Today I will explain some of the features of a typical Excel Math lesson. Here are both sides of a typical Lesson Sheet, for your viewing pleasure [click for a larger view].
After much tedious reading of research papers, I'd like to summarize three very important techniques we use to help students learn math.
- Explicit Timing
- Incremental Rehearsal
Excel Math uses both interspersal and incremental rehearsal approaches. In additional to our year-long spiraling approach to individual objectives, we also provide the Checkanswer which does two things: it allows students to check their own work, and the simple 3-4 item addition problem provides some respite from the challenging problems on the rest of the page.
The teacher can employ explicit timing whenever appropriate, especially on the Guided Practice part of the lesson.
NOTE: If you want to read more, click the links at the end of each paragraph, or search on the specific term to find the research papers that interest you most.
And that's enough for today.