Language. I have found that often the common factor in why kids are struggling is language. Simply, the kids don't know what we as teachers are talking about.
After becoming an online tutor, this really became apparent to me. Reading comprehension and math are the two main culprits.
Before I start tutoring a student in reading comprehension, I ask the student, "What does 'comprehension' mean?" I have had only one student so far who knew what it meant. Most just shrug and have a look of dread on their faces. I don't blame them. I remember the stress of not being confident I would keep the terms the teacher used straight. I start talking to them about how it simply means being able to understand what we have read. Usually, their faces immediately show relief. I know they are probably thinking, "Oh, is that all? I can do that." I then explain I am going to work with them on strategies to break it down so they can understand it.
I also see this confusion when dealing with word problems, fractions, and division. Actually, I see it in other mathematical concepts but primarily those. I do remember as a child stressing out on trying to remember which was the divisor and which was the dividend. Those terms sounded so similar to me. I could remember them at times, but when put on the spot, they just slipped away. Confusing the numerator and denominator is often a problem as well. Word problems used to totally stress me out. I didn't understand you could break down the language to determine whether you needed to add, subtract, multiply or divide.
Before we think a child is struggling with a concept, we need to first make sure he understands what we are talking about. Although that may not completely clear up his confusion on the concept, knowing the language will assist him while you are reteaching the concept. I have found that mastery of the concept usually follows somewhat soon after the language has been learned.
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