Diego TS #2

On September 5th, I met with PJ for the second time. We began right away with a few word problems I hand selected. I asked him to read aloud all the problems. We would spend more time talking about the problem and what we needed to do exactly a lot more than actually calculating it. For example, one problem had a chart of various pricings for tickets to a tram and asked us to calculate how much it would cost for 15 youth tickets for a summer camp. If he didn't understand why we would use one number over another, I'd ask him to re-read that part in the question and he would immediately connect the dots. Actual calculations of the problems were not the focus at all but more the vocabulary and diction that math problems come with.
I had prepared a small math game that came with instructions on how to play. He needed to understand the directions fully to play it. So it was basically a fun world problem game. I saved this game only when I realized he was starting to lose focus. It took no more than 4-5 minutes and it only required the white board he had in his room. It forced him to understand the directions and reasoning of the game to play. Once we finished the game, we went back to word problems in his book and his productivity went back to how it was in the beginning.
At the end, he was understanding not only the actual problems themselves, but exactly how to go about answering long word problems like the ones presented in this textbook and I think a big part of it is reading them out loud (I know that helps me even in my degree right now and I'm a graduating engineering student).
When asked what he enjoyed the most, he said it was the game so next time I'll try to create another short game directly from one of the word problems from his textbook and only use it when he needs a break.