Our new student started today. I've got 3 classes of 4th graders who've finally gotten fairly proficient at multiplication facts, multi-digit mult. and long division by this week. I tried to include the new student in the long division activity that groups were doing, just to see how he'd do, since I hadn't gotten an opportunity to do any assessments w/ him or talk to him yet. His partners let me know right away that he didn't know what 2x2 was. I pulled him to talk with him and see what he knew and he told me he didn't know what the X was for. He had never seen multiplication!!! It was clear that he wasn't just playing me. We are through long division...how do I possibly get a child who has no concept of multiplication caught up??? And who lets a child get to 4th grade without any concept of multiplication? He couldn't even draw 2 groups of 4 for me!
Is it possible he has an IEP and you were not informed?
Sad to say, this does happen.
Hopefully, he just was never taught. If this is the case it is possible he can learn the material with some extra supports. Otherwise, if he doesn't have an IEP at present, RTI needs to be started now.
Nope, no IEP. I do know his family has been pretty transient, so I'm guessing he hasn't been anywhere long enought to learn this. I would love to start RTI, but our school is just in the exploration phase of this. We have no support in place, so it falls to me and only me. Should be fun, huh?
We had a student come from another state/big city and he was really struggling in the intermediate grades. We found that he was at a pre-primer reading level. No IEP, mother was mortified. Helped them get him an IEP and success at school. Next two children from the family were honor roll, both in college now. Lesson learned, there might be a learning problem that for many reasons has not been addressed. If the parents care (and they usually do), they will welcome the help.
Hope things go well.
I'd say start him on filling out skip counting and writing down the tables in a list... then move him on to the mult chart later, and finally flash cards and mad minutes. Maybe a classroom buddy could help with this and they could do it just before dismissal or during any other 10 minute or so period during the day. No matter if he has an IEP or not, this might help and perhaps you have a couple of other kids that need it too.
I know I sure do, but at least they'd HEARD of multiplication!
I understand your dismay. I've been in your shoes every single year of my career.
You'll want to comb through his cumulative folder when it arrives. If it hasn't followed him yet, either the secretary or you will have to put in some calls and insist it is urgent that you get the document sent to the school, or least get the "guts" faxed over immediately.
Go ahead and put him on RtI right away once you've done all of your assessments. If you wait, you'll have to start from square one once your school has the interventions in place. Get the paperwork going on him now. On Tier I, you can try using core and universal access and see how he responds. Hate to be a pessimist, but if he can't draw 2 groups of 4 he will probably need to be bumped to Tier II by the end of 9 weeks.
In the meanwhile, rather than tearing your hair out, continue to teach him grade level concepts but modify his work as much as possible (check with your academic coach or principal if you hvae to). Break down his multiplication facts for survival... maybe just have him learn 5 facts a week. I've had to do this with students before, and it is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible. Yes, they should've learned it. But... they are where they are.
That is so sad. I really feel for that boy. It must be a horrible feeling to be utterly clueless with what is going on in class. I've been in similar situations, and it makes it very difficult for the teacher and student. I would give him a multiplication chart to use for the long division and the multi digit multiplication. Hopefully with that he can at least understand how to do the problems correctly, and as he learns his facts you can take the chart away. I'd also get him started working on his multiplication facts asap. I would definitely get in contact with his parents, because he is going to have to work on the facts at home. Right now I think it is important to find out if this is because he just hasn't been taught the concept of multiplication or if he has been taught and did not understand it.
11-06-2009, 05:14 PM
And who lets a child get to 4th grade without any concept of multiplication? He couldn't even draw 2 groups of 4 for me!
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