algebra

Re: algebra


y = 1

Miller dont do the kids home work for her!

Tell her how or why coach her otherwise she will never get it

If she hands in this homework with the correct answers - her teacher will assume she knows how to do it and she'll be in trouble when the test comes along. Also, even if you're just helping with her homework, most teacher's want to see the work - the kids can get the answers (at least to the odd-numbered questions) from the back of the book.

It's actually more helpful and accurate for her to hand in the homework without any answers or wrong answers - at least the teacher then has some indication she doesn't understand it, and if they're worth their salt will go over it again with her. If she needs to be taught through another method, it's her teacher's job to find the method that works for her and she'll understand. She won't know she needs to do that, if the girl always has the correct answers on her homework.

These are really basic algebraic concepts, and algebra as any math is a continuum of skills. If you don't get one step - it messes you up for all the next steps. If she's not getting this - she needs tutoring on the foundational concepts of algebra or she'll have nothing to build on.

When I was a kid, I got a C in conduct and an A in math. Some people have math skills and others don't.

Looks to me like too many teachers don't know how to teach math and when a kid has a problem, the teachers are not approachable.
I love math, always have and always will.

why do you suppose I got a C in conduct??

If you were a kids teacher and the kid said whats the answer to this what would you say or do?

Sometimes it helps understanding to have the answer, especially in math, because you can plug it in and then see how the equation balances with the correct answer, instead of starting from nothing with no earthly idea how to do something. That's why they put the answers to the odd numbered questions in the back of the book, so you can use that as a tool to understand the process, as well as check your work as you go along so that you're not going off on a tangent for the entire assignment, not realizing that you've got it wrong.

I don't have any problem giving the answer to a kid - but I'd never just give the answer. I'd ask them to show me how to plug it in and work out the problem knowing the answer, and then I'd give them a similar problem without the answer and ask them to show me how to solve that one.

I agree Miller, some people find math easy, and some don't - and once you get to algebra, if you're not an abstract thinker, no matter how smart you are, it's tough. But working one on one with a kid who I knew needed help, I'd break it down and do it over and over if we had to- explaining that basically it's about isolating the variable (making sure they knew the variable was the letter - they might not even be aware of that) and balancing the equation. That whatever you do to one side of the equation you have to do to the other. And tell them it's about opposites- when you have a fraction in an equation dividing it by three, you need to do the opposite, multiply by three to get rid of that fraction. If you have an equation in which a number is subtracted - you have to add that same number to both sides to bring it to 0 and get rid of it.
Practice and really basic instructions in language the kid could understand. When you're teaching a kid in a class - sometimes you have whizzes that won't understand or be patient enough for you to do it ten times for the kids who need more instruction. That's why the best thing would be for the kid to tell the teacher she needs extra help.

Approachable is always the issue - but at least give the teacher the benefit of the doubt that if the kid is handing in perfect homework, s/he might not know the kid is having a problem at all.

She'll/he'll know there's a problem, after the kid takes an in-class test.