3 Stories of Turning Math Struggles into Math Success
Our customer success team genuinely cares about the families we serve. Today we’d like to share three brief stories of how our customer success team has helped families with whom we have worked.
Math Struggles to Math Success
1) Maybe He is Not Just Lazy
Eric is the son of active duty military parents and had a variety of mathematical experiences. Lots of change as they moved. Mom was frustrated with her son because she thought Eric was not trying mathematically; her interpretation was laziness. Diagnostics revealed he did not have mastery of his single-digit addition and subtraction facts. Mom admitted it was difficult for her to understand her son’s struggles. His frustration was so acute that he would just give up. He was the typical fourth-grade student, where the lack of mastery begins to overwhelm. Changing his ineffective habits and achieving mastery of addition and subtraction gave him the confidence he lacked. They were able to move forward into multiplication successfully. In Eric’s case, pausing to fix what was broken made a tremendous difference for him AND his mom.
2) From Crying to Cartwheels
Leigh was a ninth-grader struggling in Algebra 1. Leigh and her mom decided it was the program, so they purchased a different curriculum. They had a similar experience with their second math curriculum. Mom began to wonder if Leigh had a math disability. When they came to our customer success team, diagnostics revealed a weak understanding of multiplication facts. Filling those multiplication gaps to mastery was their first step. Leigh was successfully able to master division after that. She also had some gaps in her mastery of fractions. By the time Leigh turned her attention to Pre-algebra her confidence was changed and she was able to go through the materials successfully and swiftly. When Leigh finally took our Algebra 1 Readiness Test, she scored 100% on it. Mom reported that she did cartwheels down the hall she was so excited.
3) New Favorite Subject
Josh is a special needs student who had accommodations for math, to include the use of a calculator in school. When COVID necessitated a change to virtual learning for him, his parents were concerned about how long it was taking him to do mathematics. They were not convinced, however, that there was an easier path forward. Being able to use AIM for Addition and Subtraction gave Josh new-found confidence in his own math abilities. Although their pace was not as swift as other students, both Josh and his mom were overjoyed that he really was learning mathematically. They completed our intervention, and diagnostics put Josh into a more age-appropriate level of Math-U-See. He now tells his mom that “math is my favorite subject”.
In all of these scenarios, we have a student who had weak foundational skill sets. Taking time to evaluate exactly what was weak, and change that into a strength made a tremendous difference for each of them. This is what Demme Learning‘s Customer Success Team does. We collaborate with parents to make sure they have a thorough understanding of their student’s needs, and how to help their students become more mathematically successful. The fascinating part of our collaboration is that success often spills over into other academics. If you see your family in whole or in part in any of these stories, reach out to us. We’d like to spend some time with you and help you find mathematical success.
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