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Practice is the Key to Math Retention and Mastery
Imagine training an athlete for nine months, getting them to a prescribed level
of conditioning, then telling them to take three months off and do nothing. Now,
imagine getting them back on the field of competition at the end of those three
months and expecting them to perform at their training peak. While every good
coach will build varying levels of intensity into their training programs, none
would ever recommend extended periods in which not even the most minimal of
skills are exercised.
Ironically, however, this is the very thing that parents and schools routinely
do over summer vacation - and the effect of this lapse is seen most
dramatically in the lack of retention of basic math skills. This can have
profound consequences in the ability of children to remain at or above grade
level in a critical academic area. Unlike reading and writing, math skills
build iteratively on one another - and failing to master a particular skill
area creates a shaky foundation for those that follow, and can ultimately lead
to a loss of confidence.
"By seventh grade, students need to have mastered their basic math skills,"
says Larry Schwartz, founder and CEO of Tutoring Club. "At this point they will
be ready to move into new mathematical territory with pre-Algebra. If they
haven't mastered the basics, however, their future success in math becomes
highly problematic."
What makes mathematics all the more challenging for kids is that since each
skill level builds on the previous one, a lack of mastery in one area makes
reaching the next level difficult, if not impossible. "Math skills need to be
presented logically to kids, but the key steps in mastery are 'see it,
understand it, and practice it'," Schwartz observes. And students who have not
mastered skills during the school year are placed at an added disadvantage over
the summer, when there is no opportunity to practice and retain learned skills,
let alone those that they failed to grasp in class.
For the Tutoring Club, math skill development and retention is a key summer
pastime, and one that is likened to sports camps that kids may attend to keep
their soccer, basketball or baseball skills honed between seasons. "Athletics
is the most analyzed human activity there is," notes Schwartz. "We've taken the
same approach to math skill retention that I used as a football coach; we take
each basic skill and then break it down into component skills. We then create a
series of repetitive drills that both teach and reinforce those skills, and we
measure their mastery before moving on to the next skill level."
Students who begin a summer math skills program begin by taking a basic
diagnostic test, which is then analyzed by computer to identify areas that need
to be strengthened. From this diagnostic software, an individualized math
skills lesson plan is created, and then administered by an assigned tutor. Each
one-hour lesson begins with pre-test check of 15 problems, progressing in
difficulty from easier to harder. The point at which a student gives an
incorrect answer defines the skill sets that will be practiced for that lesson.
"We don't leave a lesson until a student has mastered the material being
practiced," says Schwartz. "Two 100 percent lessons in a row for that skill
level indicate mastery, and we move on. Building and retaining math skills can
seem like climbing Mt. Everest to some kids, but our goal is to make it more
like overcoming one mole hill at a time - and we literally leave no child
behind."
While parents can do a lot for their children during the summer to keep their
interest in learning alive, following a math retention regimen assumes a level
of training and methodology that few parents can offer, unless they are math
teachers by profession. Tutoring Club not only provides the setting and
expertise to develop and retain math skills during the summer months, it also
makes an unprecedented guarantee in the process: students will improve by one
grade level within 32 hours, or the tutoring sessions will continue at no
additional cost until that goal has been reached.
Besides the obvious benefit of math skill retention, summer tutoring sessions
ensure that a child goes back to school in the fall with a sense of confidence,
and the greater likelihood of immediately picking up and moving past the
academic level they were at when summer began.
But Schwartz also cautions against pushing children too far ahead of
themselves. "Parents' expectations can exceed their children's needs - and in
the case of math, there is no logical reason for a child to move beyond the
basic skills they need to have mastered by 7th grade. Our goal is just to
ensure that they get there. Beyond that, we need to just let our kids have time
to be kids. If they want to read everything in sight, and they end up several
grade levels ahead as readers, fine - but there is no reason they need to be
doing trigonometry in 6th grade!"
For further information, contact:
Chad Schwartz
Tutoring Club
(702) 588-5288
cschwartz@tutoringclub.com
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