The Focused Student: Making mathematics add up for your student

By Robert Frank

Feb. 4, 2016 11:16 AM PT

Let’s take a look at how to study for some individual subjects. We’ll start this multimonth tour with math.

Good math students have some things in common. For each math operation, they understand the underlying concept, including its “language,” and how to implement the concept to get the correct result. Over the years, I have noticed that many students who excel at math are also good at sports, games and strategy-based activities. They often read sports statistics, or the numbers on the back of uniforms, cards or dominoes with an enthusiasm and repetition other students reserve for text messages. It’s no surprise they make things add up. A lot of math mastery involves repetition. The more you do, the better you get. Few of us encourage our kids to read a math book in their leisure time.

My kids hated doing 500 problems of basic math over the winter break, but they never forgot their basic math. The same goal can be reached in other ways — with recipes, through number games, or finances (which older kids seem to grasp better). So practice, practice and practice.

Process is fine, but it only works when everything is the same. It’s understanding the concept that lets a student generalize and thus cope correctly with variations on a theme. This also allows them to check the problem later and find their mistakes. The change of a math sign or addition of parentheses won’t throw them if they understand the concept of order of operations.

We all remember (with lingering dread) “word problems.” It’s literally a different language, and it can be helpful to create a translation sheet that gets your student from “plus” to “+” and “How many less ... ?” to “-” without dropping a digit.

Here are some other ideas to help with math.

1. Draw a picture of what is supposed to happen. It helps students visualize the problem much better. For example, using the pitch of a roof helps students understand the rise and run in a graph.

2. Ask your kids to explain how they got the answer. Better yet, ask them to teach you how to do the problem.

3. If you have access to a whiteboard, use it. Students can sometimes step back and see the bigger picture, and it helps them follow along to check their work.

4. Encourage your student to ask for help. Many think that if they ask, they will look “stupid” or the teacher will think less of them. Help them get over it.

5. Always attempt to put something on the paper when doing homework.

6. Encourage students to develop a peer math study group and go to the local coffee hangout to talk about the problems.

7. When taking notes or doing homework, have your student keep a sheet of paper next to him/her and add important definitions, equations, techniques or whatever the math whiz feels will be important to know for a test. This becomes a study and pretest review sheet.

There are many more techniques that can be used, but these will get you and your child started.

Finally, I thank my son Austin Frank for his collaboration on this article. He is graduating with a degree in mathematics this year.

ROBERT FRANK is the executive director of the Hillside School and Learning Center in La Cañada. He holds a master’s of science degree in special education and has more than 40 years of teaching experience. His column appears on the last Thursday of each month. He can be reached at frank@hillsideforsuccess.org.