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My daughter just finished basically wasting 6th grade math. Due to Kumon, which she no longer takes, and general aptitude, she was ahead of most of the advanced 6th grade class, but unfortunately she (apparently) didn't test quite well enough to jump ahead a grade.
Leaving out details, the 2nd semester of 6th grade math was going to be more challanging. That didn't turn out to be the case. I won't go so far as to say she didn't learn anything, because she did, but she was a sponge ready to soak up whatever they would teach her and unfortunately there wasn't much for her to soak up.
This leaves me with the strategy of teaching her as much Algebra as I can over the summer and hoping that she can possibly skip a grade in math, or I will continue to teacher her as time allows during the school year.
So, this is a very long winded way of asking for suggestions for Algebra I textbooks. I was steered to this website by the 9th grade math teacher (former electrical engineer) but we were discussing worksheets, not textbooks. At anyrate, the book Introduction to Algebra look interesting, although it may be too difficult (complex numbers in an Introductory book?).
I'd like to hear your suggestions. Also I'll ask the school what textbook they're using for Algebra I, perhaps we should use that.
Thanks for your help.
I won't get into the school messing up and not testing her for Gifted and Talanted after she was sick the day they did the 1st testing. Now they say it's too late, even though we attempted to remind them multiple times. Uugh.
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24 comments:
Check your state laws. Some states have laws covering testing of TAG kids.
Then again, I have never seen a Gifted program worth a shit. Once your child gets to middle school, math placement usually happens independent of TAG programs.
Chris,
Saxon's Algebra 1 is a pretty clear and thorough text. Catherine went through the entire book, so she can weigh in with more details. My husband used it to help tutor our son when he was taking his first year of algebra.
Also, Algebra 1 by Mary Dolciani (there are a few more authors)seems to be considered one of the best. I'm not sure exactly which one is the correct one, but the old KTM should have the number. It shouldn't be too hard to find.
My son is using that one for accelerated algebra (8th grade).
SusanS
Parentalcation,
You may well be right. In the e-mail saying they weren't going to test her this year they stated it wouldn't effect any of the classes she would take or opportunities available to her. So what does GT/TAG do? I'm not sure, but I know our daughter has seen her friends who took the test having some kind of different opportunties. I think we are more frustrated with the incompetence of the GT administration when we made what we thought were reasonable and repeated attempts to make sure she was tested. That combined with her being bored all year in 6th grade math.
SusanS,
Thanks for the recommendation. IT sounds interesting from the little looking I've done.
Others, please post your suggestions. I will report back what textbooks she will use next two years.
Chris
Boy, I wouldn't let this one go.
There are two ways to pressure your district:
a) drip, drip, drip -- just keep coming back & coming back. I've gotten good at this one; that's the way I got the district to order me copies of the Teacher's Edition. (And thank God. I would be sunk at this point without it.) Ed says I'm like what's-his-face pushing the boulder uphill. The problem for the guy pushing the boulder is that it keeps falling back down BUT the problem for the person sitting on top of the mountain is: HERE COMES THAT LUNATIC WITH THE BOULDER AGAIN.
b) kick and scream
In your situation, without knowing the district or the details, I would probably launch a concerted pressure campaign. They would just keep hearing from me until they did the right thing.
As to textbooks, someone from ktm sent me a copy of the teacher's edition of Foerster's Algebra & it was a HUGE help a couple of times with C. I haven't done that much with it, but the one chapter I did use, on the fly, was fantastic.
If you search "ISBN" numbers I think I've got all the numbers for the various editions listed in a post.
btw, simply letting folks know you're checking state laws can be useful...depending on the situation of course
there's a reason why businesses have the expression "Make it go away."
you can become the problem people want to make go away, and you can (sometimes) do so through sheer, dogged, push the boulder up the hill persistence
this approach takes some discipline!
If the goal is a skip, getting a syllabus from the math chair is helpful in planning your time and topics.
I'd suggest the Johns Hopkins CTY on line courses if your child is mathy and needs to go beyond what your school offers, especially if their idea of an honors class is rapid memorization of presented algorithms.
Catherine,
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll investigate Foerster's Algebra book. For the moment (i.e. until noontime today) it is being elevated simply to the principal of the school. To my knowledge he has not been involved as I think the GT is controlled by the school district, not the individual schools. Despite my expressions of discontent, he runs the best middle school in the district, and has led the apparent exodus from "EveryDay Math" type programs. In the very near future, he and I will be discussing how to make sure Kate is challenged in math next year, but I want to take care of this issue first.
Chris
Annonymous,
I want to acknowledge your suggestion for Saxon Algebra as well. From a very quick check, my concern is the comments about repetition. This is why we had to stop Kumon. I will look a little deeper if I follow down this path.
Chris
Igm,
I'm not familiar with the Johns Hopkins courses, I'll take a look. My concern at the moment is not necessarily how the are teaching, although perhaps it should be, but that Kate's brain is running on idle and it needs to be more engaged.
Chris
Chris,
I have a similar problem with my district not engaging students' brains. Math is taught as rote memorization of algorithms, with honors math being a faster paced version with a greater quantity of algorithms to commit to memory. There is nothing deep, no problem solving (with the exception of the state test prep packet), and no questions that require a child to think rather than exercise the given algorithm. I've found Singapore Math to be thought provoking and a good value, but it's looking like one of my kids is dsygraphic so am investigating a switch to on-line. So far in casual reviews, CTY is trumping ALEKS in the depth and thinking dept....would be interested in what you find.
lgm
There is an article titled "The Calculus Trap" at the art of problem solving website that is good food for thought.
I was going to suggest Singapore Math as well. Challenging Word Problems might be a nice supplement to what your daughter is already doing although I don't believe it goes higher than grade six. Still, Singapore Math tends to be leaps and bounds ahead of what a sixth grader in the US would be doing so it might work. If you want to give it a test run, you could always have her do the free assessment for 6B on the website. Of course, there's always the next level up-- New Elementary Math to consider as well.
Challenging Word Problems 6 samples:
Area and Perimeter
Decimals
General Review
NEM Samples
NEM Textbook Algebraic Terms
NEM Workbook Algebraic Terms
What ConcernedCTParent said! Challenging Word Problems is a great series. And inexpensive. It keeps up their motivation (especially the gifted kids who get bored so easily)
The Singapore placement test is excellent (and free.) It could also give you some info as to strengths and weaknesses (to shore up over the summer.)
Chris,
Even if she doesn't test out enough to skip a grade, is there a faster moving class?
Saxon is repetitive, but only if you do it page for page. The chapters teach a new concept and then practice it. The distributive practice follows and that's where a bright kid can get bored fast. I used to skip it with my math kid because I knew that would happen.
And if we haven't thrown enough stuff at you, there's also Stanford's program for gifted youth. (EPGY?) I know homeschoolers who use it. I was a little too skittish about it, but since you're mathy, I doubt any of these programs would be a problem for you like they would be for me.
Online courses do require a little more maturity than other types which was another reason I didn't use it. My guy is a bit of a goofball, so I would have been riding him constantly.
SusanS
I have Algebra Structure and Method Book 1 (The Classic) by Brown, Dolciani, Sorgenfrey, and Cole. I highly recommend it.
ISBN 0-395-97722-3 (Student)
ISBN 0-395-97723-1 (Teacher)
I ordered the student from Amazon and the Teacher's from Barnes and Noble.com.
There are also 2 Middle school Structure and Method books if you think Algebra 1 is not appropriate yet. I believe they are on the California text list, but I can't remember. I didn't order those, so I don't have the ISBN's. They might be more like a pre-algebra course.
christi
one must imagine sisyphus happy.
I am a tutor and am currently working with two 5th graders and am teaching them Algebra using "Basic Algebra" by Brown, Smith and Dolciani. ISBN 0-395-56480-8 (bought it on Amazon) It works well for a young kid because it systematically and explicity works through each idea using easy whole numbers. The kids understand the concepts without getting bogged down in the arithmetic. I also work through Singapore at the same time time with these two because the word problems are extraordinary. Using Bar models for the algebra problems in Singapore helps them understand exactly what is happening when using a variable.
PS I am also tutoring 8th and 9th grade kids in Algebra and my young students are better at ALgebra than the teens.
Perhaps you could talk to your school about letting her do an online math course such as Standfords EPGY or John Hopkins CTY, at school, in the computer lab or media center, in place of her regular math class.
Rebecca
I came across the views of Colman McCarthy, a peace fellow who doesn't like testing. I wonder if he considers what he is teaching to be "fake knowledge." If so, why bother teaching it?
Stating that he considers grades and examination scores "to be a form of academic violence," McCarthy does not administer tests of any kind to his students. He says:
"I have never given a test. I respect my students too much to demean them with exercises in fake knowledge. Tests represent fear-based learning, the opposite of learning based on desire. Frightened and fretting with pre-test jitters, students stuff their minds with information they disgorge on exam sheets and sweat out the results. I know of no meaningful evidence that acing tests has anything to do with students' character development or whether their natural instincts for idealism or altruism are nurtured. I have large amounts of evidence that tests promote the opposite: character defects.... To compensate for my no-testing policy, I assign tons of homework. The assignments? Tell someone you love him or her. Do a favor for someone who won't know you did it. Say a kind word to the workers at the school: the people who clean the toilets, cook the food, drive the buses and heat the buildings. And a warning: If you don't do the homework, you'll fail. You'll fail your better self, you'll fail to make the world better, you'll fail at being a peacemaker."
The only virtue of the gifted program at my kids' elementary school was that it provide a marginally politically correct way for the school to do some ability grouping. The kids at least enjoyed some time with their academic peers.
What did they do in their gifted pullouts? Not much; and it was always "enrichment" not acceleration.
Once they hit 4th grade, the school crowed about its advanced math section in grades 4, 5 and 6. I was excited! When we got there, though, here's what I found. Still, they used Everyday Math. And still, they started out each year at the beginning of the EM book for that year, same as all the other students in the grade! How can that be an advanced math track? They did *more* of the EM problems (even had a special little "study guide" book that not too many districts purchase). I'm thinking, gifted kids, more problems...shouldn't these kids be getting fewer problems? They did finish the books early, then just did games and such so that they could start out next year at the same spot as the other kids....
The moral is, before you get too invested in the gifted ed thing at your school, find out what it really entails. You might not be interested in it anyway. I'm with Rory on that one.
I've given up on gifted ed. I just looking for ed.
So he's going to help children be the sweetest, kindest bus boys, janitors, and shelf stockers they can be? Character is important, but can't you build character while building academic skills at the same time?
LOL@ So he's going to help children be the sweetest, kindest bus boys, janitors, and shelf stockers they can be?
Indeed.
I myself am aiming for the evil genius scientist.
If you are looking for acceleration in k-8 math, first look at content knowledge of the staff. I can tell you after a year of coaching (teachers)in that environment that lots and lots of teachers of 'math' struggle with 'arithmetic'. In my district, anything from grade 5 down is generally taught by an elementary 'specialist'. Even when math is departmentalized in those grades the staff is just recast, i.e. the 'math' teacher is still pretty light on math content knowledge.
If you look at mathematics content knowledge in isolation (not saying they don't have other great skills) these folks are challenged to deliver on grade level knowledge. Asking them to accelerate is a stretch.
I put no stock in gifted programs either. In the 1st grade, they tried to pull me out to a trailer for behavior disordered children, then by the 5th grade, I was mysteriously found "gifted" IMO all of the labeling is worthless. You're better off to avoid it altogether.
Regarding the subject knowledge of the teacher...it doesn't seem to matter much to many states or districts. Some districts appoint subject area 6-12 content leaders, that only have middle school certification, having never taught the subject at the high school level. This is concerning...
Maybe one day our country will begin to follow the National Mathematics Advisory Panel recommendations.
One can only hope.
All,
Thanks so much for all the information and opinions. My wife ended up talking to the principal, who we have great respect for btw, and his opinion of the GT program is lower than low. He re-iterated that all class options would be open to Kate and there were no special GT classes/curriculum.
Apparently the GT folks are like lone rangers that show up at a school and want to test pre-selected kids. Still, the main point was that she should have been tested and how poorly the GT group handled this.
I also want to thank everyone for all the suggestions for math texts/programs. I was not aware of the Johns Hopkins and Stanford programs at all.
And I agree with the thought that the teachers are not as strong at math as they are supposed to be. However this school does (or did) have a very excellent math teacher who has an engineering background. Kate would have had her in 8th grade. Unfortunately, in a recent conversation with the teacher, she told me she had applied for a different job in the district. I've narrowed it down to two jobs, one would be in adminstration to try and staighten out and coordinate the whole math program. The other is in the STEP program (Science, technology, engineering and ???) that is getting started at another HS.
I want to thank everyone for being so helpful. I'll be talking to the principal before the end of the year to see if we can get on the same page for Kate being challenged next year. I'll put up a post about how that went.
Chris
My son's private school groups students by math ability beginning in the 3rd grade with the top tier students given the "honors" label for math.
My son tested at a 7th grade math ability in Sept. of 4th grade but he couldn't cut it in either the 3rd or 4th grade accelerated math classes.
He was getting D's on the 4th grade exams, yet he was consistently the only student who was solving the (algebra based) word problem of the day correctly.
I sent a copy of one of the troubling exams to 3 math professors familiar with K-6 programs to get their opinion. I figured I had either completely missed the boat when teaching my son at home, or the teacher was focusing on fuzzy logic problems that had little to do with the skills he should be learning.
The professors agreed that the exam problems were not appropriate and assured me that the Saxon Math and Singapore Challenging Word problems we were doing at home were the way to continue.
One Math professor has indicated in a separate conversation that few schools get the accelerated programs right.
This has been the case at my son's private school, I pulled him out of both 3rd and 4th grade honors math. In fact I pulled him out of the Honors classes for all other 4th grade subjects as well (same teacher as the honors math).
The assignments were ridiculously hard and time consuming, and she didn't teach, she facilitated.
I was not impressed with the knowledge of either the honors math teachers, and their idea of what should be taught was troubling.
I was surprised this week to have another parent tell me out of the blue how little regard she had for either 4th or 3rd grade honors math teachers.
The gifted honors route can mean extremely difficult work with poor instruction to exposure (not mastery) and likely lower grades for the student.
I would warn you that even if you preview the textbook and the teacher you may not be able to pick out any problems, I sure didn't.
Problems with the classes didn't become obvious until my son demonstrated he wasn't able grasp any kind of new material from the instructor's presentations. His inability to do the assigned homework, or poor grades on the exams told the truth of the matter.
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