Ratios With Sarah

Ratios are easy. All you do is cross multiply. Why? And what if you for get the rules? Here is a series of videos staring Sarah who is studying for her GED. This series gets cut off before we finish but what is on vid is worth sharing. Remember this kid is autistic...but I don't treat her with kid gloves (anymore), and she is doing quite well with math. Look for other blog posts where she is featured and prepare to be amazed. Also look for a future post where the autistic savant rears it's head...she is beginning to recall math facts and remember seemingly random facts that she has seen before.

{I'll put a link in when I make the post. Note to self.}

In these vid we begin to see what do when presented with ratio problems and rather than give rules on when to multiply or divide we think about the relationships. Once we understand that then we can start making up rules to describe what's happening and what to do to get the answer. Note I give her no rules. Later she tells me the rules...unfortunately I did not get it on video. But by the last video you can see she understands it. Then and only then do we move on.



Note I put the P1 in front to make it easy to search and find the next vid...P1 Crewton Ramone and Sarah Playing Ratios and Relationships.



Note when I say tricky I am using her verbage because there's nothing tricky about these it's just math.



As they understand it they do it easier and faster.



And here is the final one where she shows she understands it.



After these we move on to problems where it's not just whole numbers but fractions but we didn't get any of it on vid...you can see more with Sarah on Sarah's page.

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Crewton Ramone Strikes Again! Sarah.

Here is another testimonial. Sarah has hit a goal and removed a block to her progress. She passed her Compass Test.  This is kind of a big deal. Keep in mind when I met her she had no high school math credits.



Also keep in mind that her family swears up and down that this was a "normal" kid until she was three and she had a round of shots. When she was a baby/toddler she was happy and talkative and liked to draw and play with pencils.  Her mother says she was actually a little advanced because she was drawing not just scribbling and she started talking "early." (Sarah is quite an amazing artist.)  She got her shots and within days became quiet and withdrawn and for quite didn't play with pencils anymore and stopped talking altogether. The hubris filled medical profession coached by pharma has told her that her daughter had Autism all along she just didn't realize it. This is because her doctors know the child better than the parents.  In dealing with Autistic kids I have heard this story many more times than once...

I have also had to deal with schools and teachers that once they applied the Autism label limited what the students were allowed to do "for their own good"...in Sarah's case it was math. I will say her mother deserves quite a bit of credit for standing up for her daughter and getting her into some math classes.  She wants her daughter to be self sufficient. "I'm not always going to be around."



I can not take full credit for her progress because she has teachers and aides that now work with her too. I will say that when I first met her we started at square one...addends, adding numbers and multiplication.  There are still some holes I intend to go back and refill like fractions, ratios, money and problem solving.

I thought that once she passed this test which was the goal for which I was hired that we would be done but Sarah called me herself and asked me if I would do more tutoring with her even though she had passed the test. 

I have to admit that when her mom explained her goals I was among the ones with reservations, some of the school administrators flat out laughed at her,  I didn't go that far, I figured "we'll see." But I was not as optimistic as I should have been. I thought I was just being realistic. I have also been taught another valuable lesson.

Sarah has risen to the occasion. I like working with her because it increases my teaching skills as I figure out how to get her to discover some concepts on her own and how to get her to understand some of the things they teach her in school where she can mimic the algorithm but doesn't really understand what she is doing. She is beginning to understand and "know" the math not just memorize long enough to take the test which I see too many students who are not autistic doing.

I will take credit for this though because I know for a fact she would never have gotten it the traditional way...just like a lot of "normal" kids don't.



I prefer enrichment students and students who are already good at math and want to learn more. I also don't care to get put in a niche where I only work with autistic students; however, I am happy to do video tutoring with students who need help. Scheduling might prove interesting depending on your time zone but I think you find my rate of $40.00 per student quite reasonable. It's not about the money, it's about the math.

Sarah has her own page at the house of math. There are many vids there you can't find anywhere else. I put up quite a few lessons and will add more as well as a link to this post. I was wanting to to film more but sometimes this adds a dimension that is disturbing to the process. There is quite a bit there...it will take a few seconds for all the vids to load.

The idea is you learn how to help your own kids not pay me...you can get a password for 5 bucks.  I also have more video sitting on my hard drive that needs to get edited and added so check back and refresh the page there as I add more in the coming year.  I was working on a book, Crewton Ramone's Completely Cool Curious Counters' Kindergarten Compendium which took quite a bit of my time, but I was sill tutoring and making vids, they just didn't get loaded up to youtube and are sitting on my hard drive. Get the book and read it to your young child autistic or not, repeatedly.

New improved version I added an "r" to the title.

Simple Systems Of Equations

Start off easy and it will stay easy. What are we doing? Understanding basic concepts and ten seeing how we come up with te rules and process they teach for solving equations. This student is 11. This is his second exposure.

l + d + t = 12
l + t = 8
l + d = 7
Solve for l, d, t...

Now make up some of your own...

Then lets go back to some "regular" problem solving, which seems extra easy now that we only have one variable to figure out...later once the concepts are fully understood we can go back and have multiple lions and tigers and dogs, oh my. (I couldn't resist.)  Later we can introduce two lions, then maybe two lions and three tigers...etc...

Right now what to do when a negative number shows up?...understand same, hero zero and no fun get back to one.

Here is a quick screencast on it...for more go to the problem solving page at Crewton Ramone's House of Math.



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Look they practically give the thing away...get one if you haven't already got one tucked away somewhere. Great for making highskool kids see how easy it can be...

More Fractions Theory In Practice

Here is a short screencast where I cover some fractions concepts with an Autistic student.

You may want to check out this fractions intro post first if you are unfamiliar with manipulatives or new to this blog.

She was suffering under the influence of TOO MUCH CHOCOLATE so was quite flighty and had a hard time concentrating. It was interesting to watch. But once we got going she settled down and she was fine.

SO we started off playing with the concept of what one is. With my imagination I can name the blocks whatever I want...so if the four block is now a one the unit block is now 1/4.

 Same with the five block, if it's now one then the unit block is 1/5. The fraction's denominator tells us what one is.

 We worked out our way up to this problem where she had to reduce the answer even more. It took some thinking and work on her part. Here the picture is labeled for the people reading this blog, the math terms come with the territory and she will know what they mean because we've used them many times rather than learn a definition or an axiom.

 Then we started doing these kinds of problems. Took about 5 minutes to develop the concept and put the concept into practice...

Anyhow, here is a screencast covering a couple of basic fractions concepts:




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