HELLO and welcome – if you are or have a student who struggles in math, it is a sure bet they struggle with mental math. You can find help here!
I began writing Ed. Help to give students and parents a place to find information and ask questions about problem solving and how that process elevates your confidence in all areas of life.
The most important thing you can do for 3rd -7th grade students … is make sure they are “Mental Math” capable. What do I mean? I’m glad you asked!
I am convinced that most students who have a hard time with math struggle with mental math. Students who use mental math to calculate rather than adding or multiplying on their fingers can pay more attention to learning concepts when they are not slowed down by calculation confusion (See image above). Regrouping is a hard concept to master because it’s hard to, mentally, calculate what needs to be regrouped. Fortunately, when those numbers are in your head it is much easier.
Students who are slowed down by sluggish mental math skills are not able to focus on new concepts as they are being taught and often find themselves missing crucial information or steps to master those concepts. Whether they are too embarrassed to tell their teacher they don’t understand or they don’t want their peers to know they don’t understand, that inability to grasp the concept leads to an unstable foundation and that leaves them in the unacceptable position of missing the question when it comes up in evaluation mode on a test.
Foundation stable mental math skills allow students to use their brain capacity for calculation while their eyes and ears become true input devices to feed the concept to their brain. Once the brain is trained to receive the input and process it as quickly as the brain does, students are better able to grasp concepts and gain the confidence they need to move on to higher levels of Math.
Additionally, students with stable mental math skills are able to answer questions much faster on timed, high-stakes tests. This ability leads to much better scores on tests and other evaluations.
Hang out with me and let’s help students at all levels get on top of the skills that may be lagging due to Covid. My first suggestion: randomly test your student’s mental math skills by asking them … ” What’s 4 X 8?” (or 25 X 8 – think of quarters = 200 or $2.00) Choose any pair of numbers you know the answer. (Here are electronic flash cards that may help 3rd-8th grade students. If answers are within the timing, mental math skills are stable. If there is still a struggle, let’s talk about a complimentary assessment of current skills to pinpoint the area(s) of weakness.
Until next time … Dream BIG and let your D.R.E.A.M.S. take you there! 😀
Electronic Flash cards (E-Cards)
Learning Unleashed 