Is Your Child Making Sense of Math?
A December 16, 2007 article in the San Diego Union Tribune by Bruce Lieberman "Making Sense of Math" describes a teaching method called the Cognitively Guided Instruction used in elementary school math. This approach was developed by researchers from the University of Wisconsin in the early 90's. It helps students understand principles of mathematics such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division through the manipulation of objects. The examples cited in the article are crayons and wooden spools tied together with shoelaces. There were testimonials from both teachers and students on how it helps student become better problem solvers later in life.
It's an approach that relies heavily on visuals to help students with the basic understanding of problem solving. Even with new techniques, some kids still struggle with math. This could be due to many factors, but there is a solution that works for almost every struggling student. The solution is getting an online math tutor to spend some one-on-one time with them to help them work through the concepts they don't understand, and teach them in a way they can conceptualize it. The visual approach used by schools is a very effective teaching tool which Tutorzilla.com also uses. We have an online whiteboard which allows both the homework tutors and the students to communicate and write using drawing, painting, and typing tools. Students can even download their own homework on the site, so when the math tutoring session starts, the problems are posted on the whiteboard. Not only is it a great learning tool, the students also have a lot of fun with it.
Using online tutoring is just a short a registration away. Now with the convenience of private and affordable tutoring from your PC at home, it's a great way to build a strong foundation for young students as they start to cover basic math principles or move forward to advanced mathematics and need help there.
