By Leigh Pretnar Cousins, MS
It’s Careless Mistake Season in the math tutoring business. Why?
- Kids are tired; they’ve been in school for months.
- Kids are antsy; they want to get outside!
- Kids are ready ready ready for summer vacation!
- PLUS, the work is extra-hard now; we’re at the end of the course,
- AND, teachers are moving extra-fast to cover everything before school is out.
One result? Tons and tons of careless math mistakes.
My son Matt (also a tutor) and I were talking last night about one kind of mistake we see all the time. Let’s call it the “Put-Together” Error.
Look at Photo A for some examples. In each case, a student “put together” two numbers, but used the wrong operation.
Matt and I came up with two reasons for why this happens:
The student is under pressure.
- His brain is working hard to process a lot of new material right now, and tons of attention is diverted to these new tasks.
- The result is that older procedures which are virtually automatic, are not looked at carefully enough, and mistakes are made.
- Numbers get “put together” carelessly, without enough attention to “how” (what operation was asked for?).
- Think about how, when you’re distracted, you’re more likely to misplace you car keys or lose your sunglasses; even “automatic” tasks require a little bit of attention, and when your brain is too absorbed in something else, mistakes occur.
- Explain this to your student; many kids can slow down and modulate their attention.
- Train them to notice their own errors. I’ll look over a student’s work and say: You made three mistakes on this page, now find them for yourself!
The student may have a deeper “processing problem.”
- He may have genuine difficulty distinguishing addition from multiplication from exponentiation (raising to powers).
- Many students identified as learning disabled are said to have processing problems.
- They may have to think for a long time before they can answer: 4 times 2 is? 4 plus 2 is?
- Processing problems arise early in the math career, very likely when multiplication was taught. For whatever reason, the student didn’t “get” multiplication at this time, and so now his foundation is weak.
- Let him use a calculator for the rest of the school year,
- then reteach all three operations (addition, multiplication and exponentiation) over the summer.
- Focus on understanding first. Have the student explain what the operations mean (see Photo B).
- Then do drills (flashcards might work well) with a mixture of operations, to train fluency.
Teachers! Tutors! Parents!
Hit me with your questions; I’ll do my best to answer them!
Good Music for a Good Cause: UFO’s album, Unity Creates Strength, benefits Chile and Haiti.
Leigh Pretnar Cousins, MS is an educator, counselor, writer and speaker. She's been a tutor, test prep coach and home school teacher for over thirty years. Leigh also teaches communication and relationship skills to couples and families. Leigh's current projects include Understanding the People You Love, a series of "practical psychology" lessons for parents and couples, and
LisSurMer, a retreat on Cape Cod for highly sensitive and creative people. Click
HERE to visit Leigh's website and
HERE for her Facebook page.
Follow her on Twitter!
@CousinsTutoring
Like this author?Catch up on other posts by
Leigh Pretnar Cousins, MS (or subscribe to their
feed).
Last reviewed: 31 Jul 2011
APA Reference
Cousins, L. (2011). Does Your Student Make These Careless Math Mistakes?. Psych Central.
Retrieved on May 16, 2012, from http://blogs.psychcentral.com/always-learning/2010/05/does-your-student-make-these-careless-math-mistakes/
It’s Careless Mistake Season in the math tutoring business. Why?
The student may have a deeper “processing problem.”
