Becoming algebra ninjas: why Arewa may never fail O-Level math again (II)

We believe that by mastering algebra, students will find it easy to master other topics like geometry, trigonometry, calculus, calculating vectors in physics (really, without algebra one can’t do much in physics) and also master chemistry which requires algebra, geometry and some trigonometry.We also decided to choose a book as a learning tool, because unlike […]

We believe that by mastering algebra, students will find it easy to master other topics like geometry, trigonometry, calculus, calculating vectors in physics (really, without algebra one can’t do much in physics) and also master chemistry which requires algebra, geometry and some trigonometry.
We also decided to choose a book as a learning tool, because unlike other resources like multimedia, it’s relatively cheap and durable. But we need an excellent algebra book, one that can turn a student from zero to hero and make him an algebra ninja in as few as 10 days. What book could that be?
It’sAlgebra Survival Guide: A Conversational Guide for the Thoroughly Befuddled by Josh Rappaport.
Whenever I give a sample chapter of this book to anybody (especially math teachers), they easily fall in love with it. It’s easy, delivered to students in bit-size format and is an excellent tool for self-study. Further, it’s one of the best algebra books on Amazon.com.
This is a review from a reader on Amazon.com:
“I purchased this book last spring in order to prepare myself to take college algebra this fall. In high school I failed algebra and I was beyond confused or befuddled. I put off going to college for 10 YEARS simply because I didn’t want to do the math. I was dreading the idea of having to spend the summer studying it. I’ve always had a fear of math and algebra, and over time I began to hate it. Now when I say I hate it, the term hate may not be enough; my loathing was beyond measure; but from working through this book something amazing happened; I don’t hate or fear algebra anymore! Seriously!!! And I understand it! And not only do I understand it; I enjoy it! If the idea of enjoying algebra makes little or no sense to you, if you have spent your time and your money struggling through books or classes that are boring, uninformative, over your head, and/or just plain stupid, then really, this book is for you! Please don’t pass this book up; it will change your life. And if you could understand how much I hated algebra, you would understand how good this book really is. Josh, you changed my life! Thanks!!! “
The Algebra Survival Guide is the winner of a Parents’ Choice award, and its 12 content chapters tackle all the trickiest topics – for example, students can master graphing in 10 minutes.
For our purposes, it’s simply the best math book, period. On Amazon.com, the book is priced at $14.35. The price changes; it was less than ten dollars about a week ago.
But even with the best of tools, we need effective methods of delivering lessons.
So we’ve decided on teach-me-I-teach-you method.
Firstly, we turn the students into teachers who would take turns to teach one another in groups of five. We adopted this method because teaching is the best way to learn.
We agree with Professor Emeritus Russell Ackoff who said “being taught is one of the worst ways to learning anything.” He was also right when he said that we confuse teaching with learning and that the person who learns the most is the teacher.
“Anyone who has ever taught a course,” he argues “is well aware of the fact that the person who learns the most from a lesson is teaching.
“You can’t learn unless you can teach. The old fashioned one-room schoolhouse was a room in which students taught students, and the teacher was merely a source available for help, not someone who spoke at them, spilling adult knowledge.”
Secondly, we designed an environment for learning because research has shown that the environment is more powerful than will power. The environment in this case, is the group of five students – manageable, teachable and with just enough peer-pressure to keep one another motivated.
Thirdly, to engender long time retention and mastery of the subject, group members solve O-Level problems which are related to the lessons they’ve concluded. We adopted this method because learning benefits from testing. Reporting in the journal Science in 2011, Jeffrey Karpicke, a professor of psychology at Purdue University and colleagues showed that students, who were tested (practiced retrieval) after a lesson, remembered 50 per cent more information a week later than students who used other methods of studying such as concept mapping.
So putting it all together, this is how it works; we divide students into groups of five. This is an informal group, members of the group would decide when to meet and how often – although we recommend at least three times a week. Each member of the group will have their own Rapapport’s algebra book.
When the group is in session and a rule is taught, each student would have a turn to teach the rule to their four friends – this ensures over-learning. When all the five members of the group have mastered the lesson, they practice related problems in WAEC and NECO before moving on to another rule or chapter.
When all the five in the group have mastered the book, they’ve become coaches and each can form other groups of five. Prizes would be given to coaches with the most groups who have graduated and mastered algebra.
Read the conclusion, and how you can donate books, next week.