't over-think this, or over-structure it - just add something really simple in that helps in building the habit of attentive listening! Something like: Brain Food: Common Sense Word Problems is fabulous - because the child's attention is actively engaged and they know they must pay attention very closely to get all the information they need to solve the problem.

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Good luck, Diana! I can't tell you how long exactly this kind of thing will last for your child, but I do want to encourage some good, solid brainstorming, and then patience in giving time for new habits of mental math recall to form. And by patience, I mean that you may not see significant improvement for a year or so.

I hear you loud and clear - I think that I have probably added more stress (unintentionally) by making frequent reminders of the types of mistakes she should be watching for. I think that I will switch to the subtle red pen approach.

My son's middle school teacher used to allow her students to re-do errors on a math test with written explanations of what the mistake was in order to earn half the points back. I'm now starting to incorporate this with my daughter on tests.

On practice work, though, I hesitate to give "partial credit". I know even back in the day when I was in school, we got partial credit, but I fear that that won't encourage the attention to detail that we are seeking in her current work.

Thank-you for the game idea - I think we will try the sumoku! We used to play math war with our flash cards and I think we will bring those back out as well. I think that the riddle idea - for attention to detail - is very interesting. Neither of us has an affinity for riddles, so we may have to play around with that idea a bit. I do think that she will enjoy the idea of copywork with tongue twisters. These are great ideas!

I will be grateful if we see this tide ebb inside of a year!! My daughter's biggest challenge is in retention. She learns everything easily and quickly, but then forgets it almost as quickly. Adding the careless errors to this frustrating problem has been very discouraging.

Thank-you for your thoughtful and very helpful response!

Martha
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Posted: April 04 2013 at 7:06pm \| IP Logged

I would agree with MacFam and also pose something that has helped in times of trial here.

I will assign 1/2 the exercise problems on ONE condition. For every problem they get wrong, they have to not only correct it, but do an additional problem from the other half correctly. This way, if they truly comprehend the concept, it's not hurting them and if they aren't, they will still get more practice at it when correcting and it inspires a surprising amount of extra attentiveness. ;)

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Martha
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