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DONNA WINCHESTERStudents behind grade level get a boost in skills at voluntary math camp. Small classes and multiple strategies add up to rewards.
ST. PETERSBURG - Jacquez Gaines thought he was in the clear when he learned he had passed the reading portion of the FCAT.
The 9-year-old saw a long, lazy summer stretching out before him, free from the reading camp that some of his classmates would be attending in hopes of being promoted to fourth grade.
Then the bad news came in a letter sent home by Jamerson principal Robert Poth. Jacquez had failed to show he was working at his grade level in mathematics.
The principal suggested that Jacquez spend two hours a day for the first four weeks of summer vacation at a special math camp for struggling students.
Jacquez wasn't crazy about going to school four days a week, but he didn't like the idea of being behind in math, either.
Now, nearly halfway through the camp, Jacquez said he's getting up to speed on his multiplication tables and knows a few strategies for finding the answers more quickly. He also has learned how to find perimeters and to work with geometric shapes.
It is exactly what Poth was hoping would happen for the students who began attending the remedial program at Jamerson, 1200 37th St. S, on June 1.
"Our kids' learning gains were the same or higher than students at other schools, but some of them have a lot more to attain," Poth said. "We're going to have to double their learning gains each year to get them caught up. But we will."
Strictly voluntary, the camp was offered on a first-come, first-served basis to about 80 students who scored low in math on the Pinellas Instructional Assessment Plan, a series of tests administered throughout the school year. The goal was to have 12 children in each of the two sessions, one for second- and third-graders and one for fourth- and fifth-graders.
Unfortunately, Poth said, many children who were eligible for the math camp are attending one of the district's reading camps. Math camp teacher Debbie O'Hare ended up with six children in each session.
O'Hare set up the camp similarly to the Read 180 program, which divides children into three groups. The students rotate through small group instruction, individual work and computer time. The opportunity to work closely with the students is the beauty of the camp, O'Hare said. In a regular classroom setting, teachers don't always have time to diagnose specific deficiencies and give individual instruction.
"Some of the children are not that far from working on grade level," she said. "Some of them just need the extra time."
While Jacquez and his friend Shaquille Robinson, 10, were waiting for the others to arrive on Monday, they used triangular-shaped flash cards to practice their multiplication tables. Shaquille held up a card with a 4 in one corner and an 6 in the other. He covered the answer, which was printed at the top of the triangle, with his index finger.
Jacquez used his fingers to come up with the answer. Counting on fingers isn't encouraged, O'Hare said, but it isn't outlawed. The important thing is for the children to learn the concept of multiplication and eventually to be able to do the equations in their heads.
"There are some kids who will never learn their facts quickly," she said. "Our goal is to teach them strategies."
Everyday Math, the program used at Jamerson throughout the school year, teaches children several strategies for multiplication, O'Hare said. One is "latticing," where they draw a box, multiply the units diagonally and then add up the rows of numbers to get the answer. O'Hare reviews each of the strategies in math camp.
When four of her students had arrived - two were absent - the children rotated through the stations for 90 minutes, then O'Hare brought them together. She passed out a sheet filled with 100 multiplication problems and told them to solve as many as they could in five minutes.
After she called time, she complimented Jacquez, who had completed 66 problems, for his strategy of first working the problems he knew and then going back to the harder ones. Then she addressed Monica, who had solved 90 problems.
"You were doing a lot of finger counting," she said. "That's okay, but you don't want to go to fifth grade doing that."
After the children left, O'Hare said her goal is to keep the camp as stress-free as possible. The students are not graded, but their parents will receive a progress report when the camp ends on June 24, along with tips on what they can do to help their child move forward.