Third grade math makes me pull out my hair!!

[luvmy3jewels]

Are there any third grade teachers around that can give me a little advice? Pretty please??

My third grade dd is having some major issues in math. To give you a little history, dd was identified early on as being AG. She is considered marginally advanced in math and almost off the charts in reading. She learned basic math (addition/subtraction) in Kindergarten and learned multiplication last year in second grade. This year her third grade teacher has been giving the class timed tests on basic addition/subtraction math facts. They get 7 minutes to do 100 problems.

DD has been struggling with these tests. Every time she takes one her grade ends up in the low 50's because she only gets mid-way through them before her time is up. She gets all of the problems she answers right. But the ones she doesn't get to end up marked wrong and on every test she gets an F. She ended up with an 82 for last semester because of the timed tests bringing down her grades.

Dh and I met with her teacher, whose only advice was that she needs to study the facts more. It's extremely frustrating to me, because it's obvious that she knows the facts, she just doesn't deal well with being under the pressure of taking a timed test. I've spoken with both her AG teacher and her first grade teacher who were shocked at her grades and told me that they have observed that my dd is a perfectionist who takes her time with every task she is given in order to get it "perfect."

I'm about to pull my hair out, because I don't know what to do to help my dd get through this. I hate that she is making these grades and I'm at my wits end on what I can do to help her. The only thing I can think of right now is to copy the tests she brings home and drill her every night on them. However, I don't know if this is going to help.

Her AG teacher has told me that I need to "advocate" for dd's learning style....how do I do that? Another parent told me that she had similar problems with her dd and they had her dd "identified" so that she got extra time to complete her assignments (I'm extremely hesitant to go this far, but will if neccessary).

Any advice on what I can do??

[kacaju]

Please don't take this the wrong way. You may need to look into therapy for your dd.

(my dd is a perfectionist who takes her time with every task she is given in order to get it "perfect." )

This is what has me concerned. I have a 16 year old dd who is a perfectionist. She is now in therapy. She has OCD problems, anxiety and it is not uncommon for kids like this to have problems.

She will get *blocked* on homework because she is so worried about making it perfect that she will take a zero instead of getting poor grade by handing in a not so perfect paper

[scrapquitler]

When my daughter was in 3rd grade and they did all those timed tests, she didn't do well on them either, in spite of knowing all the facts cold. I tested her at home, and she did the test orally and got them all right in about 2 minutes, but not so well on the written test. In the end, I figured out that it was the perfectionist tendency you've mentioned...she'd write the number for the answer, erase it and rewrite it because the number was crooked or something like that.

Once I realized that, I told her that I wasn't concerned about the grade, I wanted to just make sure that she knew the multiplication, and I was satisified that she did, so I didn't want her to stress about the grade.

She's in 8th now, and we still have HUGE issues with the perfectionist tendencies in her work. But we've learned to adjust (I homeschool her now) and do most things orally when possible.

Maybe your daughters teacher can try giving her the quiz orally sometime to verify if she's able to work better that way. If so, you can ask for accomodations...some schools and teachers are more willing to make accomodations than others. If they won't do it informally, you might need to have special ed testing done, and in my experience, if your daughter is gifted, they are going to be a bit resistant to that. But you'll never know unless you ask.

[phamton]

My oldest was a perfectionist also and wanted to write the numbers perfectly and then re-check to make sure it was the correct answer. I started making timed test for her to do at home. I stressed that she needed to write as quickly as she could and not recheck the answer. I first started with fewer problems than on the test and a shorter time and then we worked our way up to the total problems. So we might have done 10 problems in 10 seconds and then 20 problems in 20 seconds, etc. Find out how many problems she has and how long she has to do it and then work up to that number.

We also practiced writing numbers fast and not worrying if the number was written too large or messy. It only took a week and she was passing the tests.

[shortbun]

Originally Posted by kacaju

Please don't take this the wrong way. You may need to look into therapy for your dd.

(my dd is a perfectionist who takes her time with every task she is given in order to get it "perfect." )

This is what has me concerned. I have a 16 year old dd who is a perfectionist. She is now in therapy. She has OCD problems, anxiety and it is not uncommon for kids like this to have problems.

She will get *blocked* on homework because she is so worried about making it perfect that she will take a zero instead of getting poor grade by handing in a not so perfect paper

Or-you could ask for a 504 plan for her to do her work at a slower rate of speed due to her perfection issue. My son has a friend like this and for years he was getting bad grades because he'd erase and rewrite numbers and letters until he had them JUST PERFECT. He now has a 504 and teachers have to work things out with him. He's also been allowed to do much more of his work on computer. The same thing was done for our friend's daughter, an A/B student unless under timed stress which for some reason seems to be a favorite of the educational system. Why on earth do we have to learn to do things quickly? With acknowledged exceptions, there is almost nothing that MUST be done quickly...Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune are two things that come to mind. lol!

I think Phamton has a great idea!!! Try it!

[schmitty]

Doesn't seem like she is having problems obsessing over neatness of writing just correctness of problem. Use flash cards with her.

[luvmy3jewels]

Thanks for all of the advice that you guys have given! It's good to hear that dd isn't the only one out there who has had this problem. I particularly like phantom's suggestion and we will be trying that immediately!

For the poster who suggested therapy, I didn't take your message wrong at all but I don't know that her issues are strong enough to warrant that degree of intervention at this point. To me, therapy would go along the same lines as the 504 plan and I really would like to keep that as an option of last resort.

Dh and I spoke at length about it last night (ironically, he is an education professor). He isn't worried about the grades and says that the grade isn't an accurate assessment since it is not measuring her knowledge. However, I hate to send the message to dd that grades don't matter.

We'll be trying the tests as phantom suggested and hopefully that will help dd learn the stragies required when taking a timed test. If that doesn't work, then I think it might be a sign that she may need further help.

[mjkacmom]

She needs to know her addition facts quickly, just like multiplication facts. Each problem should take about 1 second. She will be timed on multiplication facts towards the end of the year. This has nothing to do with learning to add (which I'm sure she knows). It's all memorization - flash cards are your friend. I'm on my third 3rd grader, and I'm very familiar with these timed tests!