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Hello and welcome to the What in the World is Dyscalculia podcast. I'm Dr.

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Honora Wall and I'm your host for the podcast which is sponsored by Educalc

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Learning. You can learn more about Dyscalculia and how to help students who

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have Dyscalculia at educalclearning.com. I would also ask you to go to our

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non-profit organization the Dyscalculia Training and Research Institute. That's

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at www.thedtri.org and get lots more free information. We're always putting out

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new things and with this podcast episode we're deep in the heart of season 3.

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We're kicking off 2025. Happy New Year to everyone and one of the goals for

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25 is to be more consistent with the podcast, with the social media outreach.

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You can join our teachers Facebook support group for Dyscalculia. That's a

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public group. You can find us of course on all sorts of social media platforms

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LinkedIn, Instagram, Blue Sky, and possibly we'll continue TikTok. We'll see how

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this all shakes out with that social media platform. But every way we can

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possibly get information to teachers, administrators, families, and students with

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the math learning disability. That's our goal. We're always trying to increase the

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free resources we have available for you. And I want to start this podcast and

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kind of kick off the year. It was something I was thinking about a lot

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over the break and that was for me personally what is my goal? What is my

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focus area? Why am I doing all this stuff? And it really comes down to the

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student. My teaching philosophy is very much based in Dewey's pragmatism and

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Vygotsky's more knowledgeable other. Connecting with students directly and

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really changing their life trajectory as they maneuver our K-16 education system

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and having a math learning disability. And I think this is interesting but maybe

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it's just me but I do want to make it clear that I'm really not here for the

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math. Math is the setting and the students are the characters. But for me

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math is not the theme. The theme for me is triumph. It's taking down a system that

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puts up barriers that are unnecessary. It's helping people find their true sense

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of power and overcome their struggles. That is my theme. That's why I'm doing

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this work. And I think that's important for people to know as they listen to my

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podcast, look at my information and check out the materials that we develop.

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It's designed for people who have a learning disability or some other issue.

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Could be trauma, could be anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, other

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types of neurodivergence. Something that's keeping them from reaching their

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full potential. Especially in math because that impacts so many other areas of

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life. We know the qualitative research on people with dyscalculia leads to not

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completing high school sometimes, not completing their college degree quite a

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lot of the times, which is horrible, not being able to get into the careers they

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want, earning less money over time, not being part of the family finance

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conversation, and not having that self-confidence maneuvering the world

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with a strong sense of numeracy. And there's no reason for that. So I want to

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change that for people and that's the goal of all of the work that comes out

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of eduCalc Learning and out of the DTRI. If that's also your interest area, this

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is going to be a really great place for you and we're going to be able to

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partner really well. If that's not your focus, then you're probably not going to

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agree with a lot of what I have to say and I'd like you to know it now so you

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can find the best resources for you. There's lots of different lenses to look

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at this through. And another theme for me is that I don't like bullies. I don't

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like it when people are bullied. I don't like people who are toxic to other

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people and sadly we have too many people in education and in families who are

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very toxic and bully people with dyscalculia or other learning challenges

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and that really makes me mad. And the more I can call it out and get people to

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change that behavior, I'm going to take that opportunity every time it comes up.

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I also find our K16 education system here in the US has some inherent systemic

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bullying involved and there's a lot of barriers that are designed for I don't

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even know what some crazy definition of rigor that no one can really define

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rather than letting rigor be defined by the student and the user. Some crazy

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system of state mandated testing which is not designed for neurodivergent

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students in any way shape or form so I guess we can thank those state mandated

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tests for pointing out that disabilities do exist and that learning

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disabilities can be impacted by test presentation and format and question

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design and if we compare that to classroom performance we can really see

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the difference. However in the classroom a couple things I'm going to be talking

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about this year that I really need teachers to hear me on we have got to get

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the grading figured out and by that I mean quit putting zeros in the gradebook.

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If you're putting in zeros as a grade that shows me you have your own problems

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with numeracy and I need you to fix that. You can give a student an F? Absolutely.

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If that's what they've earned then that's what they get but an F is also a 50 even

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a 45. These are failing grades. You can absolutely put them in your gradebook

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but they are a grade that someone can overcome simply by working with the

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averages. Trying to overcome a zero is near impossible. Trying to overcome a 50

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that is possible through hard work concerted effort and putting in the time

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but if you're putting zeros in the gradebook you're creating an extra

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barrier that the student cannot overcome no matter how hard they're working or

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what kind of effort they're putting in. That's unnecessary so just knock it off.

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Another place I want you to really contemplate your grading is what kind of

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activities do you grade. We know that having oral assessments is a perfectly

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valid tool. It's an alternative assessment design. It's part of universal design for

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learning giving students different methods of giving you the information they

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know. If they can explain the steps to solve a problem if they can walk you

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through the work they're doing to get a math answer and if their explanation is

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correct that is equally valid to the student who can write down and quietly

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show you their knowledge with paper and pencil or by clicking through a

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computer-based assessment. I know many of you are giving oral assessments which

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is great. If you're not you really should. You need to be discussing things with

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your students and you need to hear how they explain their thought processes but

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not enough of us are putting those oral assessments into the gradebook or I know

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of a few schools where teachers will use the oral assessment and then average

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that score with the paper and pencil assessment. What? Please don't do that. Use

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them as two different assessments if you need to or just use them as data

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collection to show where the student has strengths and weaknesses. Guess what if

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they have dyscalculia, dysgraphia, ADHD, autism spectrum disorder,

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nonverbal learning disabilities, extreme anxiety. They're probably going to be

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able to explain and show you their work through a discussion and they're

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probably gonna have a really hard time writing it down on a piece of paper. So

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don't grade in areas where they're weak and make that your only grade. Don't

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dilute their strengths by averaging those oral assessments with a paper and

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pencil assessment or by not putting them in the gradebook. Your alternative

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assessments are valid so the more you dig into UDL, that universal design for

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learning and alternative assessments which are appropriate accommodations for

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students with learning disabilities, make sure the grades reflect that. Another

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piece I want to put in about grading, if you are weighing your classwork and

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homework in a very small amount, counts for 20 or 30 percent of the grade and the

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classroom tests count for 70 percent of the grade, you are using a system that is

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going to inhibit your students performance, especially if they have

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learning disabilities. Then we're not really testing their knowledge at that

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point. We're not really recording their knowledge at that point. We're testing

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and recording their ability to take a test. If the standard was test taking

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performance, then I would say great. But if the standard is this particular math

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topic, then let's use a valid equally weighed grade to show whether or not the

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student has mastery of that topic. There are some research articles about

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everything that I'm saying. I'll be bringing those to you throughout the

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year and putting those up on the websites so you can dig into the research

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behind the things that I'm saying. But you'll also see it in your own classroom.

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Talk with your colleagues too about their testing and their grade book and

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bring this to administration. See if you can do some kind of, doesn't even have to

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be a whole PD session. It could even be posters you put up at the around the

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school or an email that you send out to the team discussing how we grade and how

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we measure student performance. There's a lot systemically that we can do to even

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the playing field for students with learning disabilities. And I want us to

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really focus on that for this last half of season three of the podcast. Okay,

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that's enough of my soapbox for today. But that gives you a lens of where we're

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going to be going with the podcast. It's going to be student focused. We're going

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to look at systemically how do we either support or inhibit student academic

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achievement. And we're going to look specifically at what students with

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dyscalculia need to show the knowledge that they have so that they can succeed

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and get those quality of life markers increased. That's really our goal. If you

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have specific topics that you would like us to talk about in the podcast or if you

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want to tell me that you agree or disagree with what I'm saying, please

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reach out. I love to hear your comments. You can find me at Honora H-O-N-O-R-A at

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educalclearning.com or Honora at the D-T-R-I dot org. I find that a lot of

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individuals, families, parents, and classroom teachers like to go with the

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educalclearning.com because they're looking for something on a small level

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very specific to their needs. And I find that districts, regional education

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agencies, and state departments of ed prefer to go through the nonprofit so

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that they're having that conversation not with a vendor necessarily but with

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just a nonprofit organization. Happy to help you in either way. And I'm happy to

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bring some of your questions to future podcast episodes and answer those

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questions for you. Thank you very much for listening to What in the World is

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Dyscalculia. We'll be bringing you lots more consistent programming with research

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with researchers you can look up on your own and with information about

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conferences where you can either hear me speak or hear other people talk about

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dyscalculia and neurodivergence. This is the What in the World is

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Dyscalculia podcast. Thanks for listening.