Three Quarters Later - How is your 6th grader doing in Algebra 1 HN

[Anonymous]

What is the math track if algebra 1 is taken in grade 6?
Are those math courses in grade 9, 10, 11 and 12 to be taken after competing algebra 2 in grade 8 difficult? Is that a benefit to accelerate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the math track if algebra 1 is taken in grade 6?
Are those math courses in grade 9, 10, 11 and 12 to be taken after competing algebra 2 in grade 8 difficult? Is that a benefit to accelerate?

6- algebra 1
7- geometry
8- algebra 2
9- pre calc
10- calc bc
11- multivar calc/linear algebra
12- ?? Stats?

[Anonymous]

This was forever ago but I took AP Stats instead of AP Calc my senior year and loved it. Im not a big math person but I am a big data person. I was glad to have a free spot for an interesting, and to me easy, AP course. Also meant I took NO math in college because my AP stats test covered the pre req and I was a social science person.

Something to consider if you have a smart non math kid, they may be happy to just get it all out of the way earlier.

[Anonymous]

Enjoying the class, Algebra teacher is her favorite, understanding most of the concepts, but still overall performing at a B/B+ level. Test-taking skills (missing a key detail in the question) seems to be part of the issue, but also occasionally struggling a bit since they basically skipped pre-Algebra to participate in this pilot. 5th grade AAP last year was not taught with the expectation that kids would be moving to Algebra in 6th.

Will retake in 7th, it'll be a relatively easy class presumably, but still a slightly different with an experienced MS teacher who'll have opportunity to go into more depth via longer instructional blocks. So ending up on the same path as if they hadn't offered the pilot Algebra in 6th this year in the first place, just taking a slightly different journey to get there, not clear that it is necessarily better or worse. DD is fine with the outcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, how far beyond Calculus does your student need to be?

They will complete Calculus in 10th grade. You have set this up. And then what? And why? And why so young?

PP above you. For my kid, it's because she was perenially bored in class. Math is the one topic where kids can advance quickly. She can't skip an English class, or a Social Studies class. I think Honors Pre-calc is the year she stopped reading in math class, because otherwise she couldn't quite follow the teacher. This year, she still reads in every other class, even APUSH. Also, she rather likes math. She will do multivariable in 11th and whatever extra math is available in 12th. The point isn't advancement per se. It's making my daughter feel like school can be interesting.

Why can’t kids accelerate in other content areas? Who is stopping parents? Why is it just math? Why can’t kids take HS History classes early? Why not Biology or Environmental Science? Why can’t a 6th grader take English 9? Inquiring minds want to know.

Math is just easier to measure and plug into a system. You don’t really need age-based maturity for it. if kid is ready intellectually, they’re ready. Other subjects are different, they rely a lot more on maturity, discussion, and real-world context.
It’s pretty reasonable to teach trig to a 7th grader, but not so much the heavy stuff you get in English literature, like complex relationships, or social studies topics like war, ethics, and social justice.

Really???? In my experience, most students who hyper accelerate in math tend to be great at memorizing rules and procedures, BUT when asked the question of why something works or is true, they lack the ability to do so. This part of mathematics is important, not just memorizing. Like other people who have posted before, students need to time to develop their ability to articulate the process at arriving at their answer as well as learning the mathematical content.

This. From another teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, how far beyond Calculus does your student need to be?

They will complete Calculus in 10th grade. You have set this up. And then what? And why? And why so young?

PP above you. For my kid, it's because she was perenially bored in class. Math is the one topic where kids can advance quickly. She can't skip an English class, or a Social Studies class. I think Honors Pre-calc is the year she stopped reading in math class, because otherwise she couldn't quite follow the teacher. This year, she still reads in every other class, even APUSH. Also, she rather likes math. She will do multivariable in 11th and whatever extra math is available in 12th. The point isn't advancement per se. It's making my daughter feel like school can be interesting.

Why can’t kids accelerate in other content areas? Who is stopping parents? Why is it just math? Why can’t kids take HS History classes early? Why not Biology or Environmental Science? Why can’t a 6th grader take English 9? Inquiring minds want to know.

Math is just easier to measure and plug into a system. You don’t really need age-based maturity for it. if kid is ready intellectually, they’re ready. Other subjects are different, they rely a lot more on maturity, discussion, and real-world context.
It’s pretty reasonable to teach trig to a 7th grader, but not so much the heavy stuff you get in English literature, like complex relationships, or social studies topics like war, ethics, and social justice.

Really???? In my experience, most students who hyper accelerate in math tend to be great at memorizing rules and procedures, BUT when asked the question of why something works or is true, they lack the ability to do so. This part of mathematics is important, not just memorizing. Like other people who have posted before, students need to time to develop their ability to articulate the process at arriving at their answer as well as learning the mathematical content.

This. From another teacher.

Our Alg1 teacher is really excited about the new program and mentioned how quickly students are picking up the concepts at a deeper level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Enjoying the class, Algebra teacher is her favorite, understanding most of the concepts, but still overall performing at a B/B+ level. Test-taking skills (missing a key detail in the question) seems to be part of the issue, but also occasionally struggling a bit since they basically skipped pre-Algebra to participate in this pilot. 5th grade AAP last year was not taught with the expectation that kids would be moving to Algebra in 6th.

Will retake in 7th, it'll be a relatively easy class presumably, but still a slightly different with an experienced MS teacher who'll have opportunity to go into more depth via longer instructional blocks. So ending up on the same path as if they hadn't offered the pilot Algebra in 6th this year in the first place, just taking a slightly different journey to get there, not clear that it is necessarily better or worse. DD is fine with the outcome.

We are having the exact same experience, but not going to retake. A B+ is fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Enjoying the class, Algebra teacher is her favorite, understanding most of the concepts, but still overall performing at a B/B+ level. Test-taking skills (missing a key detail in the question) seems to be part of the issue, but also occasionally struggling a bit since they basically skipped pre-Algebra to participate in this pilot. 5th grade AAP last year was not taught with the expectation that kids would be moving to Algebra in 6th.

Will retake in 7th, it'll be a relatively easy class presumably, but still a slightly different with an experienced MS teacher who'll have opportunity to go into more depth via longer instructional blocks. So ending up on the same path as if they hadn't offered the pilot Algebra in 6th this year in the first place, just taking a slightly different journey to get there, not clear that it is necessarily better or worse. DD is fine with the outcome.

+1

My daughter will retake it as well in 7th grade.

[Anonymous]

DD is in Algebra 1H this year. He is quite strong in math and picks up concepts quickly. He completed one year of Russian Math in 5th grade but had no other supplemental instruction (we stopped this year due to scheduling issues), so he did not come in with all pre-algebra concepts mastered. He was on the school math team, though, and has some light experience with competitions.

He is doing well in Algebra 1—it’s his favorite class, and he’s excited to finally be learning something challenging. While he isn’t a math prodigy, he is almost always able to explain why concepts work. He is encountering many Algebra concepts for the first time in this class and is handling them just fine. He has a solid A, and I also think the teacher is very good.

I’d say do it if your child is already accelerated—meaning they already know Algebra- or if they grasp mathematical concepts easily without extra support. If your child doesn' like math, I would not recommend it.

[Anonymous]

A grade. Thoroughly enjoying the class.