Sports Math Lesson 4 Subtraction, Tackling Differences, football

The Sports Math program is a multimedia series of lessons designed to provide highly individualized help for remedial math students at Jr. or Sr. high school. Each lesson in the series consists of audio media and three Score-sheets. Students participate in a lesson by listening to the audio and responding on the Score-sheets to problems posed during the commentary between sports announcers on the audio.

The audio media combine expert instruction in the four basic operations with the excitement of familiar sports. Skill development activities center around the math terminology used in the sports included in the program. Score-sheets employ sports scenes and figures in cartoon form along with mathematics material correlated to the audio.

Each lesson offers a unique source of remediation for students having difficulty with basic math operations. All math concepts are presented in simple terms and are expanded in step-by-step sequences of increasing difficulty.

Lessons involving each operation are developed sequentially throughout the program. Therefore, lessons 1 and 2 (addition) should be used in sequence as should lessons 3 through 5 (subtraction), 6 through 9 (multiplication), and 10 through 12 (division).

Because of the range of abilities within most classrooms and the individual response times necessary to complete the exercises on the Score-sheets, Sports Math lessons can be used most effectively on an individual basis. However, the program may be used by small groups of remedial math students who are performing at approximately the same level in mathematics. Materials needed to complete each lesson include audio media player, three Score-sheets, and a pencil.

THE AUDIO
The audio lessons in Sports Math employ a motivational technique designed to capture and hold the interest of students who have experienced difficulty in mathematics. Each lesson opens with a special audio effect related to the sports action highlighted in the lesson. This is usually followed by dialogue between sports announcers who discuss the action in progress, give players' records and game statistics, or engage in humorous byplay relevant to the sport. This provides the lead-in to the skill-building activities on the Score-sheets. The Sports Math narrator uses a friendly, positive approach to the math instruction.

Each lesson begins with an explanation of a sample problem found on the first page of the Score-sheets. Students are then given directions for completing the mathematics activities, which are set firmly within the context of the sports action. The narrator checks all student responses, providing immediate feedback and reinforcement of each skill taught in the lesson.

Timed pauses are programmed into the audio to allow the student to complete brief responses on the Score-sheets. However, when more than a few seconds are needed to complete a response, an electronic tone signals the student to stop. Students should be reminded that they may stop whenever additional response time is needed, or replay any material they wish to hear again.

The use of headsets is recommended to avoid distracting other students in the classroom and to reinforce the interaction between student and narrator.

The running times of the audio average approximately 15 minutes. The average working time of each lesson is about 25 to 30 minutes. It should be remembered that this time is only an approximation. Since the student stops and starts the audio several times during the course of each lesson to complete exercises, the actual time needed will depend on the student's working speed.

THE SCORESHEETS
Three Score-sheets duplicated from black- lines are used in each lesson of the program. The Score-sheets contain lively illustrations depicting action from the sport presented on the audio, and include carefully arranged math exercises.

In each lesson, the first two Score-sheets are completed by the students as the audio presentation progresses. The responses on these pages are checked and corrected by the narrator. Score-sheets number three contain review exercises which the students are asked to finish after the audio has finished playing. Responses on this page will provide you with a means of informally evaluating how well the students have under- stood and applied the concepts presented in the lesson. You may, in the interest of time, decide that the students should complete the review page as homework or during another class session. If so, be sure to explain this before the les- son is begun.

THE TEACHER'S GUIDE
This guide includes individual summaries of the lessons in the program. Each summary lists the skills objectives for the lesson, a description of the activities on pages 1 and 2 of the Score-sheets, and an Evaluation portion which deals with page 3, the review page of the lesson. For convenience in evaluating student performance, each lesson guide includes reproductions of the Score-sheets, with correct answers over- printed. The reproduction for Score-sheet number three, the review page in each lesson, is shown in full size to facilitate checking of students' answers.