Teaching Math? Give up Perfectionism.
“If you always make the right decision, the safe decision, the one most people make, you will be the same as everyone else.”
Paul Arden
Give up Perfectionism. Some strategies may be effective but without a long-term plan math difficulties will never get better.
Read more or go here to watch and listen.
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I can remember times when fear of failure or to put it another way, fear of letting my student down, prevented me from integrating a new plan into our lessons. I like routine, and my student can count on and trust the cumulative system in OG Math. By the time they are enrolled in OG Academic Math my students have already experienced frustration and failure with math.
I have confidence in the theories that support Orton Gillingham (OG) Math, so the solution to my fear and perfectionist apprehension is to trust the OG Approach. One key OG procedure is to spiral back, connect new math information to what is already known, and count on the structure and VAKT instruction to solidify learning and confidence. So, with evidence-based OG theory behind me and a solid approach in front of me, I developed and taught the approach to my students and they progressed.
I didn’t jump in blindly by any means and a few times, yes, I had to have a talk with myself when the individualized pace dictated by my student’s needs wasn’t a match for my wishes for him or her.
Margaret Rawson, an Orton-Gillingham pioneer understood the challenges faced by struggling students entering OG classes for the first time. She inspired and directed teachers and OG Practitioners to, “Go as fast as we can, taking all the time, we need. “
Ms. Rawson meant that to reach our goals for our students, we need to be keenly aware of the students’ learning pace, not our timeline.That’s good advice for the perfectionist in me. And I’m guessing it applies to some of you too. Otherwise a lot of successful learning opportunities will be lost while you and I wait for things to be right
Marilyn Wardrop is a gifted trainer & mentor who helps educators replace or surpass their current math teaching strategies for struggling math students or those children learning math for the first time.
Marilyn’s OG Academic Math training programs have been called the secret weapon of frustrated math instructors. Hundreds…even thousands of educators use OG Math every single day.
Is There a Magic Math Bullet?
Magic Bullet: A quick and easy solution to a difficult problem.
It’s a new year! Here in the north west of British Columbia, we are at that time in the school year when the first 4 months have passed. Some of our math students are right on track with the curriculum, some are getting it, and others are struggling. This is the group I’ve made it my mission to help: those students who are struggling with math or those learning math for the first time.
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Once again, it has inspired me to wade into the beginning of a new year with some tips to become successful teaching basic math skills. You don’t always need to add more things — sometimes you need to give some of them up.
Read about it here or check the video here.
Give Up Believing in the “Magic Math Bullet.”
An old Chinese proverb says, “It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.”
Yes, it’s true! No matter how much you hope for the one new idea, math worksheet or online math software that will help your struggling students finally “grasp and remember” the math they’ve been toiling with over and over again, it’s probably not going to happen without a solid plan and ongoing practice.
Hey, I know. I’ve been there! I remember teaching my students math tricks that I used myself. I thought they were clever and easy to use. That was my first mistake. In my enthusiasm to help out, I didn’t make certain that my student had the solid underlying math concepts to understand and use the nifty strategy I was trying to teach.
Then there are the snappy new worksheets. In the past, I purchased books of them thinking maybe there was a magical idea in them, or if nothing else, the worksheets would be colorful and fascinating enough to motivate my student toward new learning. But it often wasn’t so.
The wish for overnight transformation is like a fairytale. It has an inspirational plot, some drama and a successful resolution. It goes like this….
My student couldn’t ———!
He was really struggling and discouraged with ……!
Then we found …………..!
And overnight, he was transformed into — a budding mathematician?
That scenario is not too likely. At least not in my experience.
Let’s face it. I can be a perfectionist at times. However, when I’ve tried every strategy and trick I know to teach a student the basics of math and it’s not working, I know it’s time to look at a sustainable ongoing plan. Successful teachers know that making small continuous improvements every day will be compounded over time and give them desired results. That is why I suggest that you plan for the future, but focus on the lesson that’s ahead of you, and help your student improve just 1% every day.
Each small increment of improvement and change will lead to success in the long term.
Marilyn Wardrop is a gifted trainer & mentor who helps educators replace or surpass their current math teaching strategies for struggling math students or those children learning math for the first time.
Marilyn’s OG Academic Math training programs have been called the secret weapon of frustrated math instructors. Hundreds…even thousands of educators use OG Math every single day.
Contact Marilyn here anytime.
Meg and Greg an Orton Gillingham Resource
The holidays have come and gone. For most of us, life is getting back to the usual pace and routine.
Remember back in a previous article, I wrote how early math skills are a predictor of reading skills? Well of course it’s important to teach and practice reading skills along with basic math concepts.
So as a long time Orton-Gillingham Practitioner, I was excited to receive a copy of a new reading resource that fits perfectly with Orton Gillingham instruction.
The big idea with the book, A Duck in a Sock: Four Phonics Stories, is that it’s designed for shared reading between two people.
How it works: An adult or buddy reads more complex text that keeps the story interesting, while the child reads a simpler level of text that uses a phonics approach. A kid learning to read at an older-than-average age no longer needs to feel bored and demoralized by being given books written for a younger child. It helps in reducing debility in any part of the spine, cialis cheap online but chest and the lower section of the back are the most common areas. Clogged arteries are basically the situation where erectile dysfunction and viagra doctor heart health may help one to recognize signs and symptoms of heart disease early on and get treatment before heart problems become a serious issue.The actual link between Erectile Dysfunction(ED) and heart attack is still not well understood by medical practitioners as well as the men who suffer from erectile dysfunction. Do not just rely on what people have best online cialis http://appalachianmagazine.com/2018/10/15/the-fearsome-fairies-of-the-dark-woodlands/ to say about these products. Take small but frequent meals, so that your stomach secretes less amount of acid cialis 5mg price at a time to foster digestion. 4. This is the debut book for the much-needed new Meg and Greg series. I love it and the book and the OG Practitioners who tired it like it too.
The book was created by Elspeth & Rowena Rae along with the talents of Vancouver-based illustrator Elisa Gutiérrez. More information can be found here. www.tworeadbooks.com.
If you’re interested in getting a copy of the book yourself, it is now available in print and e-book versions. You can find it online at Amazon, Indigo, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and Kobo.
Good reading resources are hard to find and this one is definitely worth purchasing.
Yes! You Should Teach Orton-Gillingham Math to Preschool Children.
Young children love to touch and feel concrete objects. They love to move and immerse themselves in their surroundings. They are curious about everything around them. Maria Montessori knew this and incorporated sensory activities into early learning lessons.
Deborah Stipek, a Stanford University professor and former dean of education, has researched how children learn math and best teaching practices for success with math. She has long predicted that we are not paying enough attention to math instruction in schools. Early math instruction provides children with a strong foundation to build on just as it does for literacy. Her research as well as that of others, points out how, “Math can predict reading success and failure.”
The research is supporting the statement, but so far the reason is not really confirmed. It is thought that perhaps it is related to executive function. Further research points to how high school math failure begins with early number knowledge in first grade. Preschool children and first graders can learn to love math if it is taught through multisensory methods.
This is where a passion for math begins, or at the least it eliminates failure. Learn more about Stipek’s research and recommendations for early learners here.
Learn more about Multisensory OG Math.
Goldilocks and the “Just Right” Math Lesson Plan
You care about your students, so you know it’s important to plan your instruction well.
When your student or child struggles with basic math concepts, that uncertain feeling in the pit of your stomach starts to simmer when the help you are trying to give doesn’t change the situation.
You’re trying to help your student catch up, but here’s how it goes; today the focus in the classroom may be addition or subtraction.
You jot down a lesson plan and hunker down for some drill and practice with addition. Ah, it is familiar to your student! So you find some rhythm with your practice and it seems like she gets it. Yes, maybe you are both making some progress! After all, she should know this. Right?
Well yes, she may be familiar with addition and yes, she may know some of the addition facts.
But does she really get it?
The next day tells the tale. Although addition was familiar, it was not secure for mastery. So today you are back to where you were before; reviewing basic addition facts.
Only today, the class is practicing subtraction. Now, you are forced to make a timely decision.
Today’s lesson had better shortcut addition practice and get right into subtraction so she can keep up with the class. But you can’t help having that nagging feeling that you’ve taken a wrong turn. You’ve made a necessary switch, but maybe not one that your student is ready to make.
And it is here where you find out that subtraction is an even less secure skill for her than addition. Your experience tells you that a solid understanding of addition is imperative if your student will truly understand subtraction. And so it goes. You are unwittingly using the Goldilocks method of lesson planning.
The Goldilocks principle is derived from the children’s story “The Three Bears” in which a little girl named Goldilocks finds a house owned by three bears. Each bear has its own favourite porridge, chair and comfortable bed. After testing all three examples of all three items, Goldilocks determines that one of them is always too much in one extreme (porridge too hot, chair too large or bed too hard), one is too much in the opposite extreme (porridge too cold, or bed too soft), and one is “just right”.
Similarly, the first plan I described is often intended as a “catch up plan” which jumps right into the classroom curriculum so the student is up to speed with math concepts lickety-split. Goldilocks would tell you that plan is just too much for a struggling student. It positions the student and you into a situation of overwhelm.
A second approach is to place the student in an alternate curriculum workbook that is at his own skill level. But often the struggling student is below the class level. Still it seems like a good alternative plan. Unfortunately, because he is on a different path than the students in his class and working independently, Goldilocks would say there is just too little interaction or timely feedback to be successful.
You want your math lesson plan to be just right and Goldilocks would heartily approve.
So what is just right?
To start with, it is a lesson plan that begins with an accurate look at the skill level of your student as she is right now. That is the diagnostic aspect of the Orton-Gillingham Math Approach. Once you have established a clear idea of your students skill level, you can develop a lesson plan just for her that will review what she knows and includes the next concept that needs to be taught, or in some cases, re-taught.
But it is not yet a plan that is just right!
Because you need to evaluate how successful the current lesson was before you can plan the next one. That is the prescriptive aspect of Orton Gillingham Math. And that is how we move forward building what we refer to as “tiny habits”. I’ll talk more about them in the next blog article.
Go to this link to learn more about OG (Orton Gillingham) Academic Math.
Or contact OG Math for a private link to the OG Math Online Training Course.
“YES, VIRGINIA, There is An Orton-Gillingham Math”
About Virginia
On Sept. 21, 1897 and eight-year-old girl, Virginia O’Hanlon, wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun Newspaper. It said,
DEAR EDITOR:
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O’Hanlon.
115 West Ninety-Fifth Street, NY
The quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial.
“YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS”
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus…..”
It was later discovered that the response to Virginia was the work of veteran newsman Francis Church. It has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, on posters, stamps and the Antiques Roadshow …… and now here in an OG Academic Math blog post.
About Orton-Gillingham Math
Time-and-time-again, people contact me asking if there really is an approach to teaching that can be called Orton-Gillingham Math.
Some people think of Orton-Gillingham only as a structured phonics approach for teaching reading to students with dyslexia and learning disabilities.
Other more informed individuals know Orton-Gillingham as an interactive, multisensory, dynamic approach for teaching all aspects of literacy: reading, writing, comprehension and advanced language structures. The Orton-Gillingham Approach is – and should always be – adaptable, versatile and flexible to individual needs.
Math is a language. It is a precise language. A student’s ability to learn math language and ideas is made more difficult if the student has dyslexia, dyscalculia or a language-based learning disability.
My experience developing and teaching an Orton-Gillingham or OG Approach for Math has allowed me to see many discouraged students blossom in math. Those students who were failing at math leave OG Math lessons not only confident in basic math skills, but also ready and able to build higher math skills on a sturdy math foundation. The students and their OG Math instructors know for certain, there is an Orton-Gillingham Math Approach. And yes, Virginia it really does work!
Is it just too challenging to travel to our classroom training courses?
Contact us here to receive a private link to our OG Math Online Training Course.
Are you interested in learning more about OG Academic Math?
Enter your name and email here and I’ll be sure to send you a link.
Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season and Math Success in 2017.
When You Don’t Take Action
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The Effect of Not Doing or Why Not Teach OG Math?
Our actions shape our lives, but when we don’t take action it can be just as powerful.
I know! I was reluctant in the beginning of my OG Math journey. In fact I was completely resistant.
I knew that I was secure in my ability to teach students to read and write fairly confidently with the Orton- Gillingham or OG Approach. But Math! That was for someone else – like maybe a specialized math teacher.
So I confidently turned down opportunities to assist the students who approached me for help with math. My thinking was that someone else was more qualified to help. Gradually, bit by bit my eyes were opened and my thinking started to change.
Whether you realize it or not, every one of the thoughts you think, the words you speak, and the actions you take contributes to the complex quality of your interactions with your students who count on you for learning support. It simply is not possible to be alive without making an impact on people around us. It is particularly so with our students. If they trust you enough to ask for math help, how can you turn them down?
Every action taken affects your students as greatly as every action not taken. And when it comes to teaching students who struggle with the basics of math, what you choose not to do can be just as important as what you choose to do.
Another way of putting this is if you don’t think you can do it, how will your students believe they can do it? For example, when you sometimes neglect to speak up, vote, or help somebody in immediate need, you are denying yourself the opportunity to be an agent for positive change. Instead, you among others are enabling a particular course to continue unchallenged, picking up speed even as it goes along. By holding the belief that your actions don’t make much of a difference, you may find that you often tend to forego opportunities for involvement. On the other hand, if you see yourself as an important participant in the ever-evolving world of your students’ needs, you may feel more inspired to contribute your unique perspective and gifts to carefully structured multisensory math lessons. It is wise to be selective about how and where you are using your energy in order to keep yourself from becoming scattered in your Orton Gillingham lessons. Your OG lessons follow a carefully developed plan. Not every action is appropriate for every person. When a student’s situation catches your attention, however, and speaks to your heart, it is important that you consider how to honor your impulse to help and take the action that feels right for you.
That happened to me when I attended a conference many years ago and heard Dr. Stanley Antonoff speak about how many students with dyslexia were hampered in graduate and professional education by their weak math skills. But what really hit home for me was Dr. Antonoff’s declaration that math is a language.
And very importantly, he stated that people like me who teach students with dyslexia and language based learning challenges, need to acknowledge and address this need.
No matter how proficient a student is in reading and writing, it is not enough if they are failing mathematics.
Orton Gillingham works wonders for reading and writing skills and often many people don’t think of it for math. But OG Math has the same multisensory, interactive, structured approach as OG language. It may be the answer to your student’s math success. And maybe you’ll feel better knowing you are doing what you can, when it’s needed. Sometimes, it may be your one contribution that makes all the difference. If it seems like something you would like to explore you can contact me here at this
Email or why not take a look here!
Be Aware of Educational Promises Too Good to be True!
The Good News for Effective Help and Warning Signs to Avoid Getting Off Track.
The school year is up and running.
It’s the perfect time for parents and teachers of students who struggle with reading, writing and math skills to think about finding the very best help for their children and students. It is also Dyslexia Month; a time to focus on children whose reading and math skills often do not keep up with their peers, or only do so with an extraordinary amount of hard work. The International Dyslexia Association or IDA provides excellent guidelines to help parents and teachers find appropriate instruction for these children.First the Good News:
Most Reading Difficulties can be resolved or diminished. IDA has established knowledge and practice standards to inform and develop knowledgeable and skilled teachers so that all students in every classroom can benefit from successful literacy instruction. The need for good teaching instruction in every classroom has been clearly documented.The Bad News:
Not all educational promises meet the knowledge and practice standards. Some make promises of a quick fix that are just too good to be true. Others while meaning well, do not provide long term gains that translate into academic success. IDA cautions parents and teachers to:- Be Aware: parents and educators will do almost anything to help a child who is struggling in school. This makes it all too easy to get taken in by treatments and programs that make big promises, but do little except waste valuable time and resources.
- Be Wary of: Exaggerated claims, false guarantees, pseudo science and quick fix claims. Be wary of any approach that focuses on fixing a single underlying condition to address complex difficulties.
And There is More Good News:
IDA provides guidelines to evaluate treatments and programs for struggling students.- Ask questions. Do treatments and skills gains actually transfer into improved reading, writing, math or study skills?
- Invest time well for the long term. When a child fails to progress, frustration and loss of self-esteem can be devastating. Time is lost and hopes are dashed. Best practices and interventions are most effective when the brain is most plastic (or young). Wasting time during the early years can have life-long consequences.
Do You Talk Too Much When You’re Teaching Math?
Do you talk too much during your math lessons?
It’s easy to for you to do, and I understand why!
