| Whole Number Arithmetic Online Documentation |
Manage the Method of Progress Through Levels of Difficulty |
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Math Skill Builders design provides for learning new skills by structured progress through levels of difficulty. The purpose of this is to reduce learners' frustration at attempting skills beyond their level, and to ease learners toward continual success. The program also provides the flexibility for learners to be responsible for choosing what they learn, and exploring the program to find new challenges. You have these alternatives for progressing through the program:
Start by choosing Diagnosis to let the program decide the learner's starting level and operation. Then, follow the directions in Activities. Do not make any changes in operation or skill level at the main window. When the learner completes Practice, the program automatically advances to the next level if the learner reaches the goal, or goes back a level if the learner reaches frustration.
The learner can choose the starting operation and skill level at the main window, without doing a Diagnosis. The program manages progress from that skill level as the student completes Practices. You can set a different starting skill level for each operation. Math Skill Builders can keep track of the current skill level and progress for all four operations. (See Note about Preferences at the end of this section.)
A learner may want to explore the various operations and skill levels. You can do this by choosing different operations and skill levels at the main window. If the student does a Practice or a Diagnosis, the level will change automatically according to criteria set in Preferences, but the level or operation can still be changed at the main window. (See Note about Preferences at the end of this section.) These choices will affect the student's Reports. So, if a student just wants to explore, without affecting the status of any skill level achieved, you can start a new file with a fictitious student name to use just for purposes of exploration. This option is useful for reviewing previously learned levels and operations, for getting back up to speed at the beginning of a school year, or for trying the challenges of harder problems. Note about Preferences: Learners can have the option of selecting the operation and the skill level at the main window. To allow these Options , choose Options on the menu bar (or Preferences from the File menu), and select Student Select Skill Level and Student Select Operation. To prevent changing the operation or skill level at the main window, deselect Student Select Skill Level and Student Select Operation. The program saves the Preferences. If multiple users want different ways to progress, set the Preferences appropriately before each use. |