From: samn@athena.mit.edu (Valerie Samn)
Subject: Motivation, lack of . . . 
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 05:28:58 GMT

While reading one of the articles in this newsgroup, I was reminded
of a couple of questions I've had about FOM classes in Texas.

It seems to me that it has been discussed in this group about whether
or not giving a student four years of FOM is more desirable than risking
placing the student in algebra.  (unfortunately, I am currently unable
to access any of the transactions before the one I read).  I was
wondering:  Is there generally significant progress for a student who
takes FOM for four years?  Have these students completely given up
trying to learn the material?  Are these students generally judged by
their teachers to be capable of learning the material?  
If placed in Algebra and the students are unsuccessful, are they even
more discouraged than before?  How much of their weakness in math can
be attributed to low self-esteem?

Last spring I taught an SAT preparation class (math section) to twelve
students whose math scores ranged from 200-310.  When I worked with
them, I found that some were placed in Algebra and Geometry, and thus
some knew FOIL while others knew word problems, and in one particular
student who knew FOIL surprisingly well was unable to do simple
division.  I am wondering, is this a conceptual problem that can be
easily corrected?  How could this student have gotten around this
problem in order to demonstrate knowledge on the SAT, if this were 
an insolvable problem?  This student seemed to be frustrated with the
arithmetic, but I am not sure if he had accepted this weakness and went
on to other concepts that he could deal with or if this was his weakness
because he believed that he couldn't do it.

I also have some broad, general questions about inspiring students to
learn math that they already dread . . . .  This class that I mentioned
above had a serious lack of motivation which manifested itself in
different ways in each student.  One student refused to give thought to
any type of problem, and seemed frustrated that nothing was written or
explained in her native tongue and refused to give thought to anything
i asked her . . . . 

Most of these students seemed to have a vague grasp of the math concepts
and blindly applied random equations that they had learned to use when
they saw a particular pattern of questioning and seemed to have little
idea of why they do certain things at certain times.  The phrasing of
the questions on the SAT's confuse them (they know the concepts and
even some applications but sometimes the SAT format scares them) and
they seem to be intimidated by the fact that SAT's are important and
therefore "how can i possibly do any math that is asked on such an 
important test?"  Consequently, they guess blindly at every question
from beginning to end.  I worked on building their confidence about
their math, but that was difficult as i could only hold their attention
for five minutes per session (I resorted to teaching them individually 
approximately ten minutes into my first lecture when I realized that 
they were not listening . . . was that an all-right decision?).  

Sorry about the random spew of questions and ramblings . . . but I would
really appreciate any comments or suggestions about how I could deal
with this teaching situation in the future, as I will most likely teach
another class of the same type, as well as training other teachers to
deal with it.  So far my methods have been based on guess-and-see-
what-happens but I know I am missing something somewhere.  And please
tell me if I made stupid decisions in my teaching.  

thanks!

-valerie samn