Hey math students (parents, grandparents and teachers),
Welcome back. Appreciate all the questions and feedback. Have a question or comment? Reply to this email. Now onto the learning!
Homework is less of a struggle when you remember what’s been taught!
You’ll struggle with homework for three reasons*:
You didn’t understand the teacher,
Didn’t understand the lesson – this could be due to not understanding the previous day’s class or homework,
Absent from the lesson.
If any of the above three apply to you, here’s a popular strategy you may already be doing and three I’d recommend.
#1
I’ll start with the most popular objective with students, ‘get homework completed and done as quickly as possible’ (aka jump into doing homework w/o taking time to first understand what the teacher has taught)! Do you do this?
This ‘strategy’ attempts to do two skills simultaneously: 1) Trying to learn what the teacher has taught you while 2) Doing the homework, so it’s a brilliant time-saver as it’s the quickest way to get homework done.
But the ‘two skills at the same time’ avoid understanding, so you’ll get stumped on a question sooner. Then you’ll have to get help (e.g. class notes, answers at the back of the textbook, friends or online) - but this 'help' is you being retaught what’s already been taught. Hmm.
Homework is the lesson in disguise.
#2
Create a ‘Remember Page’ of what your teacher taught you. Think of this Page as a summary page that helps you remember the fundamentals of the lesson. I’ll explain this Page using the most crucial concept in Algebra, Solving.
1. The easiest question taught (e.g. Solve 2x – 3 = 5)
2. Solution of that easy question, (with all steps written)
3. Any math words in the question and their meaning (e.g. Solve)
4. Any math symbols and their meaning (2x, x, –, 3, =, 5).
5. And a visual of the question (do ‘Solve 2x – 3 = 5’ with a picture)
Then quiz yourself to make sure you know 100% of this Remember Page. This Page will have everything you need to know about that question :)!
Reminder: You will struggle with homework if what has been taught is not remembered.
#3
Redo all questions taught in class until all are remembered. First, start with the easiest question your teacher taught and redo it. Then move to the next question and redo it until all questions are redone. Your aim is to redo all w/o looking at notes.
#4
A common strategy that highly motivated students use is reading the lesson the day before the teacher teaches it. It’s a way to know the new math before your teacher teaches it, so of course, when you see it a second time in class, you’ll get it quicker and remember it. And once lesson taught, you can then jump straight to the homework.
Which strategy should you choose? The strategy that helps you remember, as that’s the purpose of homework. right?**
REVIEW
The advantage of strategy #1 is it’s quicker than #2, 3, 4. But #2, 3, and 4 are better at helping you remember. Here’s another way of thinking about it:
If your objective is to get homework completed as quickly as possible, then you’ll choose #1.
If your objective is to remember the homework you’ve done then you’ll choose #2, 3 or 4.
Isn’t it time to be the boss of homework?
Edison
Edison Hopkinson BSc Mech Eng, B.Ed.
Math Learning Strategist
Strategies to use when the normal ones aren’t working!
*P.S. The opposite is true for these reasons - be strong in understanding teacher, and lesson, and you’re more likely to struggle less on homework. In a future Math by Edison, I’ll explain how to understand the teacher and lesson.
**P.P.S. Strategy #1 is more memorization, as you do not understand why you’re doing what you’re doing, and that’s why you don’t remember and get stumped. Need proof?
1) #1 skips the third step of the 5-step learning and
2) Compare the #1 to #2 strategy, and you’ll notice that #1 only does 40% of the five parts (the question and solution to the question) and ignores the other 60% (meaning of words and symbols and visual).