Hello friends!
My 7th grade son has been damaged from the use of the Everyday Math program. The spiraling, jumping, and lack of mastery has left him “illiterate”. After years of arguing with the school (who kept telling me how great EDM is) they have finally decided to use a Singapore Math book for him. He will be starting at 4th grade in order to go back and remediate all the wholes left from EDM. My review of the Singapore book looked much more child-friendly and solid; I wish they used this book from the beginning. They seem to slowly introduce a skill, stay on it, and then there are review tests that check mastery several times. EDM pops skills out of nowhere and relies on the child to figure things out…which in my opinion works for select students only.
What are your thoughts on these two math programs?
Re: Everyday Math vs. Singapore Math
We’ve used Singapore math to catch up/more practice our LD son. I really like it. You could easily do it yourself over the summer to get him to catch up more quickly. The books are cheap and easy to use without any training. I have heard that it doesn’t have enough on fractions for some kids. Marilyn Bruns Lessons for Introducing Fractions is very good for that.
We’ve had Everyday Math in public school (he is now in parochial with traditional math circulumn) but never as the only program. I didn’t like it at all for all the reasons you cite.
Beth
Re: Everyday Math vs. Singapore Math
It’s usually recommended that older students start in Level 3A of Singapore Math because that is where some of the major concepts are introduced. You could easily do this at home. Singapore is used by many homeschooling families. You can purchase the books at http://www.singaporemath.com (about $25 for a half-year set of books: teacher’s manual and two workbooks, purchased as a set).
I agree that Singapore may not be enough for fractions. The Marilyn Burns book on Introducing Fractions is really good for this (available from Amazon).
Nancy
interesting
I believe, and this is from personal experience, that everyday math is not really good for a student that is l.d. in math. The spiral learning method of math is very hard if you are l.d. in math. It is far better to stick with any worthy program (i.e. Singapore Math) that re-inforces the concepts you need to master in order to move things along. Your “skills set” in math will increase if you use a system that reviews and re-inforces skills in a methodical manner, which is something that the spiral learning method does not do. I really think that the spiral learning approach is something that needs to be tweaked and that it is best to avoid it if you can.
The spiral learning and whatnot deems itself as being just “the way” to increase your critical thinking and your linear thinking as it relates to math. But, students who are l.d. in math need to have a more humane way to learn of how to increase these skills, they most especially need to consistently re-inforce their skills as well. And, I do not think that sitting with a book that almost leaves things up to the student to figure out is the way to go because that brings tears, really. Word problems that pertain to what is already at your level of knowledge can help you with some of the more abstract levels of thinking that are hard for a student who is l.d. in math to get down.
My LD son in 8th grade has used Everyday Math since 6th grade, and now is using it in “mid-level” Algebra(he will do Algebra again as a freshman next year) yes, it is very language laden and difficult for LD kids-we supplemented with tutoring on our own, I review all concepts with him again at home, and he goes for after school help(open to all kids). However he isn’t in special ed. and it was very important to him and us to keep him in the mainstream with his peers with high school looming-he has to pass high-stakes testing in 10th grade in our state and would not get enough higher level math in remedial math to pass. Our middle school has 2 levels of math in reg. ed. but all use the same text. Before changing books/systems I would have him tested using the Key Math or another math achievement test to see where he really is. For LD kids higher level math takes HUGE amts of practice at home we have found.