Introduction and Chalk Dust Questions

[nancy in nj]

Hi Ladies,

 

I've been lurking here for a few months in an attempt to prepare for our upcoming adventure into the high school years. I have just one daughter, 13, who is technically starting 8th grade in the fall, but will be doing highschool level work in most areas. I want to thank you ladies for sharing such a wealth of information on this forum--it is a priceless resource for us high school newcomers.

 

I finally have some questions that I can't seem to answer by searching previous posts. Here's the deal. My daughter completed TT Algebra 1 last year, and (after I read all the posts about TT) she also completed Aleks middle school geometry and select chapters of Singapore NEM 2. She started TT Alg. 2 in May and flew through the 1st 6 chapters and started complaining that it wasn't as challenging as NEM. OK, I GOT IT...TT Alg. 2 is not rigorous enough for this child, but NEM is way too teacher intensive for this mom. My Chalkdust Algebra 2 arrived last night. It looks great, but I have questions!

 

How long do you typically spend on one lesson? I assume it's more than 1 day, right? Do you folks have your child do the Integrated Review questions? I saw that Chalkdust recommends doing 25-30 questions from the problems set. Do most of you do every 3rd or 4th problem throughout the set or do you weigh the assignment more toward the Solving Problems section? Do you folks have your child do more than the recommended # of questions and/or spend more than the recommended 1 hour per day on math?

 

Sorry for the barrage of questions...this is just such a new concept for us. In the past we've done 1 lesson a day with Saxon/TT and worked until all the problems were completed and any errors corrected. Clearly, with well over 100 problems per lesson this approach will not work with Chalk Dust....but the thought of skipping questions,eek!!!

 

I would really appreciate any advice you guys could give this Chalk Dust newbie!!

 

Nancy in NJ

[Veronica in VA]

I have only done Chalkdust geometry which is set up a little different, but here is what I did. The geometry book is set up so chapter 1 has sections like 1.1, 1.2, mixed review, mid-chapter quiz, etc. I treated each section as one lesson. So my ds watched the tape, then did section 1.1 (for example). We did skip some questions. I counted the quiz as one day, and sometimes integrated review as one day (sometimes I made him do that as well as the lessons - I'm a mean mom:D. The guide that I received with Chalkdust (I have an older version with VHS so I'm not sure if they still send this) says that for basic math, and Algebra I and II you should chose problems, not do all of them. It says you should chose about half of the odd numbered problems at the end of each section (30-35 problems).

 

The guide also says that the student should watch the tape 2-4 times. I think my son would have rioted if I had made him do that. He is usually quite good at math and got it, so we didn't need to do that.

 

Scheduling was one of the reasons why I was planning to sell Chalkdust this year, but my dd recently watched one of the tapes and really liked Dana Mosley. So I think we will stick with the geometry this year. I do wish it was broken out into lessons though.

 

Hope that helps,

 

Veronica

[langfam]

We'll be using CD this Aug, so haven't actually implemented this yet, but am planning to do the following for Alg 1:

 

Day1: watch the DVD, rewatch, stop and pause to work out the the examples.

Do ALL review questions.

 

Day2: Do 1/3 problems

 

Repeat.

 

Mid-chapter quiz do all questions---1 day

Chapter review do all odds---2 days

Test do all questions---1 day

Cumulative review do all questions---1 day

 

 

From the CD website:

http://www.chalkdust.com/quick.html

http://www.chalkdust.com/testmeasure.html

[CAMom]

We've used CD pre-algebra, algebra 1, geometry and now we're using algebra 2.:)

 

At this point, my son watches the video and goes through the explanation and examples in the chapter section. He's math inclined enough (and it seems your dd is, too) to know what he needs work on. So, I actually let him choose which problems he is going to do.

 

He does at least a problem or two from each subset of problems in the section and then does extras from those concepts with which he thinks he needs more practice to master.

 

He knows that he needs to put forth his best effort and that he needs to be honest with himself and do the problems that need to be done. If he doesn't, he won't do well on the quizzes or tests.

 

This method has been working really well for us and lets us move through the chapters a bit quicker than if we did more problems. He's also scored in the mid 90's or above on each test. (He did just do poorly on a quiz but it was due to careless errors, not conceptual mistakes.)

 

HTH,

[nancy in nj]

Thank you! It's really helpful to know how others are scheduling this. I think we'll start with a combination of what each of you is doing:

 

Day 1: Watch DVD, skim chapter and do cumulative review (and start problem set if she has time left over--planning 1 1/2 hours on math which is our normal)

 

Day 2: Complete 1/3 of problem set allowing dd to determine which problems she needs to focus on (ensuring she does a couple from each new topic). She's consciencious so I LOVE the idea of having her assume responsibility for determining where she needs to focus.

 

Assign days to quizzes, tests and Chapter reviews (1 or 2 as needed).

 

She's young so we're not going to rush through this. There's definitely some topics in the first 1/2 of the book that she hasn't seen before (imaginary numbers) and many more in the 2nd 1/2. I have no problem using more than 180 days since I am NOT in the teacher's union :()!

 

Thanks so much!

 

Nancy