by Brian
The state has mandated that all students must now pass Algebra and Geometry to graduate from high school. Therefore, many students and parents have decided to forgo taking a Pre-Algebra class, because it will not count as a math credit towards graduation. The dogma, the unquestionable belief, that we teachers are sworn to uphold is that all children can learn.
Yes, they can. But they need all the knowledge that will allow the new learning to make sense. So what do you do when a student comes to you and says: "You're wrong, this is too hard"?
We're into the second semester in Algebra now, and we just started working with negative exponents, and soon we will be adding, subtracting, and multiplying polynomials. Do you remember FOIL? Do you remember that (a+b)^2 is not a^2+b^2? Do you even understand that last sentence? Algebra is hard. In the last week, four of my students have come to me and wanted to transfer to a lower math class. So when a student comes to you and wants to quit, what do you do?
I asked my students recently how many of them thought that they did not have the 'math gene', and about 2/3 of them raised their hand. I said: "Wait a minute, there's no math gene! If you work hard, you can do this!!" I watched Stand and Deliver again recently, and I was swept away by the success of a wonderful teacher with a group of highly motivated students. Then I realized that if my students came to school at 7am and stayed until 5pm, and gave up their summer vacation, I could get those results too. But they don't.
T came to me and said: "It's not the way you teach, but I just don't get this." I agreed. E went to the counselor and said that she was lost. I agreed. R said: "I could probably do this if I tried, but I'm too far behind and it's not worth the effort." I reluctantly agreed. They all transferred to pre-algebra. But S came to me and said I don't get it. I said, "Wait a minute, that's not what I see when I work with you. You get it, you can do it, but you're not working hard enough to own it. You're staying until you work hard enough to prove to me you really can't do it."
So did I give up on T, E, and R? Should I have told them that all children can learn, and they had to stay in Algebra?
Algebra is not arithmetic. It is abstract reasoning. Tell me why 1,273,496 raised to the 0 power is equal to 1. Tell me why 10 raised to the negative 23 power is a very small positive number. Tell me why every fifteen year old student needs to know that.
So when a student comes to you, and says: "I can't do this", what do you do?
Never give up! But leaving them unmotivated and failing isn’t the answer either. Stand and Deliver was truly remarkable, but very few of us can replicate that miracle. There has to be an answer Brian. My hope is you, and others will find it for this generation of kids.
I can relate to your students, Brian. I remember as a 10th grader, being in a math class that was over my head. I was motivated and I was trying, but I couldn’t get it. Fortunately I was able to transfer to a lower math class, where I earned a B. It sounds like the problem is requiring Algebra to graduate, but not requiring pre-algebra before algebra.
Chelsea makes a good point: my answer is that the diploma isn’t something worth working toward to them, they need something else 🙂
Is Algebra reasoning or is it just the repetition of known patterns and application of sequential repeated actions? You know that anything raised to the power of 0 is 1, do you really need to know why? (I seem to remember something about the solution of an exponent being 1 times the base as many times as the exponent exists, so if the exponent is zero then the base does not exists, so the answer is one…) Do they need to know why if they can follow the pattern? I couldn’t explain why 10 to the -23 is a fraction, but I can explain how to find the solution. Do they need to know why slope is m, or do they need to know that it is? Do they need to know why FOIL works, or do they need to be able to do that action when multiplying polynomials? I still don’t understand why the quadratic equation works, but I know how to make it work. Maybe they need to be told it’s okay to not understand WHY yet as long as they understand HOW. As part of the freshman intervention program I work in, I work daily with kids on their Algebra I. I often get the “why” question, and when I can convince them that they need to understand how before they can truly understand why, and once they can understand patterns, it is amazing how much quicker they are willing to pick it up.
There’s a piece of me that says you already identified the reasons why kids don’t excel in math: 1. they get behind, so it is more the points in the gradebook which deter them than their capacity to learn; 2. they don’t think they have the math gene. Self-perception is a powerful thing.
So my point: what will they get in pre-Algebra that you couldn’t also give them in Algebra I? You said it’s not an arithmetic issue, if it is a thinking issue, then what different thinking will they get training in in pre-Algebra that they won’t get in your class? My suspicion is that it’s a matter of a light switch. If “pre-Algebra” won’t get them graduation credit, why not stick it out in Algebra I and see if maybe that light switch can be found? At worst, they still don’t get graduation credit. At best, through your mutual hard work, they get it and can move forward. There’s no guarantee, after all, that the light switch will be found in pre-Algebra either.
I teach a discipline that is too often not considered sequential–as a result, we get the pre-Algebra kids in desks next to the Calculus kids. When they “don’t get” my class, there’s no where to send them… I have to just figure out how to help them get it, and usually the help has to do with remediation-on-the-fly…giving them things they “should have” gotten previous years, but didn’t. And sometimes they don’t get it and they just have to try again next year, hoping that further exposure and support will get them to the next level.
I think the key in what you said Brian was that the students in “Stand and Deliver” were highly motivated. I strongly feel that 99% of the kids in my math class can be successful, but only about 1/2 have the motivation needed to be successful. Despite my attempts to make lessons engaging and relevant, I can’t seem to motivate these kids. And for most it’s not just in math, they are also failing in most of their other classes also.
So my question is….how do we motivate these kids that seem to see no relevance or reason to work hard in school?? There seem to be more of them every year.