9 Lines In-Service
The 9 Lines: The Most Renown of the MMR Strategies
The 9 Lines Multiplication Fact Acquisition and Application Strategy is the most internationally renown of all the Making Math Real Simultaneous Multisensory Structured Methodologies K-12. It is extremely effective, powerful and develops the automatic retrieval and immediate application of the 100 multiplication and the 100 division facts. Automatic retrieval of the multiplication and division facts significantly reduces cognitive load within all problem solving related to multiplication and division involving whole numbers, fractions, decimals, polynomials, rationals, exponents, logarithms, etc. Therefore, once the 9 Lines Multiplication Fact Acquisition and Application Strategy has been introduced to students, it provides the necessary fact finding basis within the vast majority of problem solving content areas in mathematics from the time of its introduction (typically in early third grade) through calculus and beyond.
Delivering the 9 Lines Appears Deceptively Simple
As with all the Making Math Real Simultaneous Multisensory Structured Methodologies K-12 David Berg has created, the 9 Lines has been engineered to provide maximum cognitive efficiency and power while requiring minimum cognitive load. This means all the multifaceted detail layers of structure embedded within its instruction are extremely specific and distilled; that any omissions, substitutions, changes in sequence, or other errors of commission will mitigate its power. However, from an uninformed perspective, the 9 Lines looks so simple, which is why so many, having witnessed its power and without proper instruction, delude themselves into believing, “I get it – I can do that.”
Over the past 26 years David has spent countless hours (and funds) getting spurious versions of the 9 Lines in videos, instructional articles, games, materials, etc., removed. In every case these spurious versions of the 9 Lines were completely off-base, eliminating all the specifically engineered promptings, language, sequences, assessments, pacing, guided cognition, and engagement that activate symbol imaging the files of a multiplication table.
More Supervised Practice is Needed
However, the aforementioned spurious versions are not the only versions of incorrect applications of the 9 Lines David has observed. There have been numerous and varying circumstances that have presented him with the opportunity to see how MMR practitioners who have completed the Making Math Real: The 9 Lines Intensive (even multiple times) are also committing significant errors in their deliveries to students. The error rate is exceedingly high, for which David takes some responsibility because when the error rate is so high, even for participants who are serious and are trying to deliver the 9 Lines as best they can, it indicates that every 9 Lines course participant needs and deserves extra support beyond what a class can provide; and without this prescriptive support from David, this problem is being exacerbated by MMR practitioners networking with one another as a way to seek support and recommendations on how to deliver the 9 Lines rather than checking in with David.
Prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic when all the 9 Lines classes were in-person, significant practice time within each 9 Lines course was required for all course participants, so David could address participants’ major errors both individually and collectively during the classes. However, even with this ability to correct errors during the course, all students need and deserve additional supervision to ensure they are delivering the 9 Lines correctly. But now with the distance learning version of the Making Math Real: The 9 Lines Intensive course, David can no longer can include any class practice as was required in the in-person courses. This has created a serious concern, which has guided David to find a way to provide direct support for all 9 Lines practitioners, whether 9 Lines course participants or MMR practitioners of recent or long-term practice.
New Clinical Support Service: The 9 Lines In-Service
As a new inclusion in Making Math Real’s services for clinical development, and as an adjunct option separate from the Making Math Real: The 9 Lines Intensive course, Making Math Real is introducing a new clinical service, “The 9 Lines In-Service” available exclusively to MMR practitioners who have completed the 9 Lines Intensive course. The creation of this new clinical service is in direct response to requests from course participants during 9 Lines classes who have asked if they could send in a video of them doing a 9 Lines with a student(s) and get David’s feedback. This is a great idea, but there are numerous reasons why this request is untenable during a 9 Lines course, which include:
- The time required to review each video followed by David’s detailed feedback would be minimally two hours per participant
- There is no available time during a 9 Lines class for this feedback
- The nature of the individually prescriptive feedback is highly confidential and requires private and confidential sessions
- There may be indications of extra time needed to address corrections, which may also include new videos sent in to verify correct 9 Lines delivery and/or provide further corrections/adjustments
Send David Berg a Video Recording Of You Teaching the 9 Lines
To get started with the 9 Lines In-Service, David needs to observe you teaching an authentic 9 Lines to to a student in a one-to-one setting or to a group of students in a classroom setting. It is required that the student(s) is actually imaging a new table and is not a volunteer who is pretending to image a table so you have the opportunity to practice delivering the 9 Lines. Authentic imaging is imperative because it is necessary to observe the student’s affective and cognitive behaviors that would indicate your delivery of the 9 Lines is having the specific and intended developmental impact of activating symbol imaging. Therefore, you will need to record your representative sample of teaching the 9 Lines on one of the following: Zoom, phone, iPad, computer, video camera, etc. Your recording must show everything the student does including the student’s face while responding to your prompts and everything the student writes during phases 2, 3, and 4. The recording also needs to include you so David can observe your prompts, gestures, pointing, tapping, etc. Therefore, the camera can be placed between your student and yourself in such a way as observing a tennis match at midcourt, including as full a view of both teacher and student(s) as possible.
Please understand that the recordings should not be edited in any way. Each video recording needs to show an authentic imaging experience from start to finish without any interruptions whatsoever. The video recordings are for clinical purposes only and are not about production values or professionally made videos. Please also understand that if the video recordings are not complete or do not appear to be authentic, real time documentations of your 9 Lines delivery, MMR will request a new video recording before we can continue forward with the 9 Lines In-Service.
The 9 Lines imaging recording must include all aspects of the four phases and four assessment points within the 9 Lines including generating a new table at the very beginning through phase 4 application practice. After David reviews your video recording, David will schedule a Zoom session with you in which you will watch your video recording together, stopping it as needed for David to provide you with comments and/or corrections and allowing you the time to take notes.
Typical 9 Lines recordings are around 25 minutes, and as video files of this duration are too large to email. A good way to share video recordings without embedding them in the email is to use Google Drive and send in the link for the Google Drive file to [email protected]. Another way to record and send your 9 Lines recording is to record it on Zoom (for 9 Lines sessions delivered via Zoom and recorded in gallery mode) and send in the link to your Zoom recording including its password to [email protected]. Please contact us at [email protected] if you need additional support for making your video recording.
The 9 Lines In-Service is exclusively for those who have successfully completed the Making Math Real: The 9 Lines Intensive at any time, either recently or long ago. For those of you who wish to benefit from this new clinical service:
- Send a formal request for the 9 Lines In-Service to [email protected]
- To get the 9 Lines In-Service started and scheduled, pre-payment for two hours of David’s time, (the minimum time needed) will be required. This covers one hour to review the video recording and one more hour to meet with each participant via Zoom to discuss David’s feedback.
- Send a link to your video file (and password, if needed) to [email protected] of you doing a 9 Lines imaging through Phase 4 (application practice) with a student who is authentically imaging a new table, not a volunteer subject who already knows the table. If after reviewing the video, David believes more than one hour of intervention time is indicated, he will inform the participant of his estimate for the amount of additional time needed, and pre-payment for the additional time will be required prior to scheduling the intervention session(s) indicated. All videos will be held in the strictest confidentiality and will never be shown outside of the prescriptive relationship of the 9 Lines In-Service, unless the participants (student and teacher) wish to make the video public or agree in writing that permission to show the video has been granted. In addition, MMR will not keep or store any video recordings. Once the 9 Lines In-Service has been completed, all links and/or copies of each video recording will be deleted immediately. All video submissions that do not include a complete 9 Lines imaging, Phases 1-4, will not be acceptable, and David will request a new and comprehensive version. All extra time needed for viewing extra versions of video recordings will be charged at the hourly rate.
- On a case-by-case basis, David may determine that a second video demonstrating a corrected version of delivering the 9 Lines is needed to verify that appropriate corrections/adjustments have been made.
David understands that the prospect of being observed and possibly receiving feedback about errors in one’s earnest attempts to do the best one can, might make one feel vulnerable and intimidated. Please understand that the entire focus for the 9 Lines In-Service is to help support your work as a clinical professional, and is never intended to be any form of qualitative reflection on the ability, character, effort, personality, commitment, dedication or integrity of the practitioner. It is David’s sincerest intent and hope that all of you would feel safe within this coaching relationship and could benefit from his direct feedback and input.
As an investment in your own future as a clinical practitioner, we hope all 9 Lines practitioners may take advantage of this coaching opportunity to fine tune their ability to deliver the 9 Lines Multiplication Fact Acquisition and Application Strategy correctly.