math concepts

I've been plugging along teaching 5th grade math concepts to my two students with specific learning disabilities in math.  I have mentioned some frustrations here about teaching them math this year, but I felt like overall they had a better chance of "proving" that they understand at least some 5th grade math concepts when they take the state test next month, than groups that I've taught in the past.

Yesterday, my confidence was a bit shattered.

One student is doing much better than the other.  In fact, he is meeting his math goal and will probably be in a regular ed math class next year.  He certainly has some areas of weakness in math, but I thought he could maybe do OK on the state test.  The scoring is "below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced."  I was hoping he could be "basic."  Don't tell my principal.  She would be appalled. After all, No Child Left Behind says they ALL need to be proficient or advanced (by next year).

Anyways.

I've been assigning homework that reviews what we've learned this year.  Earlier this week he skipped all 3 of the word problems on the page because he said he didn't know what to do.  Word problems are tricky. I get it.  However, the directions said, "Solve these problems by using addition" and there were only two numbers in each problem.  You don't even have to make sure they are in the right order like you do with subtraction.  Needless to say, I was disappointed.

The next day, there were 3 word problems again.  This time the directions said, "Solve these problems by using division."  He completed the problems, but some of the answers were wrong.  He showed me how he did them on the calculator and when I pointed out that he had added and not divided, he said, "Oh. What does division mean again? I get addition and division confused because they sound the same."

WHAT???

They sound the same??? As in they both end in "ion??"  Similar to subtraction and multiplication??  Doesn't the beginning of the word tip you off???

I explained that even if he didn't know what the directions meant by "division," he should have known by reading the problems that he needed to divide.  On the state test, there were certainly not be directions to tell you what type of operation to use.

He said, "I know, I know. But I just got confused by addition and division because they sound the same."

I said, "Yes. I understand. My point is that no matter what the directions said, once you read the problem, you should have known to divide."

He replies, "I know, but I just get mixed up about what addition and division mean."

Sigh.

I may have covered 5th grade content, but what good does it do when they have no idea what it means.  Basically, all he knows how to do is computation and he's only successful with that, when it comes to multi-digits, with a calculator.