Steve Hare

Too many kids fall behind during math lessons because they don't know their math facts. Don't let this happen to your child this year. Send them to FactFreaks, the website I created to get my students up to speed with all 400 basic facts. It only takes a minute to play, they can learn their facts from scratch with the new Basic Training feature, and best of all, it's 100% free, no ads. Start giving your kid an edge in math class right now!

First day of negatives and students are mastering this previously confusing concept for themselves. That's the power of well-chosen examples, self-generated discoveries, and instant feedback. That's the power of You Teach You.

The pre-worked example is a model before the student attempts the problem and feedback the moment they check their work against it. Same object with two functions depending on when the student looks at it. I've seen students bypass the key at times because they knew they were right. . . . That's my guess anyway.

I was just talking to @BealsKatharine about this — I think everyone knows intuitively that trial-and-error reinforcement learning works, which is what immersion is We have a zillion different terms for it, hence the confusion I’m still mulling the fact that a worked example serves as a model AND as feedback— !

There’s something wrong with this letter from one of my former 7th grade students: “I’m going to be honest, I was really bad at math up until this year. I mean, I didn’t even understand multiplication in fifth grade. That’s saying a lot, considering this year I’m doing insane things like graphing, finding medians, and even scientific notations. I’ll go home and try to teach my dad some things that I’ll find simple, like box plots. He won’t understand any of it then I’ll sit there all confused because of how easy I think it is. You’ve taught me so much and I’m so appreciative of that.” What’s wrong with it? I didn’t teach her at all that year, not even once. She completely taught herself, day after day, with pencil and paper, and not a screen in sight. That was the year I first put my You Teach You math method to the test in the classroom, and she used the “examples for everything,” the related practice problems, and the fully-completed answer key on the back of each page to master even the trickiest concepts in the 7th grade curriculum, and to pull herself up from “Partially Proficient” at the beginning of the year to “Advanced Proficient” and into Algebra I the next. (I was available to her at all times of course—in the role of what I call “the sage at the side”—but she only asked for help once, and figured out her own mistake before I managed to get to the end of my explanation.) People here on eduTwitter tend to be skeptical of the idea of students teaching themselves math—and they're right to be. I wasn’t sure the materials could do it without me either! But that year, student after student after student—132 in all—showed me otherwise. And why shouldn’t they be able to? Kids learn to speak by hearing example after example and trying out their theories with feedback from the environment. Math is no different. The brain doesn't need to be told the rules before it can learn them—it needs examples clear enough to see the pattern, and feedback immediate enough to correct the theory. The full k-8 series I developed since then gives students both: a visual example for every single concept and a feedback loop that closes in seconds, not days. That's not a new idea. It's how human beings learn everything. And now it's how anyone can learn math. Learn more at YouTeachYou.org

@LamsonNguyen15 @smarterparrot It's no leap at all! We all know that deep down.

@smarterparrot @sharemath Is it too much of a leap to say that immersion is the only or easiest way to learn something and having it stick?

@PShrinks You'd be amazed at how motivating self-explanatory, self-paced, self-checking math materials can be, especially when they contain discoveries on every page. And when they're designed with the student in mind, they work anywhere.

Why not? Because the vast majority aren't motivated or socialized to try. And even if the fire was lit in one class, it does not mean it will transfer to other classes.

The claim that students struggle with math because it's "biologically secondary" is vastly overblown. Set up the environment with plenty of examples and feedback and the same mechanism that acquires language acquires math. We've seen it countless times with You Teach You.

See it. Do it. Check it. The Apple II taught a generation of programmers the same way You Teach You teaches K-8 math. It's what works when you provide enough examples and let the learner drive. Thanks, Mr. McKenna!

Tom Sherrington identifies the #1 weakness in teaching as the gap between "does anyone know?" and "does everyone know?" He's right — and I built the You Teach You k-8 math method around that gap. Every student has all the examples they need and checks every answer against a fully-worked key — immediately, privately, without waiting for the teacher. The feedback loop closes for all 30 students at once, not just the ones with their hands up. Learn more at YouTeachYou.org

Liz Stepan just graduated with her master's in speech-language pathology. This week she's already recommending You Teach You to a family whose daughter struggles with math. You Teach You uses visual examples for everything — and she put her finger on exactly why that matters for students with LBLDs. Congratulations again, Liz! #LBLD #SLP

@LizStepan Fantastic! Please let me know how it goes!

@sharemath I just got an SLP referral to evaluate a girl with language challenges. The mother's primary concern is math! I will be working with the daughter on math language and will show her the YouTeachYou program to use at home this summer.

The brain learns by predicting, checking, and correcting. Neuroscience calls this principle Predictive Processing, and it's largely ignored by k-8 math curricula. Most methods give the individual student only a handful of predictive processing loops per class. With a visual example and instant feedback for everything, the pencil-and-paper You Teach You method gives them dozens. More loops = more corrections = more learning.

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there! Our lives would be unimaginable without you!

@LizStepan Best motivation ever. Happy Mother's Day!

@sharemath Thank you very much! I’m a passionate momma of a dyslexic which makes me very motivated! 🥰

Got my hood… Time to diagnose dyslexia and DLD and teach students to read, write, and spell! More importantly, time to help them believe in themselves! 🙌 #slp

What makes Lego instructions so effective? A visual example for everything. Why are most math curricula so ineffective? Two or three examples, and then you're on your own. Enter YouTeachYou — the first K-8 math method with visual examples for everything. Because visual examples make math click. See samples at YouTeachYou.org

@barrygoldman1 Absolutely.

@sharemath most critical skill is figuring out work is incorrect rather than passing it on as maybe? it' right? save the rest of your team trouble.

Why do so many students miss so much in math class? Because they blink. Research into what’s called 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬 shows that the pace of presentation can cause minds to miss things; the brain needs roughly 500 milliseconds to process the first item in a sequence before it can even begin to process the second. So a student watching a briskly-paced demonstration at the board can miss what was happening in step three not because they’re inattentive, but because their brain was still processing step two. How can we prevent math students from blinking and blanking? By putting pre-worked examples on the page itself. A pre-worked example has no pace. Enter You Teach You, the first k-8 math method with an example for everything. Because there’s a big difference between “Blink and you missed it” and “Blink and it’s not going anywhere.” See YouTeachYou.org

@barrygoldman1 That's fun stuff to teach!

@sharemath that was the one semester long class that i taught. my fav was the simultaneous linear equations cuz was so confusing. we learned to answer: 1) no solution 2) infinite solutions 1) no clue (don't waffle) 2) tried a solution, KNOW it is wrong (full credit) 3) solution, checks!

rodjnaquin.substack.com/p/constructs-a…

@barrygoldman1 Learning how to check your own work is critical - and it's the most critical part of all in the real world!

@sharemath to see that it IS possible. and that it IS possible to know that our result is correct. 2/2