Measures and Handling Data

Activities for Children with Mathematical Learning Difficulties

Mel Lever

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136635601
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

First Published in 2003. This book offers practical advice to those students of maths who don't understand it and don't like it. The author asks 'So what shall we do about it?' This is what makes her books so helpful; they give parents and teachers practical ideas they can use. First addressing the question of the types of difficulty encountered, she then moves on to overcoming the difficulty.

1

  Teaching ‘Time’ to Children
  with Mathematical Learning
  Difficulties

I am starting this section with ‘Time’ as this is a most crucial concept for children to grasp if they are to become independent. During the past few years I have developed ways of helping the dyslexic children I teach, and other children I have taught in holiday projects, to understand the concept of time. I have invented games (some of which I am sure have already been thought of by others) and tried to ensure that the children have fun while learning.

Rote learning of the sequences of months of the year and days of the week can help children to memorise these facts, but the dyslexic child, or child with mathematical learning difficulties, may well need to practise these sequences more often than the average child.

As well as being able to tell the time from a clock face, children need to understand the passage of time, of months and days, of hours and minutes. Questions such as, ‘If today is Tuesday, what day will it be in four days’ time?’ or ‘If today is 29 December, what date will it be in one week’s time?’ are frequently asked in maths books and in tests. I noticed that, very often, many of the dyslexic children I teach would be able to answer the first of these questions, but few would be able to answer the second. There are several facts that children need to understand about the passage of a year if they are to understand such questions. I set about devising a set of activities which I hoped would help them to gain this understanding, and to do so in an active, fun way.

We talked about the scientific facts, and the children appeared to have little difficulty with understanding why we have years. We discussed how the days of the months arose, and the lengths of each month. So far, so good. However, they found it very difficult to understand how one month followed on from the next. Looking at a list of names was not sufficient. A diary shows details of the months but they are set out separately; they do not appear to run on from one to the other. What happens at the end of each month or the end of each year?

2

  The Passage of Time:
  Moving Through the Months

Activity

► Type out the months of the year and stick them on to strips of card, which you then laminate. Make a circle of 12 chairs, each facing outwards. Place the months clockwise on the chairs in the correct yearly order (Figure 2.1 ). In turn ask each child to walk round the chairs, starting with January, reciting the months as they go. Repeat this exercise, this time walking round twice. Then ask, ‘What month comes after December?’Any child who is hesitant can check the answer by referring to the chair labels.

Figure 2.1

►Ask each child, in turn, to stand by his or her birthday month. Then ask what month it would be, say, three months later. The children walk round the chairs, counting the months. Do this several times, so that all children have a chance to cross the boundary from December to January.

►It is important that the children demonstrate the passage of time, so ask them to walk through one year, then one year and three months, then two years and two months, and so on. As the children become more involved in the activity they begin to enjoy moving as quickly as they can. You can ask them to demonstrate the passage of time in, say, five years and six months. Children then give each other instructions, with a maximum number of years allowed being ten. Running is allowed. Needless to say, after several minutes of this they are all rather exhausted!

►Ask if there is any way that they could find which month they would be in after two years, which did not involve running round the chairs. Someone will eventually tell you that if he or she started at March and walked through three years he or she would be back at March. Other children can give similar examples.

►Ask the children where they would be if they started at June and walked through 20 years, 100 years, 1,000 years. Continue with 20 years and 2 months, 100 years and 3 months and 1,000 years and 6 months. The children can stand at the given month and either count through the years, marching on the spot, or saying, After 20 years I would be at June and then after two months I would be at [walking on] July, August.’

►Repeat the above activities with seven chairs and the days of the week. The concept is the same.

It is a good idea to start with the larger concept of months first. Children can then go on to study a calendar and see where weeks fit into months.

RESOURCES

• Twelve chairs
• Names of the months on laminated cards

3

The Passage of Time:
How Months Follow On

Many of my pupils had difficulty in answering questions such as, ‘Look at a calendar. If today is 26 January, what date will it be in one week?’ Virtually all the children I taught would say, ‘How do I know? It doesn’t say.’ Given a page of a diary, they would point to the gap at the end of January. I decided, therefore, that if the children were to understand how one month followed another we would have to demonstrate this. The following activities help.

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January / February — cut out these words and place next to the correct month

Figure 3.1

Activity

►Photocopy and enlarge the months from the front of a diary. Ask the children to cut out the names of the months and the dates of the months, keeping each name with its own set of dates (numbers). Keep the days of the week with January only. So, for instance, January and February might look like Figure 3.1where February has only 28 days.

►Get the children to lay out the months on a piece of card, like a jigsaw, 1 February fitting into the gap next to 31 January, and so on. They should place the names of the months beside their dates as they go along. This is a time-consuming exercise, especially for children who have difficulty with fine motor skills, but this in itself helps to make it worth while. As they cut out the shapes the children have to concentrate hard not to cut off any dates and to keep the names of the months with their correct set of numbers. When they have finished laying out the year, they can stick it all together so that they have a calendar with no gaps.

(Dropping all the pieces on th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction to the Series
• Acknowledgements
• Measures
• 1 Teaching ‘Time’ to Children with Mathematical Learning Difficulties
• 2 The Passage of Time: Moving Through the Months
• 3 The Passage of Time: How Months Follow On
• 4 Telling the Time
• 5 Capacity
• 6 Cooking
• 7 How Heavy Are You?
• 8 Measuring Your Body
• 9 Measuring Length: Non-standard Units
• 10 Measuring Length: Standard Units
• 11 Measuring Lines: Standard Units
• 12 Measuring a Greater Length: Non-standard and Standard Units
• 13 Finding the Area: Non-standard and Standard Units
• 14 Maths Competition
• Data Handling
• 15 Sets and Sorting
• 16 Sets and Sorting: Decision Trees
• 17 Interpreting Data
• 18 Probability
• 19 Special Project: Time Travel