kitchen table math, the sequel: success!

Friday, May 4, 2007

success!

Christopher finally got his quiz back, the one he took after I started my brand-new preteaching-not-reteaching regime.

He got an 80!

This is on a quiz he forgot about, didn't tell me about, and didn't study for.

Just walked into the class cold and took it.

Even better, the other kids didn't blow him out of the water. A couple of the class stars got scores in the 80s.

This is the way to go.

I'm also having him do KUMON-like practice every night to build speed. For whatever reason, he's not giving me vast quantities of grief about it. I've said "You need speed" so many times (scroll down), and related the need-for-speed to athletics so many times....maybe it's just sunk in.

Spaced repetition, the Key to life. Water wears away rock.

Also, it's a bit easier getting a middle school kid to do extra math if you say, "Go solve these 10 equations as fast as you can."

Makes the whole thing sound less onerous.

I've been using two workbooks:

This is an amazingly low-stress way to remediate the school.

Extraordinary.

Just sorry it took me two years to think of it.


preteaching not reteaching
success!
success, part 2

2 comments:

Tex said...

Congratulations!

Preteach does make so much sense. Although, it’s crazy that it has to be done. I need to preteach so my daughter will get meaningful instruction from the discovery teaching that she seems to get in school.

Speed is good for several reasons. Addresses the short attention span problem, satisfaction in being the first to finish, eliminates lengthy arduous homework time. Spending 10 minutes doing easy problems, the Kumon way, is painless.

From observing your experience, I think my goal should be to preteach a year in advance by the time my daughter gets to middle school.

Tex said...

Spaced repetition, the Key to life. Water wears away rock.

So true. It seems to work in blogging.