Hi,

I have a third grade student in my class this year who is new to our school and is struggling in math. He has been taught procedures and memorization before coming to our school and is struggling because he lacks the conceptual understanding and problem solving skills. He often says things like, “I know my 9s really well,” and “My dad is teaching me long division,” and he already knew the vertical algorithms for multi-digit addition and subtraction – but he has a hard time modeling anything.

Is there a resource you recommend that I could use as a screener or diagnostic type assessment that will help me find out where his gaps are? I’m going through the 3-5 Flexibility Formula at the moment, and I’m wondering about those foundational number sense concepts. We do things very visually and conceptually in class, but even so he is often lost because he doesn’t have the foundations to support what we are doing now.

Thanks for any help you can offer in this!

-Kara