
Episode #232
Struggling Math Students: What Elementary Teachers Don't Know About Working Memory (& other areas) with Becky Lord and Christina Tondevold
Have you ever had a student who looks lost before they've even started a problem? Or a kid who can do the steps but can't see the pattern that makes them work? I sat down with Becky Lord of LordMath.com to talk about the five cognitive areas that affect how our students learn math: working memory, processing speed, verbal comprehension, visual processing, and fluid reasoning. Becky explains what each one is, how it shows up when a student is struggling, and what we can change in our teaching right now. That includes cutting down directions, using white space on worksheets and slides, trimming words from anchor charts, and setting up a sequence of problems on purpose so kids can actually see the pattern. One of my biggest takeaways: strong number sense doesn't come from more language. It comes from stronger visuals. Most of us got very little training on the brain side of learning math. If that's you too, this conversation is a great place to start. Share it with your team to get the conversation going. Watch the video of this episode at https://youtu.be/uWqW_OkGq_E

