Helping Your Child Learn Mathematics

Math Improvement Goals for Edmonds School District

Fall 2002

Here are some ways you can help your child become a good math problem solver:

~ Have high yet attainable expectations. Children’s math achievement is shaped and limited

by what is expected of them.

~ Daily, ask your child to explain what he/she did in math class.

~ Establish a good place for doing homework with lighting and resources.

~ Let your child determine his/her best time for doing homework.

~ Motivate by praising and reassuring.

~ Avoid conveying negative attitudes toward math

~ Expect some confusion to be part of the learning process but emphasize that effort, not

ability, is what counts.

~ Expect your child to be writing in math and doing activities other than simple computation.

~ Realize that problems can be solved in different ways.

Helping Your Child Grades K-2

Look for chances to make comparisons (e.g., number of forks and spoons on the table, heights of family members, a boot compared to a sneaker, shapes).

Look for and talk about addition and subtraction situations at home (e.g., add The number of oranges, bananas and apples in a fruit bowl).

Help your child learn the basic facts in addition and subtraction.

Helping Your Child Grades 3-4

Encourage estimating amounts, answers, and distances, then check for reasonableness.

Work with your child to collect and describe data (e.g., find the most common bike, dog

or car on your street.

Talk about area as a measure of flat space (e.g., the number of square tiles covering the bathroom floor).

Help your child learn the basic facts in multiplication and division as well as the different

values of coins and paper money.

Helping Your Child Grades 5-6

Help your child develop understanding of fractions, decimal fractions and percents (e.g., is a quarter tank of gas more or less than a third of a tank?)

Play mental math games that encourage fluency in computation and use of simple fractions (e.g., what number is half of 40 divided by ten).

Encourage your child to use available technology for tasks like developing charts, graphs, and maps.

For more math ideas, here’s a great

Resource: www.figurethis.org

What the State Requires:

Every school must set goals to increase the number of fourth, seventh and tenth grade students who are proficient mathematics problem solvers. Fall 2004 is the first checkpoint to report whether districts have met the goals they set.

A state test at grades 4, 7, and 10, the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), is used to measure whether students are meeting standards set for mathematics. This chart shows the mathematics improvement goals for Edmonds.

The Percent of Edmonds Students Who Met/Must Meet Math WASL Standards

Grade	2001	2002
4^th	50%	63%
7^th	25%	44%
10^th	46%	60%

Our 2002 Math WASL scores show improvement at 4^th and 7^th with more work to be accomplished at 10^th grade.

Our Plan for Meeting State Requirements:

To ensure that all students are successful in mathematics, we have defined essential learnings at each grade level and are developing common assessments and scoring guides foe these critical learnings. We have adopted exemplary curricular materials and continue to offer teachers time and opportunity to cultivate their mathematics knowledge and teaching skills.

Our indicators of student mathematical success are as follows:

~ students demonstrate basic math skills, procedures, and practical real-life applications;

~ students solve problems that arise in various contexts and communicate their thinking;

~ students have a positive attitude, confidence and understand the value of mathematics.