math programs

I like Touchmath for basic, survival-skill computation (particularly addition and subtraction) and Times Tables the Fun Way (www.citycreek.com) for multiplication facts. I’ve just ordered Addition the Fun Way for a student I’m serving who isn’t making the progress I’d like to see with Touchmath, so can’t really comment on that.

My county ordered Saxon Math for our sped students this year, and, after about 6 weeks, I can only say that it has its strengths and weaknesses for my students. Saxon Math is very verbal, which presents great difficulties for students with language processing issues. It also moves really fast, but does incorporate review and practice of previously learned skills to a much greater extent than the math series used in our regular education classrooms.

As always, I need to supplement and change pacing to accomodate the needs of my students. I have found it very difficult to consistently complete a complete math lesson, including the math meeting, in a single 45 minute math period using Saxon Math.

Like you, I continue to add piece-parts to my repertoire of strategies, and if you have any other suggestions, I’d love to hear them!

Karyn

Addition Facts the Fun Way too.

Quarter Mile Math software is really good for developing automaticity with math facts, once they are learned. Website is http://www.thequartermile.com.

You might want to take a look at Singapore Math for some of your students. It’s relatively inexpensive ($15 for a one-semester set consisting of one textbook and two workbooks) and it uses a primarily visual approach to math — much easier for language-based disabilities. You can supplement the visual approach with manipulatives that mimic the pictures, for kids who benefit from a hands-on approach. For kids who need additional practice problems beyond the regular course, the “Know Your Maths” books offer supplemental problems (sometimes broken down even more) that follow the organization of the textbook. Website is http://www.singaporemath.com

Mary

My district just purchased “Everyday Math” by the Everyday Learning company in Chicago, IL. The teachers were VERY nervous about using the curriculum…..one big difference is you don’t teach for mastery. After a certain amount of time you move on. The reason is…..that concept will be revisited over and over throughout the curriculum (that same school year and years to follow). The curriculum “spirals.” Another big change is the students don’t have a regular math textbook, they have a Student Resource Book. They also have a math journal. (Workbook) The teacher manual is all words…..it was very different to teach from. Since I am a teacher in Illinois, the series connects with the IL Learning Standards completely.

IN SPITE OF ALL THE DIFFERENCES, I LOVE IT! I have been teaching LD, BD, and EMH for 5 years. These kids are getting concepts they didn’t in the old curriculum! They remember them too! We did a unit on geometry…..they learned things I didn’t learn until high school! Granted, we go slower than the regular education classes, but these kids have learned SO MUCH. I can’t say enough good things about it. I suggest you check into the series. It is K-6.

My daughter’s school adopted everyday math the year she entered Kindergarten. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I absolutely hate that program. Like you, everyone at the school got all hyped up over this program. There were meetings and demonstrations to show parents how wonderful this was. I went to all of them and was convinced this was a great thing… until my daughter entered first grade.

It was clear from the start that she wasn’t getting it. The teacher didn’t know what to do. She tried to help dd. Dd turned from a bright bubbly little girl ready to tackle the world into a sad, quiet little thing who thought she was stupid. She tried so hard. If and when she finally got something, she litterally beamed! Only happened once in first grade. So in one whole year she learned one thing in math, and this was because the teacher managed to come up with a presentation outside the program that she could understand for that one topic.

At the end of second grade she was diagnosed LD in math. That didn’t improve matters. The teachers kept putting in extra time with her but everyone insisted on having her follow right along with the Everyday Math that everyone else was using. The spiraling never allowed dd the time to grasp any topic. If she was starting to get something, you can be sure, the next day they were on to something else. When the topic appeared again it was as if she had never seen it before.

Things continued like this through 4th grade. Teachers spent enormous time with her and I did her homework with her for hours every single night. The kid wouldn’t give up, but she wasn’t learning either. It was heart breaking.

Her last year in elementary school they finally gave her two 30 minute periods in the LD center with one other little girl for math. In addition, the LD teacher came into their regular math class one or two periods per week. Did anything change? NO! They still insisted that she follow this same darned program which hadn’t worked for 4 years!!!!

Watching her enter middle school was gut wrenching. Her attitude was so great and she tried so hard. She got resource time for math twice a week…. you guessed it… working on the same old regular program….UGHHHHHH. I finally got fed up with her regular math teacher’s comments about not having her assignments done on time. She was TRYING to do them, but couldn’t! She would take them to the resource teacher like she was supposed to for “help”. I finally discovered that much of the “help” offered to her was essentially doing the problems for her while she watched, even on tests!

By the end of the year I had had it. She is homeschooled now. We are using Singapore Math which I am pretty happy with. I had to start her all the way back at level 3a. She is fiercely independant and wants to do it on her own. Guess what? For the most part she is doing just that, working on her own!!!!!! If she doesn’t understand something she brings it to me and with a quick explanation she is on her way again. I am amazed, she is finally understanding and doing stuff on her own that she NEVER got in school and with little help from me!

Could it be because they spend more than 3 seconds on a topic or that they present a variety of different ways to solve a problem, or that there are few words and many pictures that explain the concepts? I really don’t know, all I know is that she can finally do math, even complex word problems which were a nightmare before! She still doesn’t love math, but she is doing it!!!!!! I overheard her telling a friend the other day “Guess what, I’m not stupid after all! I can do math now, it’s just that my teachers never explained it to me well before!”

She finished 3a in a little over a month and is now well into 3b. I am hoping to complete at least through level 4b before the end of the school year and will probably continue over the summer since she is so far behind. Breathing a big sigh of relief, even though we still have a loooong way to go.

oh, and forgot to mention that dd got one on one tutoring over the summer from the school system for math after 4th and 5th grades. That didn’t help her either.

Oh yeah and we paid for Kumon ourselves the summer after 3rd grade which helped a little but she couldn’t make the time limits. They refused to adjust the time limit so she could move on even when she could do the math. Finally I couldn’t see paying her do do the same darned sheets over and over each week and the school year was starting anyway so we quit.

Just in case anyone is thinking of Kumon, it is just timed drill drill drill in math computation. There was no “teaching” that I could see and no “help” for the student from the instructors. They just marked her answer sheets and had her go back and fix the ones she got wrong as many times as it took until they were all right. Then she would take the test again the next session.
She was allowed to move on after she was able to complete the thest with no more than one or two errors in a prescribed amount of time. She barely managed to pass the single digit subtraction and was never able to pass the next level. There is timed homework every day. The parents are instructed to time their child, check the answers and have the child correct the errors. When they complete a certain number of sheets within the time limit with minimal errors, they can take a test at the center. If they pass, they can go on to the next level.

At a certain point I noticed that dd could complete half of the problems in half the alloted time, but could never finish all of the problems within the specified time. I had her doing the homework that way for a couple of weeks but since she had to pass a whole test in the time limit at the center before they would give her worksheets for the next level, there was no way she could move on.

This program is really great if you want to be a human calculator and can stand endless, timed drill.

I’m sorry to hear your daughter’s difficulties with the different math programs.

I can’t speak for everyone. I am just stating my opinion. My LD kids don’t seem to have trouble recalling the concepts. Maybe I am spending more time reteaching/reminding them of the concepts.

I like Connecting Math by SRA. It is one of the Direct Instruction scripted lessons. I really like how it breaks each task down into small parts. The skills are never left after they are introduced. Students do a variety of skills everyday and once a skill is taught they practice andconnect it into a harder skill. We have been doing fractions since school started. We do something everyday. My kids can find equivalent fractions, turn mixed numbers into fractions and fractions into mixed numbers, add and subtract fractions. They think fractions are easy. The program is fast paced but the skills are really broken down into small parts. Success is built in to the program.

My question…should Touch Math be taught to a whole class of 3rd graders? As an educator, I have always viewed it as an important strategy to teach life computation skills to students who could not grasp number/computation skills. My daughter, who is just on level in math, is floundering in her classroom which seems to bounce from “Mathlands”, discrete counting “fun” activities (such as counting/graphing colors of m&m’s), fact sheets that are filled with a mix of challenging problems/concepts which have not been taught, and touch math sheets. I am thoroughly confused.

Again—should my on-level daughter be taught touch math…?

I would use Math Facts the Fun Way (http://www.citycreek.com) which is a much faster way of learning math facts, and then follow up with 10 minutes a day of Quarter Mile Math (http://www.thequartermile.com) to develop speed and automaticity.

Mary