Regina Tula asked Chris McMullen:

Everything is math! Do you have some tips for students who have dyslexia and struggle to unravel word problems? I love math! Critical thinking is crucial. Complex thought process is not dead. How do you creatively communicate to students of all learning abilities, so they grasp the ideas and concepts you are teaching them?

Chris McMullen That's a really good and challenging question. It's sometimes possible to present the same idea in multiple forms, visual (with a picture), audio (speak while writing), written, doing (hands-on), etc. There is never time to do everything every way, so we have to pick and choose what is important. A huge part of teaching is clear communication. I strive to use words and phrasing that will be clear to all students when possible; I feel like big and abstract ideas can be expressed in terms that everyone can understand without losing technical detail; it's a challenge, but a good goal. When I interact with students, occasionally I learn that a student interpreted a word or phrase in a way that I had never anticipated, and I try to learn from it; experience helps me avoid this, but language is so complex, the best we can hope to do is minimize it. However, there still needs to be balance; if the students are only used to the extra effort that I make to make things clear, they won't be prepared for what they are likely to encounter beyond the class. For that, they need to be confronted with communication they are likely to encounter elsewhere, and hopefully discussions about this and feedback will help them learn to cope with it. It's a very complicated problem (making the material clear for everyone and preparing them for beyond the curriculum), but we can strive to help. As for students who have documented disabilities, when I was teaching at both the university and a math/sci high school, there were people at the school trained to help provide accommodations (particularly for testing conditions), and they were helpful to me also when needed. Good luck.

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