[nobe-l] Accessibility questions for teaching math to thesighted

[David Moore]

Hi J,
Thank you so much for telling me about how you teach high school and
college mathematics. I think I will work on writing my print straight.
It sounds like many math teachers take advantage of that. I did not
know about these web resources for examples and testing. That is a
good idea to have a reader read a text book that will be used for a
while. Will the content from a graphing calculator project onto a
board for the students to see or will I have to use a Windows graphing
program in order to do this? When I wrote my mathematics for
professors in college, I used the ^ before exponents. The rest of the
symbols, I wrote in words like (square root.) I know this would not
work to prepare students to learn the math content as it should be
represented. Thank you so much for your help, and if it is okay, I
will e-mail you off list. Take care and have a great day.

On 7/24/15, J Acheson via nobe-l <nobe-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Math
>
> I have enjoyed reading the menu suggestions. It is great that so many people
> have jumped in. I hope I am not repeating herein what others have suggested.
>
> 1. Text books Homework, Quizzes, and Tests.
> Most college text books contain examples within each chapter. As a high
> school math teacher I use the examples contained within the book often times
> telling students to disregard the side notes that are placed in conjunction
> with each step of the problem. I do this so that I can interject my own
> explanations. In doing so students automatically receive to at least
> somewhat different interpretations, and my explanations are always more
> detailed than those provided in the textbook. It also gives me an
> opportunity to define the terms being used in the textbook so that students
> are able to independently use other examples in the text and examples
> online.  I then use problems contained within the exercises being careful to
> include some of the more advanced problems. I do this not simply out of
> convenience for myself. I have found that students often times disregard all
> the examples that are provided within a text. I explaine to my students that
> I am not only teaching them the math but also how to use a textbook and the
> resources it contains.
>
> Along with the purchase of the college textbook I would recommend requiring
> students to purchase the accompanying solution manual. I would assign
> students exercises from this resources in which they explain the reason for
> each step shown for a problem in the solution manual.
>
> You could use the online resources provided with most college texts to
> assign homework and even quizzes and tests. Students could be required to
> take the test in specified computer labs and a time limit could be set. In
> this manner homework would be automatically graded and so would quizzes and
> tests. In working with freshman college students I have noticed that many
> professors allow students to repeat homework and/or quizzes two or three
> times. Naturally there may be some addition and negation of problems so that
> the repeated quizzes are not always identical.
>
> One ongoing problem with textbooks in any subject area at the college level
> is the frequent change to new editions. Since you do not read braille well
> you could try to get these through book share, NIMAS, Learning Ally, etc..
> You could then make it a point to reorder identical editions for as long as
> your community college would allow. With regard to this, you will naturally
> always be fighting the "publish or perish" drive of those who published
> college materials.
>
> Another consideration in  dealing with the textbooks is that if you are
> certain you would be able to use the same edition of a textbook, for
> example, for two years, hire a reader and have the reader record the
> portions you plan on teaching.
>
> Displaying Examples
> A friend of mine, blind from birth, who was totally blind and in college to
> become a math teacher learned how to write on the classroom board. She used
> the top of her head, eyebrow bridge, nose bridge etc. to be able to position
> lines accurately to display the problems in proper vertical presentation.
> However you could use any number of things to create straight horizontal
> lines on which you could write.
>
> Another more contemporary way to write out problems for students is to learn
> the ASCII codes for the various math symbols. You could then prepare lessons
> in a wordprocessor such as Microsoft office/Word, and then convert those
> files into file formats for visual projection programs such as those used on
> a Promethean board or what ever your local community college utilizes.
>
> I use a Promethean board. Promethean files are created from PDF files. I use
> a new file page to display each additional step in a problem retaining
> everything previously shown. In this way I control when my audience gets to
> see the next step.
>
> This method requires a bit of caution, however. Remember that sighted people
> are accustomed to seeing math written with certain perspective i.e.,
> vertical and horizontal presentation. You may need to provide students with
> an interpretive sheet to explain some visual rearrangements that may Oak
> her. For example, if you were writing the fraction 1 1/2 you may consider
> writing it using only a space between the one and the one half or you may
> consider writing it as done in recipes as one space – space 1/2. Personally
> I would stick with the former method. Another example would be how to write
> an exponent. Well exponents are usually written as a superscript. However,
> in computer language it is preceded by a carrot symbol.  Since you may be
> using computer generated quizzes and homework, this would be a good thing to
> teach students as this is how they would most likely enter exponential
> values on those computer based activities.
>
> Resources for your students
> Statistically we are often told that 70% of what we learn is from our visual
> sense. With this in mind and the need to appeal to your audience you should
> consider providing your students with links to online resources in which
> similar problems are solved.  Currently I have been using brightstorm.com
> because their videos or sequential and they are short. I provide students
> with a link to the videos I expect them to watch and I provide 2 to 5
> questions for each video or sequence of videos. Purplemath.com is also
> useful, but it does not provide any video material. It is also not
> accessible. Both of these websites provide very simple instruction, and even
> at an advanced math level I find this is what students often need. It is not
> unusual to find calculus students who can't remember how to work a complex
> fraction problem.
>
> Calculator
> Recently on one of the NFB list to which I subscribe they post was provided
> about a Texas instrument Graffing calculator. I thought I had saved the
> post, but I cannot find it now. If it was somebody on this list that had
> posted the information, would you please post it again and if you don't mind
> send it to me directly?
>
> I hope some of what I have said is helpful.
>
> I am sure you are embarking on a rewarding trek.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Jul 24, 2015, at 12:36 AM, David Moore via nobe-l <nobe-l at nfbnet.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Thank you Danielle, Ashley, Heather, and others for all of your
>> suggestions. Thank you Ashley for telling me a little bit of your
>> situation. I have always liked math and science ever since I was a
>> child. I had some vision until I was 15, and learned these subjects in
>> a sighted manner. Now, I can still visualize all of the print in my
>> head and do each step in my head like I did on paper when I was
>> sighted. I love to teach more than do, and math happens to be what I
>> know the best. Well, the talking calculator would be great for me to
>> use and I could present the graph on the whiteboard that Heather
>> suggested. I want to make it clear that I, the teacher am totally
>> blind. I, the blind person wants to teach the average sighted student
>> at the small community college level. Most of my students would have
>> just gotten out of high school. In words, as a one on one tutor,
>> people tell me that I can explain math concepts that they never
>> understood in their lives. I still need to figure out how I can write
>> my lectures on a laptop and edit the math symbols just like editing a
>> word document. Some people suggest learning the language of LaTeX,
>> while a couple of people suggests getting Math Type to work with MS
>> Word, and then getting LEAN which all working together would allow me
>> to write out the math. Next, there is the issue of reading symbolic
>> math texts. You cannot use a OCR problem like OpenBook to scan Math,
>> because it doesn't understand math symbols at all. There only so many
>> math texts you can get on tape. Freedom Scientific who raves about
>> getting people jobs with JAWS and such has not done too much for me
>> lol. Sure, I can do a lot on the computer, but nothing with math or
>> science. Has anyone on here used Infty reader to do OCR on math texts.
>> It is a math OCR program like OpenBook, but it can do the OCR on the
>> math and science symbols. I hear it is very expensive, and like Ashley
>> and I were talking about, Rehab will not purchase any technology until
>> you get the job and tell you when to start working. How can you get to
>> that point in a job search if you need $4,000.00 in technology? lol.
>> Thanks Danielle, I will try to get a hold of Tom. Is his name Tom or
>> Lie? How did you suggest for me to get a hold of him again? It is
>> great to be talking with you all. Heather, what do you teach again?
>> Keep in touch, Ashley, about how you are doing. It is sad, that blind
>> parents raise their own children, but yet others will not trust you
>> with their children. It is sort of like adopting. Anyone on the street
>> can bring a child into the world, Yet, when you are a very stable
>> person who is ready to raise a child, you are looked at through a
>> microscope lol. Take care all, and keep the ideas coming. Any ideas
>> are very welcome and will not be judged. I am a very laid back person
>> who wants to teach so much and to have that influence in the classroom
>> and teach what I love at the same time. Take care all.
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