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Would you consider Lial's Algebra Honors Level


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I've seen in previous posts that Lial's Intro. to Algebra is very nuts and bolts and not much theory. I don't know how difficult the word problems are. But, considering this is remedial college level math, those who are familiar with it, do you think it's an honors level course for an 8th or 9th grader? If not, what would be an better option?

 

TIA

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  • 10 months later...
But, considering this is remedial college level math, those who are familiar with it, do you think it's an honors level course for an 8th or 9th grader? If not, what would be an better option?

 

 

It will depend on which text. Margaret Lial is named on a ton of different texts. I'm teaching from one now that I really dislike. It's a prealgebra text and definitely wouldn't be honors level.

 

IMO, for a course to be honors, you need to go above and beyond. I taught one student and gave honors credit because she also did a math journal - notetaking, answering additional questions I'd assign (in some texts these are the problems that have the essay notation beside it). The journal assignments showed that she could do the basic work but also go deeper in the material.

 

For a straight honors course just using a text, I'd be looking at Art of Problem Solving.

 

View the text more as remedial rather than college. I think even "college algebra" is really more a high school course (algebra 3/precalc). Anything below that is going to be more algebra I or II (although generally better written than the texts written for high schoolers).

 

I haven't looked at them, but Forester's gets good reviews.

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Why do you need "honors" designation for a homeschool class?

 

FWIW, I think that Lial's Introductory Algebra is a very challenging text. The word problems are good. It goes into a lot more detail at once than some of the other popular texts. When we hit a really hard section, I looked up that topic in an older Dolciani text I had. There were various aspects of the topic covered over several lessons, while Lial covered all those same aspects in just one example (and each lesson has 3-8 examples). So, IMHO, the Lial's text is significantly harder than the older Dolciani, but it explains the material better. TT Alg. I didn't even have the topic I was looking for, so it wasn't any help to us at all.

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Just as a reference, at the public high school, they use the same text book for honors Alg 2 and regular Alg 2 (Holt).

 

Also, they do not even offer honors Alg 1. I think the reason is that honors level students take Alg 1 in 8th grade. Students taking alg 1 in 9th grade are not considered honors level (IMO the time line should NOT matter, but I believe this is why they do not designate an honors alg 1 in high school).

 

Not to say you should emulate the public schools, but this is what colleges may be accustomed to seeing on transcripts.

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I've used the Lial series (I use the paperback series) with all levels of students-- from struggling to honors. It is a strong text (rigor).

 

In my classes 'honors' means the student has gone above and beyond the normal scope/sequence... in my Geometry class this means an additional research paper as well as additional challenge and problem solving assignments not assigned to the regular class.

 

The Lial 'developmental' series is remedial for COLLEGE students-- but the material is high school level-- the developmental series is sold for public school use with only a cover change. Most college students working at the remedial level need to be fairly independent-- so these texts contain more actual 'teaching' than traditional high school texts. The Lial texts are also written for block scheduling-- so one 'lesson' is worked over 2 days. Homework problems are organized so it is possible to work an example in the homework then the corresponding problems in the homework-- you do not need to work through the WHOLE 2-day lesson in one chunk. This format also makes it easy to teach from in a 1-day or 2-day per week class.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Jann, you got me hooked on Lial's (windmill editions) 3 or 4 years ago now. I haven't been on WTM in awhile, but popped in hoping to ask a question of you and here you are still. Would we have to finish the Intermediate Algebra book to complete an average Algebra 2 course? I would like to quit with about 75% of the book complete. Would that be terrible? Thanks!

 

Monica

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You do not want to skip radicals and quadratic functions (parabolas). Logs would be good to know the basics of too.

 

These last topics are often found even in 'math for college students' (non math-science College Algebra). Prior exposure is VERY helpful. These topics are used in science as well as in business.

 

There are several word problems in the quadratic function section (parabola) that are common on college entrance/placement tests.

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