The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

If you’ve ever struggled with math, whether you were learning or teach- ing it, you’re not alone. It can be an in- timidating subject for kids and parents alike. But it doesn’t have to be. CTCMath says its program removes the burden of teaching from parents, while truly enlightening students. We talked to its social media manager, Nadim El-Rahi, about what makes the program so successful.

TOS: Tell me about CTCMath’s three-pronged approach.

Nadim: The three-pronged approach is unique, and CTCMath has done it really well. It’s simple but effective. We use synchronized audio and animation, which har-nesses both audio and visual styles—the first two prongs. Students get the audio and visual simultaneously via our video tutorials. And the third prong is kinesthetic, and that’s the ability for students to interact with the questions . . . and practice what they’ve learned.

TOS: How do you know when children are ready for formal math instruction?

Nadim: It comes down to each individual student’s ability. How they react to those young puzzle games, coordinating blocks, building blocks, and similar toys at a young age gives you an indication about when they’re ready to start math instruction. The beauty of CTCMath is the student doesn’t necessarily have to read yet. The questions are read aloud, and students just press the speaker button and answer the questions.

TOS: What do you look for as far as focus, attention span, and development?

Nadim: This is where CTCMath has done it really well. We stay away from the game space but keep it engaging. We do that through interactive questions, and we don’t have students waste time, get bogged down, and spend hours building avatars and what not.

TOS: How does your program help with retention of facts?

Nadim: It’s retention through repetition.
We have both a spiral and mastery ap-
proach. The lessons are structured using
a mastery method. Each video tutorial
teaches one concept at a time, which is very
effective for the student to understand that
concept. Math is a building block and does
require previous knowledge, but we don’t
try to introduce too many new concepts
at once. The questions focus solely on the
video tutorial, but at the end of each topic
we have a diagnostic test. And this is where
the spiral approach comes into play.

The questions test students’ abilities on that topic and previous topics and will outline any gaps that need to be filled or revisited. And CTCMath gives you access to all lessons from all grades. So students can go back and plug those gaps. We’re introducing weekly revision tasks which is a sheet of questions sent weekly to students, to test their understanding on concepts previously learned. It’s important in terms of retention to continuously test and assess previous concepts taught. I think it’s prudent to identify a student’s weaknesses and revisit them once every two to three weeks. That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to re-teach it. Just have the student answer those questions, and if needed, revisit a few concepts.