KalviTN

Teaching writing numbers/numerals involves several skills and various physical and cognitive actions:  (a) teaching and correcting pencil grip, paper position, body position, location of the other hand, etc.;  (b) teaching and correcting poorly established letter and number construction; and (c) teaching a new handwriting form or shaping the old handwriting form, for example, print or cursive.  It is easier to learn these skills, but difficult to correct when they are poorly taught and poorly learned. Therefore, effective initial instruction is critical. Preventive teacher is always important than corrective teaching. If preventive teacher is absent or poor then corrective teaching has to be effective and efficient. For example, after fourth grade, the items in (a) are tough to correct, but not impossible.  A correction to type (a) habit is difficult, but it can be done and it is worth it. There are definite physical reasons for this. For example, proper finger and t...

The vital role of language in mathematics performance is widely recognized. Most people see mathematics language only in the context of word problems, but it is much more than that. Every mathematical idea involves three components: linguistic, conceptual, and procedural. To learn an idea means to create linguistic and conceptual models for it. We need to have a language container to receive, comprehend and explain a concept. Without an internalized language container, we need to relearn the concept every time we encounter it. The term language container means a word or a phrase to express an idea with related conceptual schema: sum, even number, least common multiple, denominator, rectangular solid, and conic section. Students’ proficiency in mathematics is directly related to the size of the set of their language containers. However, rote memorization of a collection of words is not enough to master the language of mathematics. One has to acquire the related schema with understanding...

Practice of a concept or skill begins with efficient note taking – an important academic skill students, particularly at the middle and high schools levels, need to develop to have higher achievement in mathematics. It includes how to take notes during teacher and student presentations and then how to summarize work and learning. Through note taking, the information transfers from the teacher to the student and from the student to the teacher. Because the development of note taking skills cannot be left to chance, the teacher has to teach these skills explicitly. Practice allows students to achieve automaticity of basic skills—the fast, accurate, and effortless processing of content information—which frees the working memory for more complex and higher order thinking and fosters the development of creative aspects of problem solving. With automaticity with understanding, the transfer—the ability to use skills learned in solving one class of problems to solving other problems—a vital pa...