I’ve never paid too much attention to the hysteria surrounding the yearly statewide testing, but I just got my son’s (entering 4th grade) test results and compared to last year the scores have taken a nosedive, esp. in math. One category (Math procedures) dropped from the 32 percentile to the 5th. The math problems involving Computation in Context and Problem-Solving Strategies he got zero correct. This is a school where 75% of the students score above the 75th percentile, so it’s not a matter of poor teaching.
After 3 years of playing the “he doesn’t qualify” dance he will be getting resource room help for written language. I’m practical enough to know that adding math help would be a battle, but wonder what I could do for these problem areas.
My guess is it’s a reading problem, since he can never understand word problems unless I read them aloud. He can pass the reading tests by some clever guessing, but when it comes to the precision needed to understand a word problem, he’s lost.
I’m at a loss here. He doesn’t qualify for help, but I can’t just stand by and watch him flounder.
Re: Two home approaches that worked for us....
Thanks Mary. I cringe at the idea of any extra work at home with him, since he’s just getting him to do his homework is a real battle every night. But I can’t just let him slip through those cracks he keeps aiming for either!
Do you get a sense that most of the people who use Singapore Math with their kids are homeschooled? The questions I’ve read on the bulletin board give me that impression. Would it be totally overwhelming for an easily overwhelmed kid to be going to school all day and then in effect homeschooled afterwards?
Guess all I can do is try!
Re: Good homework thread on Parenting bb
I do think it’s too much for kids to do homeschooling on top of a full day at school and homework. I definitely do not recommend it!
How much time is your son spending on homework? There’s an interesting homework thread over on the Parenting bulletin board where I expressed my views quite extensively. I don’t want to repeat everything here!
The gist of my advice is to negotiate with the school to limit homework (I would actually negotiate to eliminate homework!), and even arrange for late start or early release every day, to free up time and energy for your son to work one-on-one with you. If that’s not possible, then I suggest waiting until next summer to do Singapore. Waiting, however, makes the remedial mountain that needs to be climbed even higher and more daunting.
My daughter was able to do the Singapore workbooks because she goes to public school mornings only. I negotiated hard for this, so that we could spend afternoons homeschooling. The arrangement has worked out very well, and the school has been pleased with the test results. If there comes a time when I cannot do this, I will pull my daughter out to homeschool full-time again (which we did for third grade).
It’s not often done, but I do know of other parents who have made arrangements like this with the school. One mother picks up her daughter early every afternoon to homeschool reading. Another takes her son late every day in order to homeschool reading. It’s also quite common to arrange for no homework and bringing a child late to school in order to pursue therapy (e.g., FastForWord or PACE).
Mary
Re: Two home approaches that worked for us....
easier method get each trigger word( word that has no image) and make one in clay, for example (the) has no image make a sentence using the
the cat ran up the tree but don’t write it
then make a cat module running up a tree
now you have a image for the word the
What I would suggest for the reading (in addition to whatever help he gets in school) is the book “Reading Reflex”. It helps to understand the decoding issues involved in reading and, if you’re as convinced as I was, you will want to try tutoring your son yourself using the methodology outlined in the book. That’s what I did, and the results were outstanding. Reading Reflex is $16 at most local bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.
You might want to check into Singapore Math for use at home. It offers a good balance between concept development and computation, and it is especially good at developing the ability to solve word problems. SM tends to run a year ahead of U.S. math, so you would probably want to start with Level 2A or so. The website has placement exams that can help you decide.
Each SM level is divided into two semesters. You can buy one semester at a time — one coursebook and two textbooks — for about $25. Basically, you spend a few minutes going over the coursebook pages orally with your child to make sure the concepts are clear, and then the child works pretty much independently in the workbook to complete the exercise(s) the coursebook has indicated should be done at this point. It is very easy to use.
My daughter’s Iowa scores in math were pitifiul at the beginning of 4th grade. I got the Singapore Level 2 workbooks (didn’t get the coursebook, but I would recommend getting that as it would have helped us) and, starting in January, had my daughter work through these for math review. We also started doing 10 minutes of math drill per day using Quarter Mile Math (http://www.thequartermile.com). By May my dd had completed about two-and-a-half of the four workbooks for Level 2, and her Iowa math composite changed from 12th to 65th percentile (both tests had been scored as end-of-year for 4th, so this was a measurement of real change). Math concepts had improved from 6th to 38th percentile, problems/data from 22 to 78 (!), and math computation had gone from 2 to 33.
Website is http://www.singaporemath.com
Mary