help desk – online instruction for New York Regents geometry course

Any ideas on an online course that might be appropriate for a student who has been struggling with New York State Regents geometry? The course would have to prepare the student to pass the NYS geometry Regents exam. What about online tutoring options? While this student is self-directed in some ways, he is not one to “teach himself” from a book or other resources. He probably needs direct instruction, with targeted feedback and guidance on his progress. Should online even be an option in this case? Does he simply need a traditional tutor? Maybe a blended learning option would work well? Any other alternatives?

Any and all ideas would be welcome.

Free Online Resources: Hippocampus

The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education

is an educational non-profit organization committed to improving access to education. MITE (pronounced "mighty") manages a range of projects from establishing systems for the development and distribution of open educational content to efficacy studies and other educational research. Two of MITE's cornerstone projects are the National Repository of Online Courses (NROC) and the MacArthur Series on Digital Media and Learning.

One of their services or enterprises is Hippocampus

A free, public website for high school and college students that offers NROC content.

I haven't poked around much but it looks interesting.

The Arlington Algebra Project & e-math instruction

These look like terrific resources:

The Arlington Algebra Project

eMath Instruction


Thanks to Kate!

Internet4Classrooms

The speech therapist at school told us about this site: Internet4Classrooms.

Apparently it has short reading passages with comprehension questions following, which is what I need for Andrew.

Looks good so far --

palisadesk on learning sites

Another autism resource for parents and teachers that you might want to check out (don't know if it is suitable for Jimmy, but it might be), is Teach Town. It developes an individualized program for each student in several domains. It was recommended to me by a psychologist for whom I have a lot of respect, and is working well for one of my students. Check out the website at Teach Town website

It's based on ABA principles, has a strong research base, and provides for home, school and therapist interaction (if applicable).

and:

...it sounds like Jimmy isn't the prototypical "visual learner" that children with autism are assumed to be. Neither is my student. His auditory skills are far superior to his visual skills.
He did extremely well with Headsprout Early Reading and had decoding ability at the seventh grade level at the end (his comprehension was of course much more limited -- but prior to that he could not decode or read at all).

Some pluses:
- Kids usually love Headsprout, so he will enjoy doing it;
-You can have him repeat lessons, as needed, and you can stop in the middle of lessons and it will "save" where you stopped
-Headsprout has some knowledgeable people on staff who can provide support for using it with a student with autism, and they have an 800 number
- You get a money-back guarantee. If you are not satisfied that it is a good program for your child you can withdraw before 30 days and get your money back.

It's not for everyone but it works quite well for some very challenged kids, and with a money back guarantee, what's to lose?

Ah!

This is an invaluable resource: Ask Dr. Math.

Glencoe Parent and Student Study Guide

cross-posted at Irvington Parents Forum:

Hi all---

We had a meeting with the chair of the math department a couple of weeks back.

She told us that “if students need distributed practice parents can find worksheets online.”

Having spent many an hour finding worksheets online, not to mention a small fortune purchasing math textbooks and workbooks from Rainbow Resource Center, I had thought those days were behind me.

Wrong again! Last night I spent a couple of hours pulling worksheets from the web; I’ll be spending some time today scouting commercially available resources for teaching geometry.

So, to prevent other parents having to duplicate my efforts, I’m going to try to post my online sources, assuming I can locate the original URLs.

For today, I’m posting the single most useful resource I’ve found for reteaching math to your kids and providing the distributed practice they need to master the material:

Glencoe’s Parent and Student Study Guides

Glencoe has published every page of its 5 guides online in English and Spanish editions.

Description:

The Glencoe Parent and Student Study Guide is designed to help you support, monitor, and improve your child's math performance. These worksheets are written so that you do not have to be a mathematician to help your child.

Each book contains:

A 1-page worksheet for every lesson in the Student Edition. Completing a worksheet with your child will reinforce the concepts and skills your child is learning in math class. Upside-down answers are provided right on the page.

These worksheets are fantastic, built to help parents help their kids while also earning a living and running a household. Wonderful.

URLs:

• Glencoe Pre-Algebra

• Glencoe Algebra 1

• Glencoe Applications & Concepts Course 1

• Glencoe Applications & Concepts Course 2

• Glencoe Applications & Concepts Course 3:

Glencoe has all kinds of other useful materials available online, too

Glencoe’s math page

Enter your state, check “parent,” hit enter.

That takes you to Glencoe’s “Online Learning Centers” where you can click on all of Glencoe’s math texts and survey the offerings.

Catherine J.