Honor student in Math Slump Question

[grinningghost]

DD 13 is currently taking Math A or Math 9 or Algebra (what we used to call it in the olden days). She was placed in an accelerated class because her math teacher thought she would be right for it. First quarter she did great. This quarter she's having more trouble. Has anyone had to encourage an honor student that was having trouble in something? DD is really stressing over this. She wants to get her grade up, but is losing the faith. Her math teacher thinks she can easily bring her grade up. It's convincing her before she gives up that's going to be difficult. Suggestions?

 

[Pam]

My DS is in 8th grade, accelerated classes/honor student, and in Algebra I. I'll bet it's the same class as your DD - he had a very high B the first nine weeks and just brought home his interim for the 2nd nine weeks. He slipped to a 77% - the work for this quarter was very difficult. He and the teacher both feel that he can raise it up beofre the grading period ends.

Tell your DD that a lot of students in the same class are having to work extra hard and to not give up! Did she check into any after school tutoring, etc.?

She's definitely not alone right now.
Pam

 

[Ricola]

Just some words of encouragement. Math is the kind of thing that presents problems like this. You feel like you are stuck and you work and work at it, and then *bingo* everything makes sense again. Keep plugging away; I am sure she'll figure things out soon!

 

[Serena]

Wow, that sounds exactly like my dd. She was so used to things being easy that she didn't know what to do when it got hard.
It's been hard for a couple years now and she hates it as much as she ever did. lol

There isn't a whole lot you can do. They have to get it in their heads that they have to work on it. They may not get the good grades they are used to, they may not be able to have as much fun as they are used to. They will actually have to concentrate and think.
It was a foreign concept for my dd. It was a challenge I thought she needed though. She is now a junior in hs, and she takes college physics and college algebra.
Tell your dd to hang on and do her best, but it won't be easy for her or you.

LOL, at one of her "moments", I more or less called her a wimp. I got on her case about quitting the moment something got a little hard for her and she isn't so tough after all, etc, etc. She didn't appreciate that at all. But it worked.

 

[ahutton]

Something that helped me when it got tough was a reminder that although some of the concepts that you are working on build on eachother, not all of them do, and one quarter of a lower grade than you want is not indicative of how you'll do for the year, or of how truly "smart" you are. Lots of people who are considered very smart and great students have gotten less than desirable grades in some areas. For me it was Geometry and Biology. Good thing I've never had to use either!

 

[Kermit]

Have you considered getting her a tutor? Sometimes the teacher just hasn't phrased a fundamental concept in a way that "clicks" with that student. A tutor may able to rephrase it so that she understands everything and starts making her usual grades.

If you go that route, I'd choose a tutor whose goal is to eventually wean her off of tutoring. That's not possible for some students, but it sounds like it is for your DD. I work for an in-home tutoring company that is very good about trying to reduce or eliminate the hours we tutor each student as they're ready for it. It's actually a national franchise, so PM me if you want the name of the company. There may be a branch where you are.

 

[grinningghost]

Thanks to everyone. I'm showing her your comments for encouragement. She is always very hard on herself - a definite "Type A" kid.

 

[Rajah]

This post could have been about me when I was her age, only with me the problem was in Geometry. I'm also one who's *really* hard on myself if I get anything but an A, so I understand where she's coming from.

Encourage her to hang in there and not to consider herself a failure over one low grade. Also not to give up because of one low grade, either.

In the meantime, see if you can find some extra practice things she can use. Flash cards, games (I loved games), tutor... anything to get more practice, because this stuff comes only with practice. You may also try other textbooks, because each textbook has slightly different ways of presenting the material, and one may present it in a way that makes more sense to her than her current book or teacher.

Also, something I found very, very, VERY helpful when I was having trouble in any math class (still do for that matter) was a dry erase board (one of those that's about 2.5 feet by 3 feet). Being able to work out the problem on a larger board than a piece of paper and on something that made it easy to erase and try again really helped, strange as that may sound. To this day, when I'm having difficulty with a problem at work or in school (since I'm going for my Master's), I find it much easier to solve if I can work it out on a dry erase board. If you don't have something like that, I highly recommend it.

And, encourage her to *never* skip any steps. Getting a good foundation in Algebra is very important, and if she starts skipping steps in problems (like I always wanted to do), that's going to open up room for mistakes, if not in this class then in future classes (I had to learn this the hard way ). What I mean is like this:

Say you have the following:

x - 2 = 0

Instead of just writing

x = 2

Write every step:

x - 2 = 0
x - 2 + 2 = 0 + 2
x = 2

On such a simple example, it really seems to waste time and space, but if she gets into that habit *now*, it'll really, really help in future classes. I was one who kept wanting to go straight to x=2 from x-2 = 0.

Good luck!! And assure her that even if she's having a problem in one aspect of the math now, if she keeps at it and doesn't give up, it'll come to her. She's a smart kid. It may take a while for it to click, but it *will* eventually click if she keeps at it.