We are in the math adoption process and are being strongly led by a very vocal teacher to Connected Math. I feel like I don’t know what good alternatives there are. Over time I have gathered quite a bit of infomation on reading/language arts materials -Phonographix, Read Naturally, Great Leaps, Worldly Wise, Open Court but what are the Math equivalents? What good, solid programs come to mind of the veteran teachers? For all students and for LD.
My particular interest is middle school, prealgebra, algebra 1.
Hope y’all can help. Thanks
singapore math
I really really like Singapore Math www.singaporemath.com. This is the math series developed by the Government of Singapore and used nationwide by its students. (They lead the world in mathematics: their learning disabled students do as well as our average students; their average students compete well with our gifted students, and their gifted students are head and shoulders, trunk and groin above our gifted students. The books run from K through Grade 6, and Grade 6 covers Prealgebra. In general you should begin with a Singapore Math book two years below the American grade, thus if he is in 4th grade start with the 2nd grade books. The kids go directly into Algebra I at that point (seventh grade.) Grades 4-6 also cover geometry, as geometry is not taught as a separate subject in Singapore. I have made my elder kiddo go through all their books as review during the summers and preparation for the next grade.
Why do I like it? (1) The reading level of the text is two full years below the mathematics level. This means that a kid in 4th grade looking up an explanation in the text can understand the explanation, because the text is written at the 2nd grade level. (2) The books are well organized, and clearly written. It is easy to look up an explanation. Review sets occur frequently. (3) There is excellent emphasis on thinking strategies and word problems. This was a black hole in 3rd grade (pre-Singapore math, and now, in Algebra, (seventh grade), it is an area of strength for my kiddo. (4) It is very cheap. The text and accompanying workbooks for a grade will set you back around 20 bucks. (5) Yes, it is written in English. Okay, the text uses people with names like Mr. Wu and Rajan, rather than Mr. Smith and Charlie, and the word problems talk about bags of rice rather than bags of potatoes, but neither I nor my kiddo had any trouble with THAT.
If you need more, I also liked the Keys to Math series, which is great for automation of basic techniques like fractions, decimals, percents, etc. Lots and Lots of basic drills. It is useless trying to teach a kid algebraic concepts when he or she is weak on fractiosn.
Re: IS there any end to the math wars
My source of good regular ed. math programs and reviews are at www.mathematicallycorrect.com.
For special ed., I pretty much like the ones des mentioned.
Janis
I think there are fans out here for the following:
Stern’s Structural Math
Math U See
Landmark School program
And On Cloud Nine (though OCN doesn’t go that high)— it’s a remedial program that stops at fractions/decimals.
I only have familarity with Math U See and OCN.
Might take a look at these. Math U See stops at Trig. I don’t know where the others stop.
—des