Saturday, September 15, 2012

Grammar, there sure are a lot of rules

English is a difficult language to learn to write and speak properly. Many students today seem to be weak in spelling and grammar skills and this may be, in part, because so much emphasis is placed on math and science skills. It is understandable, because so much money is tied up in students doing well in those two areas on standardized tests.

Regardless of the emphasis, it is important that our sixth graders learn the grammar rules necessary to write well. As our students begin to write more and longer papers, the temptation is for them to use spelling and grammar checkers that come with word processing programs. While this may fix the most glaring errors, it is still not a substitute for recognizing and repairing the errors yourself.

Additionally, English grammar rules are very flexible. It is just not possible for any word processing program to come up with every possible instance of potential errors. The better your student understands the grammar rules, and the spelling rules, the better their writing will be. Since writing will only get longer and more complex as our students get older, it is very important that we give them a firm foundation now. If your child is struggling, it is worth the time to slow down and let them firm up that foundation.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Strategies for working word problems

Word problems are very difficult for some students. There are a couple of strategies that we can teach our children to help them solve word problems with less math anxiety.

The first step to solving a word problem is to read it and figure out what answer they are looking for. This seems obvious but many students are so overwhelmed by the size of the problem, especially if they are reluctant readers that they can’t even get to the point of working the math.

Next, the student should make a chart or at least separate the numerical information from the words and write an equation. Important in this step is for the child to look for key words that will help them decide what the operation of the problem is. Words like total, sum, and together will indicate addition. How many fewer, and the difference between will indicate subtraction. Each operation has key words within the word problem to help decide what operation to perform.

Finally, once the numeric portion of the problem has been written out, the student should solve the problem, and then check to make sure that the answer they get matches the question asked in the problem. An additional step would be to have your student double check their math to make sure the answer is accurate.

Giving your student tools to break down word problems into mathematic equations will help her find all of the words less intimidating.