Mathematics strategies for high school students
THERE is a lot to learn. In this complicated and fast- paced world, learning seems overwhelming. But if one knows how to strategize to put forth their best efforts and maximize their time, some work can be done. We all use strategies, whether we are aware of them or not. They make us efficient and keep us on track. High school students who use math strategies are smart cookies. Read on to find out how they use them and why it works.
What are math strategies? A strategy is a method used to make a task easier or help reach a goal. Why use strategies in math? Besides making you a smarty pants, there are a number of good reasons. Why use strategies? Like we said, strategies are tools we use to make life easier or reach a goal. We use math strategies because it will lead to a deeper understanding of math concepts. Using strategies also helps us to get better grades on homework, quizzes and tests. And best of all? Using strategies does all that and makes it work with less effort. Using math strategies can actually help you to work lighter and smarter.
What are effective math strategies in class? Let’s take a look at some high school students nowadays. There are high school students who now use super smart math strategies. What they do is they still take notes. It may sound old school but this still works. When students get to math class, the first thing they do is prepare a notebook for taking notes. Writing down what the teacher says and making notations about the process helps students make sense of learning in a few ways. First, by writing the information down students are making abstract learning visible, which makes their brain remember it later. Also, students are processing information when they take notes, which will push it into a long-term memory storage system.
After the teacher explains the lesson and students are assigned some practice problems, they know it’s a good strategy to try to work some problems out by themselves first. This gives their brain a chance to put new skills together and make sense of the steps involved in solving problems.
Students go back to their notes for guidance, but gives practice exercises several tries before asking for help. They usually find success using this strategy because their brain is built to figure things out. By stepping through the problem slowly and referencing their notes, they are warming their brain up to new concepts the same way cars are warmed up in a cool morning.
Sometimes, though, things just don’t make sense to students. Maybe they are daydreaming of their out-of-school activities or are distracted by social media or maybe the teacher’s language isn’t clicking. When this happens, students know that it’s important to ask questions. Students know from experience that letting too much time go by without raising their hands will mean they will get further behind. Students also ask questions if they try to solve a problem and get stuck. A teacher will always be glad to explain – probably a little too much!
Students also use math strategies when they do their homework. They have learned that if they only put in the work the math skills and concepts they learned at school today, they will improve a lot and enhance their learning. What they are doing today is the fluency of tomorrow. These are just few of the simple strategies that are actually very basic. If only the whole high school students put this in practice, they can overcome mathematical challenges with flying colors. ( Paid article)