DreamBox Learning®» math help

Which Comes First: Education or Assessment?

Nigel — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:06:05 +0000

Recently an article in the Washington Post (46 States, D.C. Plan to Draft Common Education Standards) got my attention. No, I’m not going to get into the contentious issue of whether national standards are a good thing or not, because enough is written about that already. Instead I want to focus on educating students as individuals and how the article raised a number of questions for me. The following three paragraphs, in particular, got my attention:

"Led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, the states, including Maryland and Virginia, are aiming to define a framework of content and skills that meet an overarching goal. When students get their high school diplomas, the coalition says, they should be ready to tackle college or a job. The benchmarks would be "internationally competitive."

Once the organizers of the effort agree to a proposal, each state would decide individually whether to adopt it. …

[U.S Education Secretary Arne] Duncan and others also said that even the highest goals lose their punch if there's not an accurate way to gauge whether students measure up. That means revamping state tests -- a cumbersome and expensive process. So far, the states have committed only to working to develop the standards."

Does the assessment portion of this plan strike anyone else as being “too little, too late”? Darn it, if only there were a way to accurately assess a student’s knowledge and understanding at a very fine grained level that actually integrated with what and how they learned while they learned it! Then assessment would be neither cumbersome nor expensive. And the students might just be taught - and when necessary, retaught - what they needed to know when they needed to know it.

The DreamBox Learning K-2 Approach

Those of you familiar with DreamBox Learning K-2 Math know that our approach is to continually assess each student and individually adapt how we then present not just portions of the curriculum or individual lessons, but individual questions within those lessons. While DreamBox is based upon existing national standards, it teaches each student as an individual with their own strengths and weaknesses. In other words we continually assess then teach. Which is what good teachers have been doing for hundreds – perhaps thousands – of years. Children aren’t screws or widgets. Each one is uniquely different and may require specifically individualized teaching. While the debate about national standards goes on, let’s not forget that no matter which “standard” you adopt, if you consider assessment as an afterthought rather than an integral part of teaching, then you are forcing some students to continually play catch up. As I wrote in a recent blog (Sometimes Things Just Don’t Compute…): If you don’t know a student is having a problem, how can you address it in a timely manner? The success with which DreamBox Learning addresses students with widely varying skill levels has reinforced for me a variation of that old Chicago saying: If you want to provide a successfully individualized learning experience for a student, “assess early and assess often”! Let’s hope our politicians can be taught that as well.

Monsters in My Math

Mickelle — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:56:45 +0000

Forget the boogie man under the bed. There’s a bigger problem out there. “My child is scared to try new things that are hard for him.” At DreamBox, we hear this quite a bit. And I believe it’s a problem all parents should attack with muster. Why? Because learning to persevere through a tough problem is a life skill that will serve every child well, now and forever. So how does a parent address this? Every child is different. We've come up with ideas to help you find the best way for your child to learn.

Show Your Child that Learning Math can be Fun

Answer a question with a question. Child: “What am I supposed to do here?” Parent: “What do you think you should do here?” or “Is there anything here that will give you help?” When your child is able to answer a question on her own, let her know. “Wow! I’m impressed. Did you know you already knew the answer?” (Note: In DreamBox, we provide different levels of instructions in most games. Click Help once to receive a quick recap of the instructions. Click Help again and you’ll receive more detailed, explicit directions. Teach your child about this feature.)
Latency – wait for your child to respond. Often we (parents and teachers) start answering our own questions before a child has had an adequate amount of think time. Give your child the think time she needs. If you don’t, your child learns that by waiting a little while, you’ll answer the question and provide more help, whether she needs it or not. When teaching, I taught myself to wait for over a minute for some responses. This feels like an incredible amount of time, but it’s the amount of time that some kids need to consider a problem and respond to it.
Don’t hover. Are you a “helicopter” parent? Do you swoop in and rescue your child at the first sign of a struggle? If this sounds like you, put some distance between your child and her struggles. I’d also suggest reading one of the books in the Love & Logic series.
Be present, but not attentive. Some kids are comforted just knowing a helping hand is available. Sit nearby with a book. Eventually walk away for 2 minutes, then 5. Whenever I introduce a new computer game to my daughter, I’m always nearby for the initial experience. As she gets familiar with the game, I decrease my attention and proximity to her.
Don’t be present. Some kids are willing to experiment more and make mistakes when a parent or sibling isn’t around. Basically, they don’t want to make mistakes in front of anyone. Let them. Provide earphones so you don’t hear every wrong answer.
Model behavior by sharing your struggles. Let your child know that you have to solve hard problems too. Talk about this. Let her know how good it feels when you’ve finally completed a difficult task through hard work and perseverance. Also, let her know when you almost gave up but didn’t.
Limit the time spent on one activity. Some kids have a hard time self-regulating how much is too much. They start to break down when an activity has lasted too hard. Stop the activity and refocus your child’s attention.
Think out loud. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t help your child. Of course you should. Just make sure you’re giving the right kind of help. Try to verbally express what you’re thinking as you help your child. Share even the smallest details. Two fabulous books are this are Comprehending Math: Adapting Reading Strategies to Teach Mathematics, K-6 by Arthur Hyde and Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis.

Have you figured out that this isn’t just a problem in math? It’s a problem that must be addressed in every subject, including social time. Use these same strategies to help your child solve problems with a playmate, when reading a new book or putting together a new Lego set.

Why a Little Help Can Go a Wrong Way

Nigel — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:37:00 +0000

Mathrack Lesson

I’ve had variations of the following conversation with relatives a couple of times in recent months. Has something similar happened to you? “She loves playing DreamBox and was doing fine. But now the questions are too hard and she’s getting frustrated.” “Hmm… Have you perhaps been helping her with her answers?” “Well… not… really. She hates getting questions wrong. So when she didn’t seem to understand what to do, I answered a few of the questions for her so she would get the idea.”

When Math Problems Become Problematic

As parents of young children we are all too likely to have encountered so-called educational games where the difficulty of questions appears to vary somewhat randomly. For example, I was sitting next to my four year old son while he was playing with a handheld game. I was quite happy to hear him get “7 plus 3” correct. This was followed by “1+1”, “1+2” and “17-11”. Whoa! Where did that last one come from? (He didn’t get it right). Sometimes, in order to help our little ones progress past some of these overly difficult questions, we help them for bit and then breathe a sigh of relief as the questions get back to being more appropriate (at least for a while). Our help is often required for a few minutes in non-educational video games as well. So in a sense, we adults are being trained to help our loved ones when a program appears to get too difficult for them.

DreamBox Learning's Approach

With DreamBox things are a little different. As one of the developers in charge of our GuideRight™ technology I consider it my responsibility to make certain we assess and adapt to each child as accurately as possible. That means ensuring that we optimally level right down to the individual question level. And that we adapt as necessary immediately based upon how the student responds to those questions. Ideally the questions are just challenging enough that they get the occasional one incorrect as they learn. In fact, DreamBox continuously assesses and adapts to your child not only within a problem, but between problems, between lessons and between groups of lessons.

Frog Race Level 2

Part of that process of recalibrating for each student between groups of lessons involves occasionally giving them a series of questions that might be a little too difficult for them. If they do well, we move them on to something that might rely upon the understanding they just demonstrated. If they don’t do so well, we then provide the comprehensive set of lessons they likely need to develop that understanding. So with DreamBox, if you provide too much overt assistance, answer for your child, or let a sibling or friend play on their account, it is quite possible that the system will temporarily attribute levels of understanding – or misunderstanding – that do not accurately reflect that of your child.

What to Do When the Math Game Gets Tough

What should you do, when they turn to you for assistance? Try some of these approaches:

Encourage your child to make his or her best guess. Remind them it’s OK to make some mistakes. We learn a lot from the types of mistakes they make and will respond accordingly. (Really!)
Answer a question with a question. “What do you think?”
Click help.
Click help again. The second help is more explicit that the first help.
Ask your child to explain the game to you. Sometimes talking it through like this will give them the answer.

If all that doesn’t work, perhaps it’s time for a snack or a break. Finally, remember that playing DreamBox is meant to be fun. If they are still having trouble with one or more lessons, don’t hesitate to click the feedback button and let us know.

Counting Placement