Hello everyone and welcome to What in the World is Dyscalculia, the podcast that is
all about the math learning disability.
This podcast is produced and presented by Educalc Learning and I am your host, Dr. Honora
Wall.
You can find out more about today's topics or anything else related to Dyscalculia at
EducalcLearning.com or visit our non-profit organization www.thedtri.org.
Dyscalculia Training and Research Institute and I am looking forward to having more information
about that non-profit for you pretty soon.
We are working on a project right now for increasing awareness and getting some informational
brochures into the hands of school counselors so that there is some information you can
hand out directly to parents, students and teachers who are curious about the math learning
disability.
I am glad that you are with me today on this podcast episode.
I wanted to share with you a story that happened at a recent conference I was speaking at.
I was having a great time at this conference and sometimes you get an unexpected benefit
when you are presenting at a conference and that is exactly what happened to me.
I was presenting on an introductory, what is Dyscalculia, for teachers in Iowa.
As part of the conversation one of the teachers in the room was asking about using a calculator
and they said to me, well you said that Dyscalculia makes people forget steps and it is hard to
follow procedures and yet you are telling us to use the calculator but that is going
to be steps and procedures.
I said, well now I do want you using the calculator because it is going to be beneficial in saving
time, reinforcing the right answer, letting students focus on the concept or the vocabulary
without worrying about those basic facts.
Long story short the person in the audience and I were not hearing each other for a few
minutes.
I will save you the back and forth but it was a little comical because I was obviously
not answering the question.
He was asking, it took us a few minutes to figure out the question.
At one point he said, I am sorry to push on this, I really want this to work for my students.
I said, listen push away.
The only way that a presenter on any topic is going to give you what you need as the
attendee is if you ask those questions and push.
And also by having the attendee push it helps me understand what teachers need and how to
explain in the best way possible.
That is really the name of the game.
The more we get teachers on board with understanding exactly what dyscalculia is, what it does
and how to support students, the faster we are going to have a lot of students succeed
really quickly in all classrooms.
And that is the passion that drives my work.
So back to my presentation story.
After a few minutes of this back and forth we finally figured out what the issue was
with this conversation.
The teacher who I was speaking with teaches a pre-calc class in high school.
Now students with dyscalculia do great in higher level math classes.
It is much easier than elementary school math for a number of different reasons.
But mostly high school math does not bother with the dyscalculia trifecta, time, money,
and place value.
So we don't ever multiply 3 and 4 digit decimals times 3 and 4 digit decimals in upper level
math and science classes.
We deal with much smaller, easier to work with numbers.
But in this pre-calc class the teacher was worried about having students use the fraction
to decimal and decimal to fraction button on their calculator.
Now that button if you are using a higher level, more expensive, fancier calculator,
it will convert between fractions or decimals or fractions and mixed numbers.
Sometimes they have that button as well.
And there are a lot of steps involved as we use those fancier buttons.
So in that situation absolutely this could cause a problem for a student with dyscalcullia because there are so many different buttons to push and what order do you push
them and how do you remember.
So once we got that figured out where I knew exactly what button he was talking about and
the content he was concerned with, manipulating fractions and decimals and showing things
in different ways, I said oh okay now I get it.
I agree having to use the second and then this and then the number and then that and
a bunch of different buttons, that can be a lot.
I prefer and I suggest that instead you simply teach students that any fraction represents
division.
Top number divided by bottom number.
I don't care if it's 12 over 2, you can put 12 divided by 2 in the calculator.
If it's 2 over 12, you would put 2 divided by 12 into the calculator.
And there's a few reasons why this is so important.
The first reason is that order in division and subtraction is super important.
Division is not commutative the way addition and multiplication is.
You can add and multiply in any order you want.
It will never change your answer.
But in subtraction and division that is absolutely not the case.
It will completely give you the wrong answer.
That is actually an issue that students who do not have dyscalculia, who just have low
numeracy or who have no math struggles at all, find is a stumbling block.
They'll look at a problem and we drill this idea that mental math is the be all end all
of everything.
The eye sees a 12 and a 2 and the mind could care less what the order is in.
It will just spit out oh it's 6.
Well if you had 12 over 2 that would divide to 6.
But if you have 2 over 12 it absolutely will not.
You would either simplify that fraction to 1 over 6 or you would have a decimal if you
were doing the long division.
So practicing top number divided by bottom number helps students understand that order
is incredibly specific and important in division.
So that's number one.
It really reinforces the commutative property when we can and cannot use it.
Number two, if the only thing we're ever telling students is top number divided by bottom number,
now they have a skill set they can use on any calculator from the four button basic one
to the TI 30XA which is my personal favorite to the very fancy high end super expensive
calculators.
Hey if it's a fraction and you need a decimal or a final answer top number divided by bottom
number.
That's very easy.
The steps are always the same.
Doesn't matter what the fraction is.
That helps students feel mastery and consistency.
That feeling of consistency and knowing what to do every single time is missing quite a
bit for students who have dyscalculia and low numeracy and any sort of background issues
that have gotten in the way of them building a strong math foundation.
Whenever you can build consistency in the steps then the student can build on their mastery.
So that's the second reason why it's very important.
And then my third reason for why this is such an important skill is that it's very clear
and direct.
You don't have to worry so much about a student forgetting the steps because top divided by
bottom and if they do that from fourth grade through college algebra then they never have
to learn a different way depending on the different calculators.
Now some students of course especially if you're doing the right interventions and accommodations
at an early age in fourth and fifth grade then by the time they get to high school if
they've had consistent proper instruction for dyscalculia then they'll be ready to look
at some of these different buttons on the calculator.
And certainly there are times especially if we're finding the cubed root or higher than
a cubed root of a number where we really need those second function buttons.
And if we're doing statistics and we're using some of the fancier Texas instruments or other
calculators there's plenty out there.
The more impressive they are and the more expensive they are the more confusing they
can be.
So we need to spend time with our students figuring out their comfort level their strengths
and weaknesses showing them exactly what to do on the calculator.
If there are multiple steps especially in higher level math I would have them write those steps
down and they have those steps with them with or without a worked example but at least the
same notes when they're taking their assessments formative summative quizzes tests whatever it
is let them have that reminder in this situation I follow these steps in that situation I follow
the other steps they know they have multiple situations of math problems and they know they
have multiple steps they could choose from.
The issue for a lot of students is how do you match the right steps to the particular
problem and feeling that lack of certainty undermines the whole thing it really knocks
down the whole house of cards.
So if we want students to show what they know then we're just going to help them make sure
they've got the right tool.
And as adults we do this for ourselves all the time and for each other if you've ever
put together a piece of furniture from any store that you bought furniture in a box from
it comes with a set of directions with some pictures and the name and exactly where you
use that tool.
Even if you have put together a million dining room table sets you are still going to get
the instructions in the box and they're going to very clearly label the different screws
the different nuts and bolts the allen wrench anything else that's included.
Now for me putting together the furniture is still hard no matter how many times I do
it just not my skill set not my favorite thing to do but I certainly expect that I'm going
to have those instructions in the box.
So when we talk about these accommodations and interventions for students it's not anything
we're not doing for ourselves as adults.
So let's make sure to give students the right support and then they can work to mastery.
And then if you are having a conversation with your students or if you're presenting
and you're talking with an attendee in the audience and you find that you're just not
really getting where you need to be.
You're not understanding each other and understanding what the person is asking.
Make sure you step back and ask them some better questions.
I could have saved a ton of time and effort and probably aggravation on this poor attendees
part if I had simply said in the beginning tell me what topic you're using that calculator
for and exactly which buttons you're talking about so I know what we're dealing with.
Then I could have had an answer that would have been appropriate right away but instead
I was explaining my point and that point did not answer the person's question.
So remember as educators, trainers, parents we need to tweak our questions and we can
get where we need to be faster.
If you're the student or the parent or if you're a teacher talking to a presenter in
a conference and you're not getting the answer you want keep asking, keep working on it.
Keep saying I'm not sure if I'm asking this the right way.
Let me show you or let me give you an example and keep going until you find some common ground
you get that right answer that you need.
Sharing information is the way we all get to success and that's exactly what I hope
you get out of these podcast episodes is a way to be successful as a teacher, as an interventionist,
as a tutor and as a student of any age.
If you're an adult with dyscalculia and you've been trying to get support for a long time
and it's not working don't give up.
You just haven't met the right person yet who understands your needs and can give you
the right support.
But there is a way for all of us to get to the hallowed land of math success even for
people with dyscalculia and I promise it's not that hard and the success once you get
it right comes fast and easy and it stays that way.
I'm very excited that my students who I've worked with and the ones I'm working with
now find success in math and upper level science pretty quickly and they stay there because
accommodations work and interventions work.
And if you are using a calculator keep it simple.
Keep your steps minimal and make sure that you work with students to use the simplest
explanation is almost always best.
If you have any questions or comments push through the email, push through comments on
our Facebook page, find us on LinkedIn, go to the website and email me directly from
there.
I would love to delve into your specific questions and comments and you can find more information
on educalclearning.com.
This is Dr. Honora Wall.
Thank you for listening to the What in the World is Dyscalculia podcast presented by
Educalc Learning and I look forward to seeing you again soon.