Can anything be done about carelessness?

[Deanna in TN]

My son is 14 (9th grade) and he is taking his first outside math class. I have been reviewing his homework, and he understands the math, but he makes lots of careless mistakes. Is there anything that I can do to help him with this? Is there a chance that he will outgrow this?

 

Thanks,

 

Deanna

[8filltheheart]

My advanced 6th grader is taking alg this yr. She was getting really careless about dropping negatives. I made her use a red colored pencil for all negative numbers. She hated it! She begged me to let her drop the red and she promised not to drop the negatives. It worked. ;)

[Mom0012]

Jann in Texas has recommended having my son check his work after each few problems or row and then having him correct them immediately. I have actually been having him do one page of his 2-page lesson and then correct. We have only been doing this a couple of weeks, but it seems to have led to a big improvement in the number of careless errors he makes.

 

Why? I still don't understand because I always checked all his work every evening and made him make all corrections the following morning before starting on the next lesson. It may be that he is simply challenging himself more since he knows he's going to be in control of checking his work as soon as it's finished.

 

Lisa

[Elinor Everywhere]

My son is 14 (9th grade) and he is taking his first outside math class. I have been reviewing his homework, and he understands the math, but he makes lots of careless mistakes. Is there anything that I can do to help him with this? Is there a chance that he will outgrow this?

 

Thanks,

 

Deanna

 

This is timely; having the same problems with my 13yodd. She understands the math perfectly, but she makes careless errors frequently. Drives me crazy. Any tried & true methods of breaking this habit are welcome!

[Julie in MN]

My advanced 6th grader is taking alg this yr. She was getting really careless about dropping negatives. I made her use a red colored pencil for all negative numbers. She hated it! She begged me to let her drop the red and she promised not to drop the negatives. It worked. ;)

 

I love it!

[Hunter]

Put a bowl of skittles on the table. Sit and race the child, one problem at a time. Whoever gets the right answer first gets a piece of candy.

 

Now they can see how quickly and accurately math can be done.

 

Get them to do 5 problems at a time and then check their work. They get a piece of candy if all 5 are right.

 

If too many problems are wrong, make them repeat old lessons. Most students want to move forward, not repeat lessons, and this will be enough incentive to be less careless.

 

My youngest was 5 years excellerated in math, and still such a little person, I used the candy route, rather than repeating lessons, when he was young, so as not to crush his spirit. Saxon problems were so long and tedius, and so ripe for a careless mistake.

 

With my oldest, doing much shorter problems and lessons, I usually just made him repeat lessons, till he knocked it off.

[Jann in TX]

The majority of Algebra 1 students are 14yrs old. Nuff said.

 

Well, to elaborate, the teen mind is going through MAJOR changes at this age... they often 'scan' or 'speed read' their work... for most of their life anytime they see a 2 followed by a 3 it means to add them together... so the number 1 most common mistake I see as a Math teacher is 2 X 3 = 5.

They do fine in elementary and middle school--but once they start Algebra and the problems become more complex they hyper focus on the numbers and the process goes 'POOF'!

 

In the case of 2x3=5 the student DOES NOT need to go back and practice their basic facts.. they know perfectly well what 2 times 3 is... their brain did NOT process the multiplication sign... switch that out for a subtraction sign and you get the next most common mistake 2-3 =-5 They pick up on the subtraction sign (and think negative) the 2 and the 3 go together to make a 5 and a positive and a negative make a negative... again they HYPER focused on the numbers and the process was lost in translation.

 

As a previous poster mentioned, the strategy I use is having the students grade their own papers--after ever so many problems (this depends on the student), they stop and check their answers (this is WHY the answers are in the back of the text--for STUDENT use). If they have an incorrect answer they go back to that problem and find/correct their error--if they cannot find the error they rework the problem from the beginning.

 

Most students this age DO NOT like doing extra work-- somehow this method seems to help them focus during the problems so fewer errors are made. The students quickly learn where they are most likely to make errors and they slow down just enough that their brain can pay better attention to the little details like pesky negative signs.

 

When a parent or a teacher grades homework, this method is not as effective--especially if only a few problems were missed in the assignment... students often say 'well I made a 90% so I'm OK'... but in reality that is dangerously close to a B. The sooner they can rework missed problems the better.

 

I do not recommend checking after every problem unless the student is very insecure... eventually I motivate these students to waiting to every 3rd or 5th problem--eventually to every section of their homework.

[Elinor Everywhere]

The majority of Algebra 1 students are 14yrs old. Nuff said.

 

Well, to elaborate, the teen mind is going through MAJOR changes at this age... they often 'scan' or 'speed read' their work... for most of their life anytime they see a 2 followed by a 3 it means to add them together... so the number 1 most common mistake I see as a Math teacher is 2 X 3 = 5.

They do fine in elementary and middle school--but once they start Algebra and the problems become more complex they hyper focus on the numbers and the process goes 'POOF'!

 

In the case of 2x3=5 the student DOES NOT need to go back and practice their basic facts.. they know perfectly well what 2 times 3 is... their brain did NOT process the multiplication sign... switch that out for a subtraction sign and you get the next most common mistake 2-3 =-5 They pick up on the subtraction sign (and think negative) the 2 and the 3 go together to make a 5 and a positive and a negative make a negative... again they HYPER focused on the numbers and the process was lost in translation.

 

As a previous poster mentioned, the strategy I use is having the students grade their own papers--after ever so many problems (this depends on the student), they stop and check their answers (this is WHY the answers are in the back of the text--for STUDENT use). If they have an incorrect answer they go back to that problem and find/correct their error--if they cannot find the error they rework the problem from the beginning.

 

Most students this age DO NOT like doing extra work-- somehow this method seems to help them focus during the problems so fewer errors are made. The students quickly learn where they are most likely to make errors and they slow down just enough that their brain can pay better attention to the little details like pesky negative signs.

 

When a parent or a teacher grades homework, this method is not as effective--especially if only a few problems were missed in the assignment... students often say 'well I made a 90% so I'm OK'... but in reality that is dangerously close to a B. The sooner they can rework missed problems the better.

 

I do not recommend checking after every problem unless the student is very insecure... eventually I motivate these students to waiting to every 3rd or 5th problem--eventually to every section of their homework.

Thanks, Jann, I was hoping you'd chime in. I guess we'll try the method described - something has to work, because it's frustrating for us both when she gets a low A or B and she understands the concepts perfectly! And by the way, my dd will thank you for my decision not to have her practice math facts... :001_smile: