Is anyone familiar with CONNECTED MATHEMATICS by Prentice?

What makes me crazy when I read something like this is, why do they think the regular math curriculum is appropriate for the LD kids? If they are in resource, it’s obvious that regular ed. wasn’t successful in teaching the concepts!! I have heard of this math program. I’ll have to do some searching to see what I read. I believe it was negative. I am pretty sure this math program is the continuation of a bad elementary math program.

Janis

Okay, I have found some earlier reviews of this program which was then published by Dale Seymour. Apparently Prentice must have bought it or else they also have math programs named Investigations and Connected Math. Here is the very sad review of this program.

http://mathematicallycorrect.com/books7a.htm

Janis

janis - thanks for the reply. i am going to check out the link you sent. everything i have heard on this program has been negitive as well. i did do 2 days of training and what i picked up on is that the book really expects the students to have prior knowledge… i am all about problem solving and teaching the students problem solving but i know a lot of the students i will be working with wont even have thier basic facts down, and, there is TONS of reading in this program and as i am sure you are aware - my babes will have lower reading levels. i hope someone will post strategies and maybe a modification or two… any sign of hope :)
thanks for the message!

I just took the On Cloud Nine Math training by Lindamood Bell. You could probably benefit just from reading the manual. I agree that you need to be able to take your kids back to get the basic skills they lack. On Cloud Nine has super strategies for learning math facts. I think the manual alone is about $40. You can get it on the www.lindamoodbell.com site.

Janis

I have been teaching CMP for 6 years. It is our district curriculum. The Investigations program is used in our K-5 classrooms. I cannot address issues with the Investigations (TERC) program but I can tell you we have had great success with CMP. CMP is the text that is used for our SPed and inclusionary classes. I have personally used it in inclusion classes.

Every text has issues when it comes to diversifiying for the needs of students. CMP does address visuals, teaching in context, allow time for learning, and exploring, partner work and multiple stratagies.

The problem that your students may encounter is, the text is it is heavily languaged based. The math is delivered in a context. So, I do have to decode and chunk the problems. I also work heavily in creating visual pictures with some of the terms and processes (via graphic organizers.) I have to say that because of the structure of the program I have quite a bit of freedom and opportunity to pull small groups together for focus topics.
The program is not strong in basic skills. I do create supplements here as well.

The district and have experienced positive outcomes using CMP. The mathematical growth I see is more closely in line with our state standards than prior to implementaion of CMP. Our percentage of individaul student growth from year to year has also improved, as this program allows them to proceed sucessfully to the next unit / concept without full mastery of “standard” objectives outlined in the text.

But, as I said no text is prefect, and yes I do support and supplement outside the district text. I think this goes without saying for all texts and all students thought.

Julie :D

I don’t know anything about Connected Math, but no doubt someone who had to could use it creatively and do ok with it. The question is would someone chose it over some other options that are out there that may be much better. From what was said I sure would chose it, but districts sometimes do their thing and all you can do is go from there. We are talking about someone who DOES have a choice.

—des

Julie - thanks for your insight! I may need you come the fall - okay???? the positive thought is refreshing. i am a very “make things the best you can” kinda person and i know things will be fine but it is good to hear some sucess stories!
tw

They introduced trailblazer math at my son’s school this year. It seems to come from this same mold.

He did great with it because he is does well with language and has visual deficits. One thing I will say that was very positive and probably had the biggest impact. They only put one or two questions on each page. The writing is large and visually clear. The old program jammed 20 questions on a page and it was visually hard to process with the fine print and questions in columns on the left and right side of the page.

I could see how a child with comprehension or language difficulties would struggle with these types of programs. It was abstract and conceptual. It seemed to promote higher level thinking skills that I would guess many third graders were just not ready for. My son is the opposite of most kids so I could see why there is an uproar over these programs. It also bounces around from concept to concept. I don’t know about the long term outcomes but it was nice to see him experience success.

The teacher did supplement with speed drills for number facts. He couldn’t really do speed drills though.

We work on sequencing and visual issues at home so maybe I can fill in the gaps. He does have gaps in math.

I tried connected math and hated it. I didn’t like the way it was organized and found it difficult to follow. This year I will be using Math-U-See along with a mix of stuff.

Michelle AZ