PSA - Curriculum - resources for parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read up on Singapore Math. It is a curriculum that has been often discussed here. Many school districts have tried to replicate it but have not been very successful.

http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/math/math-tips-for-parents/whats-singapore-math/


Workbooks are available online.

Clarification - Singapore Math is amazing. School districts here have not been able to implement it here properly because school districts are not administered by the best brains. For parents who want to supplement at home - singapore math is great resource and allows for content mastery.

I would recommend being careful when buying from American publishers who have created some version of Singapore Math textbooks.

I second that. I recommend books from singaporemath.com. (This is the publisher that I think originally introduced the books used in Singapore schools to the U.S. market.) DC loves these, and I regret not being aware of these books when my older DC was so bored in ES.

[Anonymous]

On your recommendation, OP, I ordered the core knowledge first grade book. It is great! But one thing I noticed is that it encourages doing math the "old" way (at least they way that I did it growing up). Aren't they using "new math" now? Is there any resource that you'd recommend that has exercises for new math? (And also teaches those of us who learned it the old way how to explain it to our kids, if they aren't getting what is taught?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On your recommendation, OP, I ordered the core knowledge first grade book. It is great! But one thing I noticed is that it encourages doing math the "old" way (at least they way that I did it growing up). Aren't they using "new math" now? Is there any resource that you'd recommend that has exercises for new math? (And also teaches those of us who learned it the old way how to explain it to our kids, if they aren't getting what is taught?)

I hate to think of them as old and new math. Think of the "new math" 2.0 as the "explanation in English of how problems are solved".

So, do the normal traditional math. In most of the textbooks, you will see that they explain the same concept in multiple ways - Pictures, diagrams, word problems, step by step process. After you are done with a lesson or unit, ask your child to write a two line explanation of how they arrived at the solution of the problem. All the tests, MAP, SAT, higher level Math, Math competitions - every thing is based on the old way of doing Math. Besides, if your kid is doing old Math and acing the tests, the teachers don't care. They are only worried about the kids who are failing.

I used Houghton Mifflin - https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0618590919/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1523032497&sr=1-4 for the elementary grades, but I remember buying them second hand for less then $5 each. In fact they were so awesome, that I even used to buy them for my relative's kids in another country and mail them.

Take a textbook. Do all the exercises. Read all the explanation all the texts with your child. Go in the sequence as it is written, because there is logic that the authors follow in writing textbooks and knowledge is built upon mastery of previous concepts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I hate to think of them as old and new math. Think of the "new math" 2.0 as the "explanation in English of how problems are solved".

So, do the normal traditional math. In most of the textbooks, you will see that they explain the same concept in multiple ways - Pictures, diagrams, word problems, step by step process. After you are done with a lesson or unit, ask your child to write a two line explanation of how they arrived at the solution of the problem. All the tests, MAP, SAT, higher level Math, Math competitions - every thing is based on the old way of doing Math. Besides, if your kid is doing old Math and acing the tests, the teachers don't care. They are only worried about the kids who are failing.

I used Houghton Mifflin - https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0618590919/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1523032497&sr=1-4 for the elementary grades, but I remember buying them second hand for less then $5 each. In fact they were so awesome, that I even used to buy them for my relative's kids in another country and mail them.

Take a textbook. Do all the exercises. Read all the explanation all the texts with your child. Go in the sequence as it is written, because there is logic that the authors follow in writing textbooks and knowledge is built upon mastery of previous concepts.

That's incorrect and misleading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I hate to think of them as old and new math. Think of the "new math" 2.0 as the "explanation in English of how problems are solved".

So, do the normal traditional math. In most of the textbooks, you will see that they explain the same concept in multiple ways - Pictures, diagrams, word problems, step by step process. After you are done with a lesson or unit, ask your child to write a two line explanation of how they arrived at the solution of the problem. All the tests, MAP, SAT, higher level Math, Math competitions - every thing is based on the old way of doing Math. Besides, if your kid is doing old Math and acing the tests, the teachers don't care. They are only worried about the kids who are failing.

I used Houghton Mifflin - https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0618590919/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1523032497&sr=1-4 for the elementary grades, but I remember buying them second hand for less then $5 each. In fact they were so awesome, that I even used to buy them for my relative's kids in another country and mail them.

Take a textbook. Do all the exercises. Read all the explanation all the texts with your child. Go in the sequence as it is written, because there is logic that the authors follow in writing textbooks and knowledge is built upon mastery of previous concepts.

That's incorrect and misleading.

Not really. It may be very simplistic and rudimentary explanation, and it does not capture the nuances of 2.0 Math - but in reality, there were not many teachers who were able to do more than this in the classroom. I say this as a classroom parent volunteer for Math throughout elementary school. Maybe teachers were not trained to teach, maybe they were themselves confused. But now, since they are abandoning 2.0, it is more important than ever to actually know how to do Math.

This is an example of 2.0 Math for grade 1.

https://www.mathworksheetsland.com/1/addanssubwordproblems/lesson.pdf

But if kids were not proficient with counting, then they cannot do this addition.

.

Having kids learn Math the traditional way ( or any other way) so that they are able to solve mathermatical problems, understand how and why numbers are being manipulated, how to use Math to solve real world problem, in an efficient and mathematical way is key to

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Having kids learn Math the traditional way ( or any other way) so that they are able to solve mathermatical problems, understand how and why numbers are being manipulated, how to use Math to solve real world problem, in an efficient and mathematical way is key to

I agree that this is the goal. But the "traditional" way, at least the way that is considered traditional in the US, did not achieve that goal for most people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I hate to think of them as old and new math. Think of the "new math" 2.0 as the "explanation in English of how problems are solved".

So, do the normal traditional math. In most of the textbooks, you will see that they explain the same concept in multiple ways - Pictures, diagrams, word problems, step by step process. After you are done with a lesson or unit, ask your child to write a two line explanation of how they arrived at the solution of the problem. All the tests, MAP, SAT, higher level Math, Math competitions - every thing is based on the old way of doing Math. Besides, if your kid is doing old Math and acing the tests, the teachers don't care. They are only worried about the kids who are failing.

I used Houghton Mifflin - https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0618590919/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1523032497&sr=1-4 for the elementary grades, but I remember buying them second hand for less then $5 each. In fact they were so awesome, that I even used to buy them for my relative's kids in another country and mail them.

Take a textbook. Do all the exercises. Read all the explanation all the texts with your child. Go in the sequence as it is written, because there is logic that the authors follow in writing textbooks and knowledge is built upon mastery of previous concepts.

That's incorrect and misleading.

Not really. It may be very simplistic and a very rudimentary explanation, and it may not capture the nuance, intent and the scope of 2.0 Math - but in reality, there were not many teachers who were able to do more than this in their classroom. I say this as a classroom parent volunteer for Math throughout elementary school. Maybe teachers were not trained to teach, maybe they were themselves confused. But now, since they are abandoning 2.0, it is more important than ever to actually know how to do Math.

This is an example of 2.0 Math for grade 1.

https://www.mathworksheetsland.com/1/addanssubwordproblems/lesson.pdf

But if kids were not proficient with counting, then they cannot do this addition. So, someone needed to teach them how to count.

Having kids learn Math the traditional way ( or any other way) so that they are able to solve mathematical problems, understand how and why numbers are being manipulated, how to use Math to solve real world problem, in an efficient and mathematical way is key to success. In other words, people need to know why, how and when to add, and they need to know the steps of doing so too (paper, abacus, calculator).

[Anonymous]

PP who was asking about new math. Thanks for the link. I thought new math was more like this: what is 23+25? Well, 23 is 3 more than 20, and 25 is 5 more than 20. 20+20 is 40, and 3+5 is 8, so it must be 40+8, i.e., 48. My kid is still in K, but she seems to be encouraged to use dots to count things up instead of just know her math facts. (We play a lot of Sleeping Queens so she is pretty good with math addition/subtraction up to 10 without needing to count things out.)

We are in MCPS, but my friends in DCPS say their kids get dinged if they just know the answer (i.e., just knowing your mah facts) and not showing work in the right way (which apparently involves ten frames).

Sorry to be dense here. I’m trying to figure out how to support her in math, as it has been essential for me professionally, and I have heard repeated complaints about the weakness of the MCPS math curriculum (fingers crossed that it gets better with whatever curriculum they move to).

Thanks again for all your help!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1) Core Knowledge Series - edited by E.D Hirsch
- What Your Preschooler Needs to Know: Get Ready for Kindergarten (The Core Knowledge Series) https://www.amazon.com/What-Your-Preschooler-Needs-Know/dp/0385341989/
There are 8 books in all - preschool, kindergarten, grade 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6


2) Core Knowledge Foundation website https://www.coreknowledge.org/

Curriculum from K-8 - https://3o83ip44005z3mk17t31679f-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/CKFSequence_Rev.pdf


3) Math competency - https://www.aleks.com (nominal fees is involved)


4) For those who have lagged behind in Maths because of 2.0 There are some fantastic course that go in a very linear and logical manner. Spend some money on this. Buy courses taught by James Sellers. Math, Algebra 1 and Algebra 2.

https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/mastering-the-fundamentals-of-mathematics.html


5) http://www.beestar.org/ for worksheets and resources.

For parents (K-12) who are unsure about the Math competency of their kids, ALEKS is a great tool to for the following - assessment of content knowledge, tutoring in the area of need and reassessment to check for content mastery.

In other words, this website does all - it figures out what your kid does not know and then teaches it to them till they master it. I would give it higher marks than any tool or tutoring service in the market right now.

A boon for busy parents and it is very inexpensive. As long as your kid does the work, you should see significant results.

Another useful tip - many institutes of higher learning are also using ALEKS for placement of their students in Math.


Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces is a Web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system. ALEKS uses adaptive questioning to quickly and accurately determine exactly what a student knows and doesn't know in a course. ALEKS then instructs the student on the topics she is most ready to learn. As a student works through a course, ALEKS periodically reassesses the student to ensure that topics learned are also retained. ALEKS courses are very complete in their topic coverage and ALEKS avoids multiple-choice questions. A student who shows a high level of mastery of an ALEKS course will be successful in the actual course she is taking.

ALEKS also provides the advantages of one-on-one instruction, 24/7, from virtually any Web-based computer for a fraction of the cost of a human tutor.

[Anonymous]

Is Singapore math good as a supplement, or is it really more of a home school curriculum?

[Anonymous]

It’s a whole curriculum and method frankly that should be done in order. It’s hard to move back and forth from one curriculum to another. Might not translate to your child’s math homework or classowrk or MAp. It will absolutely transfer for normal math like geometry, alebgra, trip, calc as it is an excellent numerical literacy foundation.

We moved here from an independent school that used it for PK-2 and it was great but DC had to learn a lot of buzzwords and “how did you think of your answer word questions” here at MOCo.

I would supplemnt w it if I had extra time. Or go to tutoring agency and tell them you want it but to tie with MCPS stuff, whatever that means.

[Anonymous]

OP here. My youngest child got the full brunt of 2.0. It was introduced from his grade and it will be abandoned (or not) when he is still in MCPS.

I was supplementing with the same resources for my older children before 2.0 and sharing all of this with anyone who was willing to listen to me IRL. There are a number of reasons why these resources should be used by parents regardless of the state of curriculum -

- To reinforce and explain what was taught in the school at home
- To broaden the curriculum and go in depth on each topic. The number of instructional days are not enough for doing all of that.
- To make up for a chronic lack of qualified and competent Math, Science and Foreign Language teachers in MCPS and around the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much time do you spend supplementing? They’re already in school for so much of the day and then have to do homework. Kids do need some downtime!

Wish MoCo would just switch to the Core Knowledge curiculum. Anyone know if they’re considering it? It worries me that the same dude that screwed up last time still plays a major role in this.

Many teachers already use it to cover gaps in the curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is Singapore math good as a supplement, or is it really more of a home school curriculum?

I used it as a curriculum in the summer to make sure my child was actually learning math. Did not supplement during the school year as I did not want to overwhelm or confuse my kid. Worked well for ds who did very well in middle school and now in high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Singapore math good as a supplement, or is it really more of a home school curriculum?

I used it as a curriculum in the summer to make sure my child was actually learning math. Did not supplement during the school year as I did not want to overwhelm or confuse my kid. Worked well for ds who did very well in middle school and now in high school

Thanks! Would you use the grade he just complet d or the grade he was going into over the summer?