kitchen table math, the sequel: Critique of Envision Math by Casting Out Nines (Robert Talbert)

Friday, September 3, 2010

Critique of Envision Math by Casting Out Nines (Robert Talbert)

From January, 2008:
Four questions about this:
  1. Should it be a requirement of parenthood that you must remember enough 5th grade math to teach it halfway decently to your kids?
  2. Does the smartboard come included with the textbooks?
  3. Did anybody else have the overwhelming urge to yell “Bingo!” after about 2 minutes in?
  4. When will textbook companies stop drawing the conclusion that because kids today like to play video games, talk on cell phones, and listen to MP3 players, that they are therefore learning in a fundamentally different way than anybody else in history?
The last question is all about the research-free digital nativist assumption that is the source of many lucrative curriculum deals these days. Data, please?

I've added emphasis

basically laughing it off the blogosphere for its happy-clappy, uncritical acceptance of unproven digital nativist frameworks and for going way over the top with smartboards. Little did I know that my own offspring would be in the middle of it just three years later. So, in an effort to process what she’s doing (for me, for her, and for anybody else who cares), this is the first of what might be many posts about the specifics of enVisionMATH, as viewed by a parent whose kid happens to be learning from that curriculum, and who also happens to be a mathematician and math teacher.

So I suggest you bookmark Casting Out Nines and see what develops.

2 comments:

Catherine Johnson said...

What a Fabulous blog!

Thanks so much for posting this ---

Unknown said...

The digital nativist assumption has been basically disproved by the ETS iSkills test, which has been replaced by the iCritical Thinking exam, which reveals that 55% of freshmen college students do not meet a benchmark computer literacy score of 250, converting the benchmark score of 165 to the new scoring system. Note that the test uses scenarios that involve using multiple features in combination to solve non-routine problems, meaning that a majority of students would have difficulty with learning digitally as defined in the assumption.