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Remote Learning and the Math Struggle

Remote Learning and the Math Struggle

Remote learning is not easy for anyone, but if there’s one area where most students (and parents!) are struggling the most, it seems to be math.

There are numerous studies that have been released since last spring about how students are falling behind. In general, the studies have found that the COVID-slide is creating significant student learning loss, and it’s most significantly impacting math.

The good news is that there are ways to counter the COVID-math slide if your student is struggling. We share several strategies below for getting your student back on track in math.

1) Check in regularly with the teacher.

It can be a challenge for teachers to know when and where your student is struggling unless you talk with them. Encourage your student to check in during scheduled office hours, or reach out to them directly to schedule some time.

We know that asking for help doesn’t come naturally to some students. But encouraging them to get into the habit of reaching out to their teacher and communicating regularly about when and where they need extra support is a skill that can benefit them now and well into the future.

2) Get extra help or find a tutor.  

If reaching out to the teacher is just not enough for your student, it might be time to find a tutor. Our Apex Learning Virtual School counselors regularly monitor your student’s progress and provide academic counseling. If they are struggling, we work together with you and your student to proactively get them back on track.

This could mean working together with the tutors available through Apex Learning Virtual School, or hiring your own. In today’s virtual world, you can use a tutor from anywhere via a Zoom chat rather than trying to find someone locally. Whomever you find, you just want to make sure it’s a good fit for your student and that they feel comfortable.

3) Find supplemental curriculum to help.

If your student is really stuck on a few major concepts, or you’re just worried they haven’t mastered the math skills they need to succeed in the next grade level, adding supplemental curriculum could be a great option.

Using Apex Learning Tutorials, your student can close learning gaps and increase mastery without relying on you to be an expert in middle school and high school math curriculum. Whether your student is working at grade level or looking to gain confidence, Tutorials provide the targeted instruction and extra practice they need to be successful in subsequent courses.

4) Use real life to teach math.

There’s no denying that that way your student learns math is probably different than the way we learned math. But even still, there are practical ways you might be able to help them grasp math concepts in their everyday life.

For example, one high school class in Township, New Jersey, read Elie Wiesel’s Night, and they decided to calculate the volume of 11 million pennies to help them understand the impact of the lives lost during the Holocaust. They used the high school football field to provide a real-life visual of the lives that were lost. They calculated that they would need 343 football fields to account for all of the victims.

There are also ways to invite your student to recalculate recipes or put together the logistics for a trip, including when you will need to get gas and how long each leg of the journey will take. There are many ways to account for math in our everyday lives. It’s all about getting creative!

More than anything, understanding where your student is struggling and how to get them the support they need is the best way to keep them on track. To learn more about how we can help, visit: www.apexlearningvs.com.

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