Page 294 - ABCTE Study Guide_Neat

1) Give the students a test at the beginning of the year or semester to determine their level and aptitude
in mathematics based on material they have previously been taught.

2) After determining the students' levels, create small groups according to skill levels.

Of course, you probably won't be able to teach all of these groups individually—most teachers do not
have the time or resources. One solution to this problem would be to give the entire class a lesson, and
then assign each small group different problems to solve depending on their skill level. Ideally, the
students would work on these problems together and help each other.

Example: If a teacher was giving a lesson on how to compute the area of simple geometric shapes, like
squares and triangles, here are two different problems the teacher could give—one for a less-advanced
group and one for more-advanced group.

Problem One (for the less-advanced group):

What is the area of the triangle with a height of five inches and a base three inches?

Now, what is the area of the square with one side six inches long?

Problem Two (for the more advanced group):

What is the area of the drawing of the house below, with height nine inches and base five inches wide?

Why would the less-advanced group be assigned problem one? Because that problem simply requires
computing the area of a triangle and then the area of a square. However, problem two requires a student
to divide the house into a square and a triangle, compute the area of each, and then add these areas
together to find the total area of the house. Thus, because problem two addresses more concepts and is
not as straightforward as problem one, it would be appropriate for the more advanced group.

Be Able to Recognize and Correct Mistakes

Example: When students have to learn how to add multiple-digit numbers, they commonly start with the
left column. For example, when adding the two numbers 86 and 57, a student might start by adding the 8
and 5 to get 13.