Anonymous wrote:I wrote a handout on this for our curriculum night. I can copy the text of it tomorrow when I’m back at my desk. That said, it will vary significantly by the school and teachers.
In short at my school: honors moves significantly faster and requires students to go beyond what is explicitly shown in class. For example:
Regular A2 will be shown various types of polynomials and how to factor them. The test will be an assortment of polynomials and students will be asked to factor them. A2H will get the same instruction, but then will be given something like 4x^3-2x^2-kx+1 and asked to find a value of k that makes it factor able with using the grouping method.
It also includes at least one or two extra standards/skills per unit. In my regular A2 class, I have time to spend a day reviewing prerequisite skills. In honors, students need to already have mastered (and retained) all the material from prior coursework, because the review days are taken up with extension topics. For example:
Both classes solved systems of quadratic equations. An algebra 1 standard is systems of linear equations. In A2 I spent time (maybe 1/2 block) reviewing simplistic systems that didn’t require much manipulation (terms dropped out easily) before shifting into more difficult examples with new content. After we covered all 3 methods with quadratics, I had a full day devoted to practicing all methods. In honors, we spent a 5 minute warm up reviewing what a system is, and then dove right into the new stuff, because in addition to quadratics we had to cover systems where x is a function of y (sideways parabolas), and all graphing and solving was expected to be done by hand. In gen ed, students were able to use calculators to graph equations and find intersections to check work or find ordered pairs for graphing.
If you are in an AP school, both classes are a stepping stone to precalc. You can think of gen ed as the AB version of calc and honors as BC. 75% of the class is the same, but that extra 25% really increases the pace for honors.
If you are at an IB school, a successful gen ed algebra 2 student will struggle with the rigor expected in IB analysis, but should be fine with IB applications. If analysis is desired, I would make the jump to honors.
This is a great explanation. Do you recommend IB App to someone interested in engineering or do they have to take Analysis? We're at an IB school.
Analysis, 100%. Applications is a great class but for someone who wants to major in a math heavy field, you will get 0 relevant credit for it in college, even high scores in HL. (SL spends maybe 2 weeks on calculus, it’s more of a precalc/stats class). Analysis is much better preparation for the math courses required in college. Doing well can give calc credit or an extremely strong foundation if you choose to retake anyway.
Anonymous wrote:I wrote a handout on this for our curriculum night. I can copy the text of it tomorrow when I’m back at my desk. That said, it will vary significantly by the school and teachers.
In short at my school: honors moves significantly faster and requires students to go beyond what is explicitly shown in class. For example:
Regular A2 will be shown various types of polynomials and how to factor them. The test will be an assortment of polynomials and students will be asked to factor them. A2H will get the same instruction, but then will be given something like 4x^3-2x^2-kx+1 and asked to find a value of k that makes it factor able with using the grouping method.
It also includes at least one or two extra standards/skills per unit. In my regular A2 class, I have time to spend a day reviewing prerequisite skills. In honors, students need to already have mastered (and retained) all the material from prior coursework, because the review days are taken up with extension topics. For example:
Both classes solved systems of quadratic equations. An algebra 1 standard is systems of linear equations. In A2 I spent time (maybe 1/2 block) reviewing simplistic systems that didn’t require much manipulation (terms dropped out easily) before shifting into more difficult examples with new content. After we covered all 3 methods with quadratics, I had a full day devoted to practicing all methods. In honors, we spent a 5 minute warm up reviewing what a system is, and then dove right into the new stuff, because in addition to quadratics we had to cover systems where x is a function of y (sideways parabolas), and all graphing and solving was expected to be done by hand. In gen ed, students were able to use calculators to graph equations and find intersections to check work or find ordered pairs for graphing.
If you are in an AP school, both classes are a stepping stone to precalc. You can think of gen ed as the AB version of calc and honors as BC. 75% of the class is the same, but that extra 25% really increases the pace for honors.
If you are at an IB school, a successful gen ed algebra 2 student will struggle with the rigor expected in IB analysis, but should be fine with IB applications. If analysis is desired, I would make the jump to honors.
Thanks so much for writing this. In A1H I started with an F then I slowly started undestanding the material and got a B+ average for the year what do you suggest I take for my Algebra 2 YR
Please speak to your current math teacher to get a recommendation and if you are still confused reach out to whoever at your school teaches algebra 2 honors. I am not qualified to make a suggestion based on one data point for an anonymous student I've never met.
Does this actually work? Whenever I have reached out to a teacher about stuff like this, they have given me a pro-con list, with no strong recommendations either way.
If a student at my school came to me asking what the expectations were for an honors level course, shared their math history and future goals with me, and asked for my professional opinion I would absolutely speak to them.
At the end of the day though, we aren’t able to tell you what to take. That’s up to you. How much effort are you willing to put in? If you don’t understand, do you have access to support from a parent/tutor? Are you willing and able to stay after for tutoring, proactively access khan academy, print extra problem sets? Do you enjoy a challenge? Are you okay not always having the answer and having to struggle, or does that make your skin crawl? Are you excited about math, or is it a box to check?
We provide as much information as possible to help you make an informed decision with your parents. I sat with every one of my upper level students this week sharing their options, what I would consider, and asked what they were thinking and came up with a few options for them. Some kids it was easy—they are super strong or very weak, so options were few. But most kids need to finally make a choice for themselves, which is a bit scary to know that this changes your future trajectory a bit. It’s okay learn to trust yourself.
I would say that without a compelling reason for an F at the beginning of algebra 1 (medical issue, family trauma, no teacher), I’d be absolutely terrified to send you to honors. That first quarter is the foundation for solving equations and function notation, which is basically 3/4 of the algebra 2 curriculum. The rest is factoring.
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learn to trust yourself.