For Parents & Educators
Understanding & Supporting Struggling Math Students
A self-paced online course to help you understand why students struggle with math and how to support their learning.
5 video lessons · 80 minutes · 15 strategies
For Parents & Educators
Understanding & Supporting Struggling Math Students
A self-paced online course to help you understand why students struggle with math and how to support their learning.
5 video lessons | 80 minutes | 15 strategies
When Students Struggle with Math
When students are struggling with math and current supports aren’t working, it can be difficult to know what’s going on or how to help.
When I speak with parents and educators, they often describe situations like these:
- Students don’t seem to be understanding or making progress in math, no matter how hard they try
- Students seem to “get it” one day, but then forget it by the next
- Current school interventions and outside tutoring supports aren’t helping as much as they should
- Students are getting frustrated, shutting down, and getting further behind
We are wanting these students to have positive and meaningful learning experiences in math, but something is getting in the way and blocking their ability to learn.
Understanding What's Getting in the Way
When students are struggling with math and general instruction, interventions and supports aren’t working, I’ve found that it’s usually because there are underlying learning challenges that aren’t being addressed. These challenges can create barriers that prevent students from learning math, no matter how strong the instruction. For these struggling students, I’ve found that the key is to directly address their underlying challenges so they can access and make sense of instruction and learning.
In this course, you will learn about five core challenges that prevent students from learning math: Calculation, visual processing, executive functioning, anxiety, and cognitive overload. We’ll explore each challenge in its own video lesson.
In each lesson, you will learn:
- What the core challenge looks like in math learning situations and how it prevents students from learning
- Three concrete strategies to address the core challenge
- Specific teaching examples that show you how each strategy can be applied to a range of math content and teaching situations
Through these lessons, my hope is that you will learn things that will help you to better understand your student’s learning challenges and take away concrete strategies that you can use to help them.
Video Lessons
Lesson 1
Calculation
Some students have brains that cannot learn or recall basic math facts, making it difficult and sometimes impossible to solve math problems no matter how well they understand the concepts.
In this lesson, we’ll learn why students struggle when they don’t have math fact fluency and automaticity, and how we can help students to solve complex math problems without calculation challenges getting in the way.
14 minutes
Lesson 2
Visual Processing
Students with visual processing challenges struggle to “see” the mathematical concepts and skills represented in symbols, equations, graphs, figures, and algorithms.
In this lesson, we’ll learn what math looks like to students with visual processing challenges, and how we can help students to make sense of abstract and complex visual information so they can “see” the concepts and relationships they’re learning.
13 minutes
Lesson 3
Executive Functioning
Some students, including many with ADHD and autism, struggle to organize and regulate their thinking while they’re learning and solving math problems.
In this lesson, we’ll learn how executive functioning challenges prevent students from learning math fully and meaningfully, and how we can help students to fully engage their math brains so they learn and problem solve at their full potential.
15 minutes
Lesson 4
Anxiety
Students with math learning challenges often experience anxiety that can block math learning and prevent them from doing their best work.
In this lesson, we’ll learn how anxiety can get triggered in math learning situations, and how we can help students to feel calm and confident so they can access learning and fully demonstrate their true math abilities.
17 minutes
Lesson 5
Cognitive Overload
Students with math learning challenges have to work harder than their peers to learn and do math, which can exhaust them mentally and physically, and cause them to burn out or shut down.
In this lesson, we’ll learn about what contribures to students’ overload, and how we can help students to stay energized and engaged as they’re learning math and solving problems.
19 minutes
Who This Course is For
This course is primarily designed for educators, parents, and other adults who support struggling middle and high school math students.
Although the teaching examples in this course draw from middle and high school mathematics, the concepts and strategies may also be helpful for those supporting students in upper elementary grades.
Learn How to Reach Struggling Math Students
5 video lessons · 80 minutes · 15 strategies
Course access: $150
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