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Learning just one thing well can change a student's entire attitude toward school.Additional Information For Teachers and ParentsAbout FUNdamentallyMATHKindergarten levelBasic Skills Lesson 1 is a kindergarten program. Some students at this age may lack fine motor skills and be "mouse challenged". We recommend that the mouse be placed on the Next button, which will always appear in the same place. The Next button moves the program to a new section of the lesson. The child can then enter answers and ask for a new problem using the keyboard. A random drill segment appears at the end of each lesson in Basic Skills Lesson 1, parts 1 - 6. This random drill segment will be composed of two parts: a drill page with graphic examples to guide the student, and a drill page with numbers only where you may examine a score. It can also be accessed directly from a section's first screen. Basic Skills Lesson 1, part 7 is a review of all previous lessons. It combines features of both random drill pages. Only numbers will appear at first on this page, but graphic examples are given when a wrong answer occurs.Basic Skills Lesson 2 is a first - second grade program. However, it has been my experience that many kindergarten students will be able to do both lessons 1 and 2 if given enough time at the computer. Please note that it is important to try several problems using the Next Problem button. Additional options may be given the student only after the Next Problem button is clicked. I believe wave files (i.e., voice files) are needed only for the younger grades due to their poor reading skills. It is my opinion that almost all children learn better at the computer when reading rather than when listening. This is because they go slower, concentrate on the material more, and are more apt to review when reading. Therefore, extensive use of wave files is planned only for the first 3 lessons. Minimum Suggested time of UseElementary school – 20 minutes each school day.Middle school and High school – One full period a week. How to get the most out of FUNdamentallyMATHMost teachers will gravitate toward using the software as an adjunct to the text and classroom instruction. This is both logical and very useful. It is particularly helpful when the topic is a task that must be mastered through repetition and practice. Learning how to multiply or how to factor polynomials are examples. One algebra teacher reported to me that she obtained excellent results by asking the class if anyone was confused on a particular topic just covered. When a student raised their hand, she answered the question and sent the student (as well as others who might need additional help) to the nearby computer lab to practice a relevant part of the software.However, certain broadly defined topics where students tend to have difficulty are best taught by having the student examine several lessons in a directory all at once. An example of this would be ordinary fractions. The several files that introduce fractions (i.e., the ones before decimals) are best reviewed as a group rather than by focusing on a narrower, individual subject area. Having the student review the several lessons on fractions as a group multiple times can often be more helpful than asking that student to just practice reducing fractions. I suspect this is due to the fact the lessons in the software may not appear in the same order as in the text. Jumping from subtopic to subtopic may not allow the student to see how the overall subject evolves to form a conceptual whole. One of the greatest benefits of the software is that it permits the teacher to tutor a small number of students while the majority work on their computers. Test results from a research study using FUNdamentallyMATH (see Professor Frank Brown's article, Using Computer Assisted Instruction to Teach Mathematics, NABSE Journal, December, 2000) seem to imply that grouping a mix of students with heterogeneous abilities may improve results. This stems from the observation that on grade and above grade students can learn much of what is required using the computer while the teacher spends the majority of his or her time with the slower students. I would guess that perhaps 1 in 7 of your below grade students will sit down at the computer and begin to perform better without a great deal of additional help. These students just work better at computers than in a traditional classroom environment. However, that still leaves the other 85% of the below grade students who will need additional help from the teacher. Having a heterogeneous classroom where the number of these students is small will afford you the time to give them considerable additional attention. In the study a group of eighth grade algebra students who used the software one full period a week did 17 percentile points better on the NC statewide algebra 1 end of course exam than a control group did. (A summary of the study's major results as well as the entire document may be found on our web page, www.fundamentallymath.com.) Both the control group and the test group had almost identical scores on a pre-test (the NC end of 7th grade exam). Teachers in this study started the students at Basic Skills, lesson 10, (first directory) and asked them to continue with FUNdamentallyMATH doing every lesson in each subsequent directory in order until they finished the entire fifth directory (algebra 1). A 17-percentile improvement on a statewide examination taken by 87,404 students is, in my humble opinion, absolutely remarkable. It adds emphasis to the point of view that students should be asked to cover large sections of the software in the order provided. Using this approach the African-American students who used the software did as well on the algebra exam as the white students who also used the software. The control group of African-American students did the worst. Furthermore, the review of earlier sections enabled the African-American students in the test group to catch up to the white students in their general math skills (as reflected by the end of 8th grade NC statewide math exam). Students using the software to learn multiplication (a 3rd or 4th grade topic) or Euclidean Geometry (a 9th or 10th grade topic) routinely show exceptional performance. I believe the ideal way to teach Geometry would be to have the students take the first two weeks to work exclusively with the software. Thereafter, they could use it for review. Turtles and hares have raced for thousands of years. Beware the rabbit or hare –_i.e., bright students who race through a topic doing only 2 or 3 drill problems. One week later they will remember nothing. Ask students to do at least 20 problems with a score of 85 or better before advancing. One child I watched while I was developing the software stayed on the same multiplication section doing the same type of problem every day for four months before moving on. Given that different children have different learning styles, this is one of many reasonable strategies. However, some young students may become fixated on hitting a target by aiming a cannon so much in the X direction and firing a cannonball so much in the Y direction (Basic Skills, Lesson 11, part 2). They may need to be prodded to move on. There are only 4 game-like lessons out of the almost 300 parts of FUNdamentallyMATH. A student can do as many drill problems as he or she wishes. However, the student must do at least five for the "I AM DONE" button to work. When less than five problems are done, the button will be disabled. The image on a disabled button appears shaded. It will not work. This was done to prevent students from doing only one problem, getting it right, and recording that score in the database. One elementary school that participated in the research study mentioned above had a very innovative way of using FUNdamentallyMATH. Several teachers agreed to participate only if the technology teacher instructed their students while they used the software. Students were told that if they wished to use FUNdamentallyMATH, they could come to computer lab as soon as they arrived at school. They might work at the computer for twenty minutes before the official start of the school day. Most of the students availed themselves of the opportunity to improve their math skills at least some times during the academic year. Roughly one-third showed up regularly and qualified for the study by using FUNdamentallyMATH far more than the required minimum. Participation was completely voluntary. These motivated students visited the computer lab on average 3.2 times a week from November through May. They came from grades 3, 4, and 5; came from all academic skill levels; and displayed the same degree of advancement as those at another elementary school that integrated the activity into the regular school day. | |||
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