Hello and welcome back to What in the World is Dyscalculia, the podcast that is all about
the math related specific learning disorder.
I'm Dr. Honora Wall, founder of the Dyscalculia Training and Research Institute.
You can find out more about us at www.thedtri.org and make sure you check out the free printable
PDFs.
We have a one page fact sheet that's great for families, schools and teachers.
We also have some smaller infographics and brochures for students, parents and teachers.
They're free.
Grab them, print them, share them.
Let's raise awareness together.
The What in the World is Dyscalculia podcast is sponsored by Educalcl learning and you
can learn more about our work there at educalclearning.com.
It's a great resource for students through some online math classes we have for K-12
students and for teachers.
We do a lot of training and we have everything from introductory courses to graduate level
courses if you need those credits for licensing renewal.
That's where you can get some great information but I want to give you some more information
today in this podcast.
I want to talk about how do we help in the classroom?
What are we supposed to do for students who have dyscalculia?
This is a huge question right now in education and a lot of states are moving students into
504 plans for dyscalculia rather than IEPs.
Some are still using IEPs.
The difference between those two in a nutshell, there are other differences but our biggest
one for our purposes is that the IEP requires a different kind of instruction.
We're saying hey the student needs a different kind of instruction and what does that look
like?
What does that mean?
The 504 focuses more on what accommodations are we offering?
What accommodations are the student able to use and what are they using consistently and
what are we going to provide in that way?
Of course this is a huge problem because the question is what would different instruction
look like for students with dyscalculia?
The good news is, it's super easy.
You've already had a lot of training in it more than likely and it might be different
than what you're currently using in the classroom but it's very effective, super easy to use.
What you want to do for a student who has dyscalculia at any grade level, any age is
you have got to use explicit direct instruction.
You've got to start with that.
That can be different from a lot of current schools that are using a lot of project based
learning and incorporating that idea of exploratory mathematics.
Certainly, absolutely, project based learning and exploratory mathematics and learning is
really great at getting a deeper understanding and connection with math concepts and that
can be very effective and very fun for pretty much all students except not if they have
dyscalculia.
Of course that is a hallmark of the math learning disorder, isn't it?
The interventions we're already using are great for most people but not for these students.
The accommodations we're used to offering are fantastic for almost all students except
not for these students and that's really our difference.
The things that work to help students with dyscalculia will also help everyone else but
the reverse is not true.
Things that help most other students are not going to be effective for your students with
dyscalculia.
Does that mean I want you to abandon project based learning?
No, of course not.
Does that mean we cannot offer more enriching discussions for students with dyscalculia?
Lord, no!
That is absolutely opposite of what I am telling you.
What I am telling you is that if you start with project based learning or exploratory
mathematics, students with dyscalculia are likely to remain frustrated.
They're not going to get to that conceptual understanding you're looking for because they
can't keep up with what's going on.
They're not sure what you mean and even if they know what you meant, they're not sure
what they're supposed to actually do.
None of that is on the test Friday so it's not helping them move their grade and that's
where they're still staying disconnected.
If you can start with direct instruction, very explicit, this is exactly what we do.
Don't be afraid of the algorithms.
Why are we afraid now of steps and procedures?
There's nothing wrong with them.
That's how you do it.
Let the students get mastery and in my experience, it hasn't failed me yet.
I've been doing this a long time with students who have dyscalculia.
Once we get mastery and they know how to do it and they're doing it right, now they are
open to the conceptual conversation.
Now they will do some project based learning.
Now they're ready to play some games.
Now they're going to talk about real life applications because they got that mastery
first and they can apply what to do into these new enriching, interesting situations.
But you've got to start with direct instruction.
You have to be exceptionally clear.
You cannot skip steps.
You cannot say, oh and then we divided by one half.
No, no, no.
You have to write down what that looks like and the steps of how that has to happen.
You want the memory trigger.
You want the visual progression.
You want everything labeled.
If you're using color, fantastic.
You're going to have a lot more engagement and the brain understands how and where to
file things.
What is different and unique about this part because it's in red?
Oh, okay.
That's a step that I need to follow.
All of that coding and those triggers you can build in while you're doing that direct
instruction.
Don't make any leaps in the conversation.
Don't assume, oh everyone knows that this part we're subtracting five.
No they don't.
You've got to say what you're doing.
Even when you're using those steps and procedures for higher level math, we have a few steps
going on and we want to get through writing this problem out quickly.
We have things to do.
You need to add in those steps.
You cannot make those assumptions.
Make sure that everyone in the room sees exactly what's going on and that you state
exactly what you're doing.
And then check in with the students during the lesson.
Are they verifying their work?
Either with a multiplication list, not the chart.
Or with the calculator.
You know I'm a huge fan of the TI 30XA.
Cost about 12 to 15 bucks.
You can get it anywhere.
It will take you from fifth grade math through algebra 2 and quite a few calculations.
It's really a fantastic tool and it's easy for students to operate once you show them
exactly how.
It doesn't have to come with a huge manual.
You're not moving between screens.
You're not pulling up different menu items.
We know that people with dyscalculia struggle with steps and procedures.
So why would we give them a calculator that requires extra steps and procedures?
It's kind of counterintuitive.
So give them a calculator that makes sense.
Or up to fourth slash fifth grade.
I really like having the multiplication list.
You're going to use that for so many things.
I'm going to do an episode where we talk about exactly how to use it.
But it's a great tool.
But you're going to make sure that you ask them.
Okay.
I want you to put negative 5 minus 8 in the calculator.
Tell me what you get.
Based on their answer you're going to know are they putting the signs in correctly.
Is the calculator understanding the steps that they want to do or do you need to come
over and say okay hang on let's make sure we've got the order of the buttons properly
laid out.
Let me make sure we're doing that the right way.
Go through a couple of problems with them.
Let's try negative 7 minus 3.
Let's try negative 7 plus negative 3.
Get the buttons figured out.
When they know okay if I do this and I do this and I do this now I can trust my answer.
Perfect.
Now we can move forward.
Now we're getting through all of the assigned classwork and homework which is appropriate
for these students.
They do not need a modification.
No modification required for students with dyscalculia.
Accommodations.
Yes.
Correct support tools.
Yes.
Modification.
No.
This is entirely different and inappropriate for this population of students.
Once they've got the right answer and they're getting the work done and now they're keeping
up with everyone and they're feeling really good about things now you can start talking
about why do we even have integers.
Well we can talk about deep sea diving.
We can talk about banking and finance.
Now we can talk about all the different areas in life where you may or may not have negative
numbers.
It does not apply to distance.
So now we can get that enrichment piece and when we introduce project based learning there's
an anchor for the student.
They know the math is going to work and now they can trust the exploration.
You've got to do it in that order.
You've got to use scaffolding.
You've got to use direct instruction.
Plug that in to your classrooms.
Give it a little more than you're already doing.
More direct.
More scaffolding.
More mastery.
Then your students will be happy to come along with you on your project based learning journey.
Okay.
That was some very quick information for you about how to instruct differently for students
with dyscalculia.
Very easy to implement.
You don't have to buy anything new.
You don't have to do anything entirely different from what you're comfortable with.
You will see almost immediate results.
If you don't, you can email me.
Honora at educalclearning.com or Honora at thedtri.org.
I'm happy to talk with you and help you solve some of the problems in your classroom.
But you're probably going to email me and say, wow, I cannot believe it.
I did not think that was going to work.
It worked right away because it's an exceptionally effective tool.
Thank you very much for listening to this episode of What in the World is dyscalculia.
I hope that you are engaged with the growing community of dyscalculia experts.
It's really nice to see our little redheaded stepchild of a learning disorder getting some
recognition and awareness.
You play a key role in spreading that awareness even farther.
So thank you for being part of the journey.
I'm Dr. Honora Wall, and I'll see you next time on What in the World is dyscalculia.