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Hello and welcome to the latest podcast of What in the World is Dyscalculia presented

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by Educalc learning.

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I'm your host Dr. Nora Wall and I want to talk today about the importance of precision.

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So when I'm writing math standards for my students, when I'm developing my materials

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and when I'm talking to other educators, I really want to change the conversation from

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the word fluency to the word precision.

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Now fluency, especially the term math fluency, is a big part of math standards and a big

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part of the mathematical achievement conversation.

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And typically when people talk about math fluency, they're talking about that memorization

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piece, that being very fast with an answer, that idea of either doing the math in your

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head or doing it really quickly, going through those worksheets at a crazy pace.

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Hopefully none of our listeners are using timed math worksheets ever.

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We know for a fact through published research that the only thing timed math tests are directly

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tied to is developing math anxiety.

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They have not been shown to increase fluency or later math achievement.

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Just stop.

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Just don't do them anymore.

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Get rid of them.

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What I really would like you to do is think about precision.

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And that way we're changing our conversation away from the fluency, from the speed, we're

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moving away from the confidence in the right answer, and we're looking more at being precise,

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checking our work, being accurate.

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Whatever we think the answer might be, we're going to verify before we put down that right

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answer.

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We want to be precise with all of our work.

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The earlier you can work precision into your math conversations, the better your students

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are going to do in high school and college math.

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Because in our elementary math, we're looking at fluency because we're focusing on the four

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operations, add, subtract, multiply, divide.

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And we want students to do that over and over and over again.

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Near the end of elementary, now we're looking at taking those four operations and using

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them in unique situations following the specific rules for those operations and fractions,

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for those operations and decimals.

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We get into middle school.

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Now we want to know about those four operations and like terms.

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But we're building off of that basis of those operations.

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Once we get into higher level math, now we're looking at formulas.

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We're looking at doing all of our operations repeatedly within one question.

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We're looking at procedures.

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And we're looking at the roots of graphing.

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We're looking at extension of exponents and the basis of roots, not just the square roots

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but cubed roots.

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We're doing a lot more conceptual work, which actually is much easier for students with

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dyscalculia than our early math is.

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We just have such a barrier in the early math subjects.

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And that stops our students from finding success in the beginning.

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And it definitely blocks them from getting into the higher level math classes.

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They should be in later.

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Let me use this moment to plug grade level work.

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All students should be doing grade level work.

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Yes, you will have to plug in some holes on occasion.

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Yes, you will have to help fix a foundation every once in a while.

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But no, sixth grade students should not be given a fourth or a third grade book and told

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to master that before they can move on.

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Get into grade level work.

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Okay, back to our topic.

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What do I mean by using precision in math?

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Well, here's an example I used in a conversation with someone recently.

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I'm going to paraphrase what I explained or the way I explained this term in a recent

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conversation.

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When students are thinking about their math problem, let's say they're finding the perimeter

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of a shape.

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The mental process goes something like this.

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They're asking themselves, okay, perimeter is adding?

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No, wait, multiplying?

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No, adding, adding, adding, okay.

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This side is five.

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This side is three, five plus three is seven.

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Is it eight?

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I think it's eight.

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No, it's seven.

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So we can see that the mental process of thinking about what they're supposed to do is very

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confusing for students who have this learning difference, this learning discrepancy in the

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field of math.

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They don't have a lot of confidence in whether or not they have the right answer.

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And that comes in part from their lived experiences with math and in part from the neurological

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pathways from recalling that information, the parietal lobe is losing information over

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time.

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So they're not entirely positive if it's adding or multiplying.

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They think it's one of those two.

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Is the answer seven or is it eight?

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It's somewhere right in that ballpark.

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That kind of confusion completely erodes the stability of the neurological connections,

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if I can put it that way.

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What the human brain wants is to have a question, confirm the answer, and then once it has

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confirmation, it strengthens the neurological connections to that right answer.

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And it lessens, kind of weakens, kind of lets go of the connection to the wrong answer.

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When we leave students in this area of questioning, is it adding, is it multiplying, is it seven,

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is it eight, am I in the right ballpark?

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I'm just going to try something.

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We are not giving them that confirmation.

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So they have less of an opportunity to confirm the right answer, to strengthen that neurological

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framework.

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That confirmation and strengthening has to be immediate.

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So doing the work and then reviewing the work later at the end of the day, end of the class,

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the next day, whenever a test is returned, the moment is lost.

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So the confirmation needs to be immediate.

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And that's where requiring precision benefits our students immensely.

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Have the students focus on being precise by making them use their resources.

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So when you're leading this class, you can ask questions like, okay, we need to find

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the perimeter of this shape.

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James, check your notes on this.

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If I'm finding perimeter, do I want to add or do I want to multiply?

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Which is it?

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Excellent.

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Yes.

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That's right.

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Now, if I look at the sides, first I'm going to add five plus three.

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So let's check.

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Tell me what you get if you use the number line, if you check it on the calculator, depending

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on the grade level in the program, you might be using one or the other.

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Tell me what you get when you check your answer.

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Okay, great.

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Awesome.

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Now, remember, perimeter needs to be around the whole thing.

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So I've got to do that again.

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I have these two other sides.

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So let's do that.

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Now, tell me what you get.

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Walking the student through, checking their references, checking their resources, confirming

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the proper approach, confirming the right answer, this forces them to use those resources

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and develop that habit.

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Now they have the right operation and they have the right answer and they can complete

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this question.

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We're building really strong work habits.

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We don't expect them to do it on their own because these are students.

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They're learning how to do these things on their own.

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You are not doing it for them.

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They need to do independent work.

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You are prompting them and ensuring they go back to use their resources.

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This is going to reaffirm in their brain what information to keep, what information to get

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rid of.

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And when we do this consistently, we only use the correct operation.

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We only find the correct right answer.

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So over time, the brain only has that pathway of the correct response to follow because

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we have utilized our time to help the student let go of the incorrect pathway.

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The only thing ever is the correct path, the correct operation, the correct response.

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And over time, you're going to see that that really builds a better understanding of math

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facts.

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Then you're going to see some kind of fluency develop.

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It will be different for each student depending on who they are as a learner.

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But that's where you're going to get that extra growth.

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I promise if you do this precision approach in your classroom consistently, you're going

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to find that your students are doing better on their standardized tests.

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You're going to see that growth that your administrators are looking for.

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You're going to see that growth over time because you have supported them correctly.

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You've made the right framework in your classroom.

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Now a lot of times, students can resist this focus on precision.

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They don't want to use their resources because they know they're supposed to use mental

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math or they think they are.

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They've been in classrooms before where this was not allowed.

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They're not sure if they're cheating or not.

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They don't want other people to see them using a resource.

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This is where it becomes vital for you as the educator, as the person in charge of the

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room to say, you might be right about that.

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I want you to look at your notes and double check for me before we go on.

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You can frame that however you want.

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You can say, I want you to double check your notes to make sure we're precise.

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You can say, I want you to double check your notes to make sure that you have the right

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notes written down.

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You can say, I want you to double check your notes so that when you're studying for the

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test later, I know you have the right information to study.

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However you want to frame it, but require that precision.

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Make sure that we're confirming the correct work and the correct response.

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We don't accept incorrect work because we make sure that we know what we're doing before

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we turn that work in.

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If you're outside of the field of education, we do this in the workplace all the time.

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If you had a big meeting with your boss, if you had a big meeting with a new client or

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investor, there's no way you would walk into that meeting with your best idea.

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You would make sure you had the right information before you got started.

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So we're really using that same approach.

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We're just putting it into the classroom.

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So make sure you're using precision and you're focusing on precision over fluency.

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That's going to be your most important step.

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And if you have any questions about this or other approaches, please reach out to me at

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any time.

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You can find me at Honora, H-O-N-O-R-A at educalclearning.com.

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Make sure you're checking out our brand new 501c3, the DysCalculia Training and Research

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Institute.

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You can find that at www.thedtri.org.

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And I look forward to hearing your feedback.

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If you're using precision in the classroom, please email me.

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Let me know how it's going.

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I would love to hear from you.

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Thank you for listening to What in the World is Dyscalculia.

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This is Dr. Honora Wall and I will see you again soon.