Maths and English
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Grummer
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In school, I loved maths, i loathed English.
I enjoyed trigonometry, geometry, calculus, statisitics but most of all algebra.
To be frank im surprised at the advent of this thread, for i had always thought that since d/Deaf people are more visual, then mathematics is where our mental strengths lies. I really do find this strange.
But I guess that had alot to do with how the maths is taught. While Mathematics is 'taught in English' it is not conveyed in pure English, but 'borrowed' English in a more or less colloquial manner, that is; speaking in terminology and along in its strict format. "Maths english" is coded in concepts and layered further mental concepts. So I guess since the concepts were handled in mulitude abstract terms, as 'mapped and understood in this elaborated way' it becomes difficult to keep track and comprehending the whys and wherefores the concepts and at same time what steps must be taken to solve the puzzles as given out. In a way it is not surprising that maths can be difficult to grasp. I guess now that one of the possible 'reasons' why many d/Deaf people "here" prefers their mental tasks to be dealing with linguistic or experiential/situation decoding using expressions as guided by the first hand abstract knowledge of how to operate our thinking in English, while in discussing mathematical concepts and riddles, it is 'operating at a 'higher' or another level of abstract/meaning so the 'lack of flow in English spoken in classrooms' may have attributed to this ''failure", Right now, my English abilty is failing to explain what exactly I am trying to convey here. Nevertheless I will carry on post this and hope it come across as OK.
From my own experience being profoundly deaf, I heard fuck-all in classroom lessons right through from primary to secondary school(secondary is high school in NZ) i recall quite vividly that i progressed from building my 'my self-taught mental elaboration' yes alot of which were 'second time show/demonstrations by examples - as in one to one just to repeat what they were saying to the class' but IN actual classes not additional classes. because of this i was forced to learn very fast and often without problems as I somehow make the connections from previous classes to the next and often the 'jump' or connection has invovled a 6 months gaps! I was lucky that I had this very image-driven memory seeing patterns (ie; sometimes seeing how the problems and solutions overlapped or extended or systematically arrange some repetitions in steps until I find the pattern fits (think like how you would approach solving the Rubiks' cube) and had the desire to try out and see if it fits, and usually it wasn't longer than 5 mins then I'd just carry on with the rest of the class while they all HEARD from the teacher.
Going full circle, to the beginning of this post, I am surprised as this, I had always thought every d/Deaf person (who can do maths) thought, and memorised like I did. I always thought deaf people are better at mathematics.
I was mainstreamed throughoutly and it was harsh in terms of my emotional, social needs were not met. Moreso when I meet some d/Deaf (those claimed to be Deaf - not) they further refused to meet my social needs too. Grr strange how when we all think it will be better later, it was never the case. OK this last couple sentences is not entirely relevent to the thread but I still just mention it. All in all, I was competent in maths and computers while my ability in English lacked in a big way during my childhood until the day I left school.
I enjoyed trigonometry, geometry, calculus, statisitics but most of all algebra.
To be frank im surprised at the advent of this thread, for i had always thought that since d/Deaf people are more visual, then mathematics is where our mental strengths lies. I really do find this strange.
But I guess that had alot to do with how the maths is taught. While Mathematics is 'taught in English' it is not conveyed in pure English, but 'borrowed' English in a more or less colloquial manner, that is; speaking in terminology and along in its strict format. "Maths english" is coded in concepts and layered further mental concepts. So I guess since the concepts were handled in mulitude abstract terms, as 'mapped and understood in this elaborated way' it becomes difficult to keep track and comprehending the whys and wherefores the concepts and at same time what steps must be taken to solve the puzzles as given out. In a way it is not surprising that maths can be difficult to grasp. I guess now that one of the possible 'reasons' why many d/Deaf people "here" prefers their mental tasks to be dealing with linguistic or experiential/situation decoding using expressions as guided by the first hand abstract knowledge of how to operate our thinking in English, while in discussing mathematical concepts and riddles, it is 'operating at a 'higher' or another level of abstract/meaning so the 'lack of flow in English spoken in classrooms' may have attributed to this ''failure", Right now, my English abilty is failing to explain what exactly I am trying to convey here. Nevertheless I will carry on post this and hope it come across as OK.
From my own experience being profoundly deaf, I heard fuck-all in classroom lessons right through from primary to secondary school(secondary is high school in NZ) i recall quite vividly that i progressed from building my 'my self-taught mental elaboration' yes alot of which were 'second time show/demonstrations by examples - as in one to one just to repeat what they were saying to the class' but IN actual classes not additional classes. because of this i was forced to learn very fast and often without problems as I somehow make the connections from previous classes to the next and often the 'jump' or connection has invovled a 6 months gaps! I was lucky that I had this very image-driven memory seeing patterns (ie; sometimes seeing how the problems and solutions overlapped or extended or systematically arrange some repetitions in steps until I find the pattern fits (think like how you would approach solving the Rubiks' cube) and had the desire to try out and see if it fits, and usually it wasn't longer than 5 mins then I'd just carry on with the rest of the class while they all HEARD from the teacher.
Going full circle, to the beginning of this post, I am surprised as this, I had always thought every d/Deaf person (who can do maths) thought, and memorised like I did. I always thought deaf people are better at mathematics.
I was mainstreamed throughoutly and it was harsh in terms of my emotional, social needs were not met. Moreso when I meet some d/Deaf (those claimed to be Deaf - not) they further refused to meet my social needs too. Grr strange how when we all think it will be better later, it was never the case. OK this last couple sentences is not entirely relevent to the thread but I still just mention it. All in all, I was competent in maths and computers while my ability in English lacked in a big way during my childhood until the day I left school.
kashveera
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I'm a mixture of both, and guess what, I use both mathematics and english in my day - to - day work life, because all I see everyday are figures, and even more figures, working out relationships and correlation factors, and english because we are forever giving presentations or attending meetings, which demand that you don't just use any word that your feel familiar with, you use words that are concrete and add meaning. So, for me, I'm grateful I did well for both subjects when I was at school, but I sucked so badly at physics...why was Newton ever born?
sablescort
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Then along came Einstein and everything went full speed ahead to where we are now.
Newton did lay out the basic foundation for both mathematics and physics. Without Sir Isaac, we would still be in the stone age and communicating by the Pony Express instead of the Internet!
For me, I have a weird love-and-hate affair with both math and english....go figure
I had math again today. I had such a bad time I actually felt as if I was going to burst in tears. i know its stupid and its only maths but I really have a hard time and struggle
*sighs* all i need to do is pass two maths exams
*sighs* all i need to do is pass two maths exams
krazykatkitty
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Everyone have a different strength in subjects... My English is not all perfect and just a simple grammar errors but not that too bad.. but I still learning something new in each day.. Im pretty good at Science, PE, spelling and Maths ( sort of ). Year 12 Science is very very hard than Year 11 science in last year.. Argh! I just try my best and enjoy at school is a main things.
krazykatkitty
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Sorry to hear... I hope that you will do better in Maths in next exam
MoonDrifter
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When I multiply, I add the numbers to get the total.
8 x 7 (complex multiples)
I choose to add "8" seven times because its an even number to begin with. Always easy to start that way. Adding odds makes it very difficult.
8 + 8 = 16 Now two "8's" are down. Five more to go. You can count with your fingers. I do this sometimes for odd multiples beyond 10.
Now, 16 + 8 = 24 Four more "8's" to go!
24 + 8 = 32 Three more "8's" to go!
32 + 8 = 40 Two more!
40 + 8 = 48 One more!
48 + 8 = 56 Done!
There's another way to solve the same equation. Notice how 7 and 8 are very close to 10. You can round up 8 to 10. That way you're doing 7 x 10, which gets you 70. Leave the 70 in memory. Because you have added 2 to the 8 to get 10, you do 2 x 7 which gives you 14. Subtract 70 from 14.
70 - 14 = 56
Broken down version:
Break down 14 into 10 and 4.
70 - 10 = 60 > > > 60 - 4 = 56
Hope this helps a bit. Complex math was never easy for me when I was growing up. I've always loved science and art.
8 x 7 (complex multiples)
I choose to add "8" seven times because its an even number to begin with. Always easy to start that way. Adding odds makes it very difficult.
8 + 8 = 16 Now two "8's" are down. Five more to go. You can count with your fingers. I do this sometimes for odd multiples beyond 10.
Now, 16 + 8 = 24 Four more "8's" to go!
24 + 8 = 32 Three more "8's" to go!
32 + 8 = 40 Two more!
40 + 8 = 48 One more!
48 + 8 = 56 Done!
There's another way to solve the same equation. Notice how 7 and 8 are very close to 10. You can round up 8 to 10. That way you're doing 7 x 10, which gets you 70. Leave the 70 in memory. Because you have added 2 to the 8 to get 10, you do 2 x 7 which gives you 14. Subtract 70 from 14.
70 - 14 = 56
Broken down version:
Break down 14 into 10 and 4.
70 - 10 = 60 > > > 60 - 4 = 56
Hope this helps a bit. Complex math was never easy for me when I was growing up. I've always loved science and art.
kokonut
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Love math and English. Tutored math and physics at Gallaudet, and then tutored math (algebra to calculus), general chemistry, statistics, physics, geophysics and some geology at Univ. of Idaho while as a grad student. That was an interesting time while at U of I.
kokonut
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Geophysics for 2 years, then switched over to Geology for the next 3 years to work on and emphasize hydrogeology/hydrogeophysics and contaminant groundwater modeling.
kokonut
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I've always been interested in Earth science. Now, I work as a professional hydrologist and work in the forest (in the shadow of Mt. St. Helens) and in my office. Whoever thought you get paid to hike in the woods?
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I took Geology and Geography in college and had a rock collection.
Wow, I remember Mt St. Helens although I was very young....remember that one man would not leave. Much later saw documentary on it too-
do you find it peaceful to work where you do? Do you mostly work by yourself?
Wow, I remember Mt St. Helens although I was very young....remember that one man would not leave. Much later saw documentary on it too-
do you find it peaceful to work where you do? Do you mostly work by yourself?
sr171soars
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Er...she (Jillio) meant that we ought not put all the burden on the child to be responsible for learning a subject. We need to understand the child better as there are different strategies in how a child learns. The "teacher" then can teach the way the child learns best.
This can get complicated as one also deals with motivation. Some children simply need a kickstart and others need handholding for a long time. Another aspect is confidence and it all can be a challenge. At some point, that child or eventually as an adult will need to be responsible for taking it the next step.
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In this day and age instead of having standardized testing we should require that children exiting kindergarten be required to test for learning disabilities. If we can catch these disabilities early, we stand a better chance of these kids being taught the material in a format they understand and thus better test scores on the benchmarks.
There's no reason why a 9 year old should have to spend 4 hours on a math homework assignment and be yelled at for 'not getting it' when his/her classmates can finish the assignment in 20 minutes and go to the next thing. I was told I was lazy when it came to math by my parents. But I just didn't get it. By the 6th grade I just gave up on it even though I begged them to get me a tutor. Another girl I know got a tutor that struggled in math - now she works at the University I attend as an IT specialist on staff.
But it just irritates me that a child can be called lazy when they just don't understand the material given. This is why I think testing for learning disabilities should be a part of the screening for vision and hearing problems as a child goes through school. This doesn't mean a child diagnosed will automatically be medicated, but the school finds alternative means of instruction to ensure success for the student.
There's no reason why a 9 year old should have to spend 4 hours on a math homework assignment and be yelled at for 'not getting it' when his/her classmates can finish the assignment in 20 minutes and go to the next thing. I was told I was lazy when it came to math by my parents. But I just didn't get it. By the 6th grade I just gave up on it even though I begged them to get me a tutor. Another girl I know got a tutor that struggled in math - now she works at the University I attend as an IT specialist on staff.
But it just irritates me that a child can be called lazy when they just don't understand the material given. This is why I think testing for learning disabilities should be a part of the screening for vision and hearing problems as a child goes through school. This doesn't mean a child diagnosed will automatically be medicated, but the school finds alternative means of instruction to ensure success for the student.
