Positive Aspects: Sheila’s Story continued.
This blog continues the story of Sheila, a Certified Educational Assistant. Because of her own autism and that of her son, along with the challenges her son faced in his early schooling, Sheila is empathetic and highly motivated to find individualized solutions for her students. In this instance, she was working with a grade four female student who is unable to correctly add single digit numbers up to twenty without support. The story continues in Sheila’s own words:
I knew that teachers had tried picture math sheets, number lines, counting strips, base ten blocks, primary abacus, counters, ten frames, rote drills and more, all to no avail.
What else could there be? I turned it all over in my mind for about a day. What did the majority of these methods have in common? The answer – they used fine motor skills. What was the opposite of fine motor skills? Gross motor skills.
Walking, running, skipping, jumping, hopping are all examples of movements which use gross motor skills. How could I effectively apply that to addition?
My initial goal was for her to be able to complete a simple worksheet adding numbers to a sum no higher than 20 with 90% accuracy.
Hopping, jumping and skipping would become tiring very quickly and were not really compatible with a worksheet.
Walking seemed the most reasonable. I envisioned walking a number line with numbers up to 20 spaced a comfortable step apart.
This was going to take up a lot of room. Outside had the most space, but the weather was pretty wet so I found a section of the wall under the eaves that had no windows.
The number line was drawn in chalk and looked like a ladder with one side taken off. Numbers from 0 to 20 were written beside each rung.
Once the student had been shown the number line and what it represented, I had to teach her how to use it. I began with an equation my student already knew.
I asked her to stand at the bottom of the ladder on the “0” rung and said,
“We are going to add 1 + 1. So take a step to the line with the number 1.” She did. “Good”, I said, “Now, we are adding one more so we need to take one more step. Take a step to the next line. Good. Look at the number beside the line you’re standing on. What is it?”
“Two” she responded.
“What is 1+1?” I asked her.
“Two,” she quickly replied.
“Right! And what is the number beside the line you’re standing on?”
She looked down at the number then back at me and thoughtfully answered, “Two.”
We then repeated the procedure using 1+2, with the additional information that we always start at the largest number in the equation.
The next day, I made two copies of a worksheet and gave the student one on a clipboard with a pencil. I verbalized the process for each equation and the student carried out the instructions.
In the following days, little by little, I had the student verbalize the process until she could do it independently.
Although this task seems simple, there are multiple facets.
- Finding the equation on the page, remembering you need to look at the largest number first,
- Determining what is the largest number,
- Finding the number on the line and then standing on it,
- Referring to the equation on the page to see what number you’re adding,
- Walking the correct number of lines,
- Finding the number on the line you’re on,
- Remembering the number while once again locating the equation so you can then write it down.
My student enjoyed this process and she worked hard.
I remember the first time she did the worksheet independently. I sent her out while I stayed in to work on a trumped-up task.
I reflected back to when I first read the file on her, to how discouraging it must have felt for her to be unable to participate in Maths with the other kids. How she not only couldn’t do it right, she could not do it at all.
And now, without any help from me or her peers, she was out there doing it!
When she finished, she marched into my room, handed me that worksheet, and she was just beaming with pride! It was the first time in four years she was able to independently and correctly complete an addition worksheet.
What amazing success! But Sheila’s journey with this student was not over yet. In next week’s blog we learn how Sheila translates this method of learning to a process that will work in the classroom.
Margaret Jean 