Hello all! It’s been a long time since I’ve posted. The kids are fine. My older daughter is now in 5th grade and is having a slight struggle shifting gears from learning computation facts to applying them in problem solving situations. She got a 70 on her geometry test and I am looking for resources to help her internalize problem-solving steps. She had particular difficulty with finding the values of adjacent angles on a line…I think I got her up to speed on that one now, but I am on the lookout for a GOOD workbook so that she can get in lots of practice. Any thoughts?
I am also on the lookout for tried and tested materials on fractions, decimals and percents.
She has a really rigid teacher this year (like in 2nd grade), which is not a good match for her. She is feeling stressed out and symptoms of math anxiety, which we put at bay for the last two years, are resurfacing. For example, Sabine was penalized on a test question for answering that the intersection of a lampost and the ground creates both right angles and two adjacent angles! The teacher marked it wrong because she was only looking for one answer—the one printed in the book. Never mind that the concept of adjacent angles is more advanced than a 5th grade concept! (sigh!) Here we go again…..!
Anyway, any suggestions are welcome…including how to deal with an intransigent teacher.
Jenny
Re: geometry resources + auld lang syne
Hi Victoria,
Yes, please, I would greatly appreciate the 200 pages of materials on fractions, decimals and percents. My view of this 5th grade math teacher matches yours: when Sabine did some bonus work to review rounding off the other day, the teacher gave her bonus credit but did not check to see if the work was accurate! Instead, she sent me a note asking me to correct the work for her and to send her an answer key if I had one. I thought that was really odd…it should have taken her just a moment to look over the paper.
We have already come to the conclusion that it will be a waste of time to pursue getting this teacher to adjust her teaching on math in class. I don’t think she is really capable of it. She supposedly was trained last summer in the University of Chicago math program. I am wondering if that curriculum pushes concepts too fast, or perhaps this teacher simply did not completely understand her training.
Whatever the reason, Sabine only gets one chance in 5th grade to get it right. She has hit puberty and that is a notoriously vulnerable age for girls and math. I don’t want her to lose her confidence due to an incompetent math teacher. She is already voicing that “I just am no good at math. I’m not fast enough.” It makes my blood boil! It doesn’t have to be this way, especially when she has shown on a test that she understands more advanced concepts!
Thanks so much, Victoria. I really wish you were within driving distance of us!
I’m emailing you with our snail-mail. Let me know how much to send you for the copies. Happy Holidays!
Jenny
Jenny
The teacher probably is barely competent (if that) in math herself, which is why she depends so highly on the answer key — she can’t trust herself to get Grade 5 work right. There is no cure for this except a systemic change in teacher selection and education — if you go into education as a default program because you can’t do technology and hate math, this is what we’ll get.
For fractions, decimals, and percents, I have really, really good materials — the ones I learned from myself, and some I have used for review in tutoring.
The only trouble is those famous four-letter words, hard work and time. If you’re willing to work through two hundred pages of excellent materials, I’ll photocopy them and send them to you at cost.