Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Piggy-Backing on HK's Epiphany re: Challenges

Yeah, I was thinking I wouldn't redo many problems that were boring the first time without a serious incentive, too! I'd be tempted to suggest writing a program that took as input the variable numbers in the problem and gave as output the correct answer, where that's practical; this could be quicker if there are 40 problems, besides being metacognitively interesting.

Dandy, does your DS do maths competitions? For my DS, these raise the stakes in the right way to encourage carefulness.

Too me check your work doesn't mean all the time redoing the problem...if it was long division I check by multiplying, if it is an equation, I might plug the answer in to the original question....I might check by estimating and see if my answer is reasonable...like 20% of a number and my answer is bigger than my number I know I have done something wrong.

And sometimes I just spot check random problems by redoing them. But I did not and do not expect my son to do every problem twice. No one is perfect, go through slowly and carefully the first time and with a minimum of checking what you produce should be good enough.

And the US Dept of education says that 3 to 5 problems done correctly is the optimal number of practice problems...so if you have 3 different types of problems for one concept then your homework should be 9-15 problems long.

I've raised the topic a few times, but he's not been interested. He holds math merely as a tool to use in other pursuits.

Another heart-to-heart last night clarified his understanding of just how much math he will face in non-math courses and that his weakness will be felt in all those areas.

So far, he's on board with the idea of re-doing incorrect problems each night with me. We reminisced about his first major math challenge, which was 3-digit long-division. That dragon was slain by working carefully through a couple problems every night for 2-3 weeks.

We also looked at the various universities that interest him, noting the SAT score ranges of accepted students. He has big dreams and I think the importance of math in reaching those goals is slowly sinking in.

In the 6 weeks since I started thread, we've been working 3 or 4 nights each week carefully reviewing any missed problems on his Geometry homework and tests. For any problems we must re-visit, he has to show every glorious step so that I can follow exactly what he's doing. And it must be *legible*. To add an extra twinge of pain, when he has to re-work, he must do so from scratch, without the benefit of seeing what he'd done on his first attempt. By going through these exercises, he's starting to recognize the difference in quality when he SLOWS DOWN even slightly.

So far, the remedial work seems to be helping, as he's improved both his homework grade AND his test scores. He still needs to increase the consistency of his work, but he's definitely headed in the right direction.

Again, many thanks to all the support!

Dandy

Glad to hear it's going well!