DOes anyone have any ideas on how to help struggling students that are using Everyday Math? It is beyond my control to get rid if the program so I am trying to figure out a way to make it work. I work with ld and at-risk students in K-3rd. I need a way to provide reteaching to mastery but I am not sure how to fit it in and what concept to tackle first (since they have covered so many concepts that the students need to be secure in but are not.)
Everyday Math and many other investigational programs actually have more strengths than weaknesses. Some strengths are an emphasis on concepts first and a strong diagnostic and error pattern assessment package that can be to set up remediation. The concerns with many reform math programs is that they cover concepts at a level other than that which is tested (abstract) and the speed of the program is such that not all students can keep up. A few ideas:
1- use the assessment programs to set when to stop progressing through lessons and start reteaching
2- develop more pictorial representations that go with the concrete lessons within Everyday Math (these representations allow students to transition from the concrete lesson to the pencil paper activities)
3- incorporate more practice problems until students show computational mastery.
The preparation it takes to teach Everyday Math can be overwhelming so I applaud your efforts to continue the program. The delivery actually requires extensive training. In some cases administrators have slowly integrated the program over a three year period. My thoughts are with you and your students. I hope you find the middle ground to such exploratory math and the extra practice that students with learning disabilities typically need.
Brad Witzel