A friend of mine asked if I would be interested to tutor a 7th grader in Math. He needs help and she thinks I can help him. Actually, I am a special education teacher who taught Middle and High School math to students in inclusion and self-contain settings. I do not claim to be an expert in Math but I do know how to simplify complex concepts and present it in understandable chunks. That is one of the roles of a SPED teacher. In this post, I will share with you how I helped my MS/HS students learn grade level Math even though many of them barely know how to multiply. But first, let me differentiate what a SPED and HS subject teacher.
Content versus Process
Most HS teachers, like a Geometry, Chemistry or World History teacher, are content experts. That means they know most topics in their subject area. Special education teachers like me are more of a "process experts." We focus more on how students learn. We will study what the subject is and figure out a way to help the student learn it. For example, if a 7th Grader is having difficulty in Ratio and Proportion word problems, we will observe how he solves the item and pinpoint his difficulties. We might also review his IEP if he has one or his previous grades and other data. Then we will figure out a way to help him overcome his difficulties.
What to do if your student is lagging behind in Math
But how can we help students who are lagging behind in Math especially during this pandemic? The easiest way is to find tutor. This is what my friend thought about. But there are other ways to help your student before you contact a tutor.
First, figure out what your student need to learn from Achieve the Core. They have a coherence map where all the Common Core Math standards are presented and showed how they connect to each other. They have some Math free math tasks and assessments available for free. It is somehow challenging to find them in the site so I made a short video on how to get the assessments with a thumbnail that looks like the image below.
Somewhere in the download area, there is an answer sheet and recommended pre-requisite skills--please look at the video if you need help finding it. Chances are, your student needs to review or learn those skills. If there are still some difficulty, then you have to look at the Math learning progression for that particular topic. I know, it is a lot of reading material. But this is exactly how I bridged the learning gap of my special needs students: I used the learning progression materials others shared. If this worked with students with disabilities, this will also work with any students who just happen to lag behind for one reason or another.
If the learning progression documents are too wordy for you, why don't you learn from Marian Small. She wrote a book called "Building Proportional Reasoning Across Grades and Math Strands, K–8" and it helped me see the learning progression of Ratio & Proportion lessons from Kindergarten to 8th Grade. I went through it and was thrilled on how she connected all the K to 8th Grade standards and lessons to proportional reasoning and real world situations.
Other Solutions
I talked with a former co-teacher who is teaching 7th Grade Math and asked how she handles multiple students with learning gaps. She told me her district uses IXL. She told me that even though her students are in 7th Grade, IXL automatically goes to whatever the grade level the student is currently performing. I signed-up for the 30-day teacher account and I was impressed with it. It listed all the pre-requisite skills a student need for each standard. The monthly charge for IXL Math is only $9.95 and I think it is worth it. There are also free Math sites like CK-12 Interactive Middle School Math 7. However, IXL assumes you already learned or was exposed to the concepts in school. It gives you some idea about the concept only if your student answered incorrectly.
Lastly, I am building a my virtual coteaching practice which will start early 2021. If your student or child will need help in bridging learning gaps in Middle School Math, let me help you. Please sign-up here to be updated on how I can help you as your virtual coteacher.