What math curric have you used that you’ve found helpful with children with LD’s. I’m going to be teaching in a new private school for kids with LD. I will be team teaching with another teacher. She has used Saxon, Singapore and is considering Math U See. I used MUS when homeschooling my son and liked it.
I’ve been told that MUS does not follow the scope and sequence that the public schools follow in their math curric. Do you think a child using MUS would have a hard time if he returns to public school?
If you could set up a Math classroom for the first time for children 8-12yrs with varied levels in reading and Math what would you use?
Thanks,
Diane
Re: Math curriculum questions
Hi Jenn,
Thanks for your encouraging reply. And YES we do need more teachers. We have 2 classes with 5 children and many on a waiting list. We have not advertised except for the church that is letting use their facilities.
We are in SW Louisiana. There is little help for kids needing reading and math remediation in our area. So if you want to move down south we’d love to have you.
The teacher that is starting the school hasn’t used Singapore but is interested in it. She has used Saxon through the years with her on children and with the children she has tutored or Homeschooled that had learning disabilites. She has used lots of hands on, experiential learning with math. I’ve used MUS with my son and like it. I feel like most of these children will remain with us or go back to homeschooling once they get to grade level. Our goal is to have them return home or to school.
I’d love to hear more from you if you have any suggestions for us. Again thanks for your suggestions and enthusiasm.
Blessings,
Diane
Re: Math curriculum questions
Hi, Diane,
Seeing your questions here reminded me that I never got back with you with suggestions. I had such a busy summer that I am behind on many things! I don’t think it really matters whether Math U See follows the state curriculum closely because it does teach basic math that all children need to know. It is better to focus on the essentials and not waste time on some of the fluff contained in public school math curriculums. Since the kids are LD, they need to spend their time mastering the basic skills unless they are already on grade level in math, and in that case, I guess you could get a math book from the public school!
But I’d use Math U See if I were starting a private LD school with a self contained class. MUS may not be the easiest program to use just for tutoring, but for a whole year of daily lessons, I think it would be wonderful.
Janis
Re: Math curriculum questions
Hi Janis,
Thanks for the reply. Our first week of school went very well. We are using Saxon and MUS with the kids. The other teacher is doing the math and I’m doing Reading. She did say she was having a hard time using MUS but will hang in there with it. We have 2 12 yr olds that are having a hard time with Multiplication.
Thanks again for the reply.
Diane
You are a woman/teacher after my own heart! What private school are you at, what state, and do they need more sped. teachers??? :) I’ve used Saxon extensively, but began using MUS recently (past few years). I was sick and tired of sending my 6th graders to middle school without knowing multiplication facts, so I decided to stop trying to teach everything and make sure that what they knew, they knew very well. I’ve used Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon, with the focus on the first two. The kids learned their facts! Yes, it does not follow the typical public school textbook. However, if using it in a private school, and if you don’t have to worry about ridiculous standardized tests (sorry - my opinions are slipping out!), getting kids through Alpha my gr. 1, Beta by gr. 2, Gamma by gr. 3, Delta by gr. 4 (the MUS curriculum), they should be ok in public schools. You DO need to supplement heavily on calendar, money, and time, as those are taught either too late for public school (money is not done all the way until Gamma), and throwing in a few extra review worksheets every now and then on a different topic won’t hurt. How do you like Singapore for LD kids? I’ve thought of ordering it, as it is now available in some of my catalogs, but from the posts I’ve read on the MUS Yahoo site folks prefer MUS over Singapore, except for the word problem books.
Reading - I use Wilson for my dyslexic/trouble with decoding kids, although in the past I’ve used, successfully, Open Court, Merrill Linguistic, and Let’s Read as well. Any good Orton-Gillingham based reading program will work for them.
For my low guys with comprehension issues, I just began using SRA’s Corrective Reading, Comp. A, and will use Comp. B1 this year. I was very impressed with Comp. A and what the kids learned. It’s very, very, structured and repetitive, but it worked for those kids.
Gosh, if your school is in CT, RI, or MA let me know - it sounds awesome!!
Jenn