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History of Singapore HIGs


jer2911mom
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Hi,

 

Can someone pls. explain the history of the Singapore HIGs to me? It is my understanding that they were originally developed by Sonlight and published under Avyx, one of their publishing companies. I think I remember hearing Jennifer Hoerst was/is a SL mom with a background in math? Is her background in Singapore math? Does anyone know why these guides were written/thought to be needed above what is in the textbooks? She runs the SingaporeMath.com math forum, right? At some point SingaporeMath.com Inc. must have taken over the publishing because both my U.S. and Stds. HIGs have them listed as the publisher, but I have a friend whose U.S. HIG was published by Avyx.

 

Both HOD and MFW do not recommend the HIGs, although HOD starts selling them as optional at level 5. They both use the U.S. editions. HOD adds their own hands-on activities for K-2 and only recommends the textbooks if you aren't doing their activities or once you start level 3. MFW sells their own lesson plans, which from what I understand are mostly schedules for using both the textbooks and the workbooks with a few teaching tips here and there? I am trying to grasp why they feel the guides were not part of the "original" Singapore program and therefore add an unnecessary level to the teaching, and if that makes sense, because I see such a push for the HIGs on this forum. Teaching directly from the textbooks would certainly be a lot easier for me than sorting through the HIG each day. There seems to be a lot more emphasis on mental math early on in the HIGs. It's almost like you're talking about two different programs when you look at the program with HIGs and without. Can some of you pls. shed some light on all this? For any of you who have used it both ways, all the way through without the HIGs, and all the way through with the HIGs, what are the differences in doing it each way?

 

Thanks!

Kathy

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I think if you actually teach in Singapore the info is part of your teacher training. If on the other hand you were educated using traditional western methods then without the HIG you will probably end up teaching what you were taught using a Singapore workbook and text.

 

Spycar are you out there? - this one is for you.

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The guides were written as a home-educator friendly version of the classroom teacher's guides, which for a while at least were also sold on the singaporemath.com site.

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I don't know if you saw my thread earlier about Singapore 2a, but I just ordered the HIG you mentioned because the textbook didn't tell me what I was doing. It didn't tell me that some problems were for mental math and some were not. The text doesn't tell me HOW to do the mental math or how to explain it. I don't know why HOD doesn't recommend them. Apparently I DO need them! :)

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Teachers in Singapore are highly trained to teach the Singapore Math Model. Many Americans (which once included me) have no idea what the Singapore Math Model means. So Jenny Hoerst wrote guides to help bridge the gap to some degree regarding teacher training. And added games, activities, mental math work, and other things that a teacher in Singapore would know were important, but a home educator in America (or elsewhere) might not.

 

Her first HIGs for the US Edition got mixed reviews but were highly revised for the Standards Edition (after much feedback from home educators) and these are generally well liked.

 

I have some issues with the early Level One advice to stop all forward progress to memorize the addition math facts, at a time when most kids would be far better off exploring "number bonds," and I wish she would change this bit of bad advise. And I think it is almost tragic that she chose to use linking cubes as a manipulative when C Rods are the perfect tool for the Singapore Math Model (and linking cubes suck). But if one translates the linking cube work into C Rod work, and ignore the memorization foul ball, the guides are pretty good otherwise.

 

Bill

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The guides were written as a home-educator friendly version of the classroom teacher's guides, which for a while at least were also sold on the singaporemath.com site.

 

Thanks, were the classroom teacher's guides written for Singapore teachers or were they developed for American teachers?

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I don't know if you saw my thread earlier about Singapore 2a, but I just ordered the HIG you mentioned because the textbook didn't tell me what I was doing. It didn't tell me that some problems were for mental math and some were not. The text doesn't tell me HOW to do the mental math or how to explain it. I don't know why HOD doesn't recommend them. Apparently I DO need them! :)

 

I was just reading your thread after I bumped this one. Your experience confirms what I have been thinking about the need for the HIGs. Are you using U.S. or Stds?

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Teachers in Singapore are highly trained to teach the Singapore Math Model. Many Americans (which once included me) have know idea what the Singapore Math Model means. So Jenny Hoerst wrote guides to help bridge the gap to some degree regarding teacher training. And added games, activities, mental math work, and other things that a teacher in Singapore would know were important, but a home educator in America (or elsewhere) might not.

 

Her first HIGs for the US Edition got mixed reviews but were highly revised for the Standards Edition (after much feedback from home educators) and these are generally well liked.

 

I have some issues with the early Level One advice to stop all forward progress to memorize the addition math facts, at a time when most kids would be far better off exploring "number bonds," and I wish she would change this bit of bad advise. And I think it is almost tragic that she chose to use linking cubes as a manipulative when C Rods are the perfect tool for the Singapore Math Model (and linking cubes suck). But if one translates the linking cube work into C Rod work, and ignore the memorization foul ball, the guides are pretty good otherwise.

 

Bill

 

Thanks, Bill. Your linking cubes comment gave me a good chuckle. :)

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Thanks, were the classroom teacher's guides written for Singapore teachers or were they developed for American teachers?

 

Singapore. This is before there was even a US edition of Primary Math.

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Thanks, very helpful. Are these the same classroom teacher's manuals sold on the Singaporemath.com site?

 

I haven't looked at the site in a couple years. If they're for the Standards Edition series, then no. Otherwise, I'll defer to someone with more current knowledge.

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Would it be possible to use the Standards HIGs with the U.S. text and work books? I know it says on their website that these are not interchangeable, and that the topic order is somewhat different between the two editions, but is there any reason why you couldn't just find the corresponding section?

 

I've heard again and again that the Standards HIGs are much better, but I'd hate to have to buy the whole more expensive edition if it wasn't necessary.

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I haven't looked at the site in a couple years. If they're for the Standards Edition series, then no. Otherwise, I'll defer to someone with more current knowledge.

 

My assumption, and I did not answer because I figured you would know better than me, is that when Marshall Cavendish (the publisher of Primary Mathematics) created the Standards Edition to meet California's math standards they added in materials from the older 2nd Edition back in (things dropped in the 3rd Edition, which was the earliest one most American homeschoolers used), so my guess is they added stuff in from earlier teachers guides and/or created some new content for the SE version.

 

But it is a guess.

 

Bill

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My assumption, and I did not answer because I figured you would know better than me, is that when Marshall Cavendish (the publisher of Primary Mathematics) created the Standards Edition to meet California's math standards they added in materials from the older 2nd Edition back in (things dropped in the 3rd Edition, which was the earliest one most American homeschoolers used), so my guess is they added stuff in from earlier teachers guides and/or created some new content for the SE version.

 

But it is a guess.

 

Bill

 

Thanks to you both. It looks like there are two different classroom teacher guides for U.S. and Stds. on the website. From the samples it looks like the format is different.

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Would it be possible to use the Standards HIGs with the U.S. text and work books? I know it says on their website that these are not interchangeable, and that the topic order is somewhat different between the two editions, but is there any reason why you couldn't just find the corresponding section?

 

 

I'd imagine it'd be possible to use the Standards HiG's and the US text & workbook. I'd only attempt this if you already have the US text/WB and wanted to try out the Standards HiG.

 

Answers to the text/WB are in the Standards HiG. I do prefer to just check answers rather than work out all problems.

I used US edition of text/WB for 1 and then switched to Standards for 2 and on. I prefer the Standards edition.

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I was just reading your thread after I bumped this one. Your experience confirms what I have been thinking about the need for the HIGs. Are you using U.S. or Stds?

 

 

This time around :p I am using the U.S. edition. I had a similar experience a couple years ago when I was using 1B with the Stds Ed. and got rid of it. Since HOD recommends the U.S. edition, that's what I bought this time and that's what I'm going to stick with. I'm not math savvy enough to tell you what the difference was between the two. THIS is the HIG I bought. It is the general one found for the US edition; I bought mine off of Amazon. On the Singapore site, it does say it was published by Sonlight. Not sure if that is the one you were asking about.

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You are correct that HIGs for US Levels 2 -6 were written for and published by Sonlight. Standards HIGs for Level 1-5 and US Level 1 were published by Singapore.

 

 

Thanks for this info. When my friend and I were comparing the US HIGs, I was looking at level 1 and she was looking at level 3, so that makes sense as to why we were seeing different publishers. I didn't realize SL was still publishing the US levels 2-6.

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This time around :p I am using the U.S. edition. I had a similar experience a couple years ago when I was using 1B with the Stds Ed. and got rid of it. Since HOD recommends the U.S. edition, that's what I bought this time and that's what I'm going to stick with. I'm not math savvy enough to tell you what the difference was between the two. THIS is the HIG I bought. It is the general one found for the US edition; I bought mine off of Amazon. On the Singapore site, it does say it was published by Sonlight. Not sure if that is the one you were asking about.

 

 

Thanks, I was basically inquiring about all HIGs, both US and Stds. I think I've got it clear now which ones are published by SL and which ones are published by Singaporemath.com.

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