Strategies+for+Underperforming+Students

Please list any strategies that you have suggested to help struggling students in Math: 1. Many grade 3 and 4 students struggle with elapsed time. I have them calculate the elapsed time using this method: If we want to find the elapsed time from 9:20 to 10:15, I have them think about the "o'clock" that is between those times...Students list the minutes from 9:20 to 10:00 and then from 10:00 to 10:15. And then add those minutes (40 + 15 = 55 minutes). This also works for something like 9:45 to 11:15, listing both the o'clocks between and then (of course) there is one hour between them.

2. Elapsed time may need to be shown on paper for the test, so I work the students to do this; draw face clocks, one showing the beginning time and one showing the end time. Then begin to count by fives as you draw "humps" from one number on the clock to the next. (ex: from 1:10 to 2:30 you'd draw a "hump" from 1:10 to 1:15, then again to 1:20, etc.) The "humps" and counting stop when you get to the end time.

3. First and Second graders often struggle with learning their basic addition facts to 20. I try to concentrate on the following strategies with them: doubles; doubles plus 1; counting on by one, two, or three from the greater number (I sometimes use a plastic cup and have the student hold the greater number in his or her head and drop plastic counters in the cup as we count on by 1, 2, or 3); using the complements of ten. Then, we practice those strategies through various games: Beat the Deck (complements of 10); EggHead Math game (all strategies); Addition Top-It (all strategies); etc.

4. To help students remember when to round up I use the following poem: Five and above, give it a shove. Four and below, let it go. I also just read about a strategy called the Punch it Up rounding strategy. In order to punch the number up to the next number you need to make a full fist. You cannot do that unless you have at least five fingers. So you make a fist if the number next to the one to be rounded is five or above. Otherwise you cannot punch it up to the next number.

5. To remember am and pm I ask the students which comes first alphabetically. Since am comes before pm it also comes before pm in the daytime.