Teaching Math
Found a link to an interesting Jump Math program (via New York Times blog post and HN). Some materials can be downloaded. Extract (pdf):
Emphasize the positive.
If a child gets three out of four questions wrong, I will mark the question that is correct first and praise them for getting the correct answer. Then I will say, “I think you didn’t understand something with these other questions” or “You may have been going too fast,” and then I will point out their mistake – or ask them to find it themselves! I’ve found that if I start by mentioning the mistakes, a weaker student will sometimes simply give up or stop listening. If a student is upset by their mistakes, I will sometimes make up a bonus question (that I know they can do) to show them they are capable of doing harder work. (I also tell students that even though I am a mathematician I often make mistakes. And I often start a lesson by telling students that if they don’t understand something it is my fault for not explaining it well enough, so they shouldn’t feel embarrassed at asking me to explain something again.)
Some other NH threads about teaching math: