Confused About Lial's Algebra Sequence

[Crimson Wife]

Long story short, I will be studying to take the certification test for a California Foundational Level Mathematics teaching credential. Passing this test would improve my chances of getting a paid intern teaching position rather than an unpaid student teaching one because I would be qualified to teach algebra 1 and geometry. The test, however, also includes algebra 2 topics. I am not planning on accepting a position that would require me to teach algebra 2 at this point, but I need to have a decent enough understanding of it to pass the test.

 

As my oldest child is still only in Algebra 1, I will need to do a refresher course on Algebra 2. I have acquired cheap copies of the following books in the Lial sequence: Beginning Algebra, Intermediate Algebra, and College Algebra. I am confused, however, as to the correspondence of these to high school algebra. There seems to be a lot of overlap in particular between the Intermediate Algebra and College Algebra books. Is the Intermediate Algebra book more like a standard algebra 2 H.S. course and the College Algebra more like an honors algebra 2 H.S. course?

[Jann in TX]

LIal's Intermediate Algebra is high school Algebra 2

 

Lial's College Algebra is the first half of a Pre-Calc program (same problems as in the first half of her Pre-Calc text).

 

If you are solid with your Algebra 1 then you will be fine working Algebra 2. 

 

I also suggest using ALEKS along with the Intermediate Algebra text.  ALEKS is great for finding holes (especially for remedial purposes) so you know what you need to focus on.

[Crimson Wife]

I'm solid on the parts of Algebra 1 that I've covered with my daughter in Singapore Discovering Math (she's in 8A). We haven't yet gotten to some of the harder topics so I'm definitely going to need to work through some of the later chapters in the Beginning Algebra book before starting the Intermediate Algebra one.

 

I took honors algebra 2 in high school and from what I recall, it was more like the Lial College Algebra course. The honors pre-calculus at my high school was 1 semester of trig and 1 semester of a gentle intro to some of the easier calculus topics. There wasn't any algebra in that course.

 

There is a possibility I may at some later date take the certification test for the full high school math credential once I've re-learned trig and calculus. I hated trig in high school, but I had a relatively weak foundation at the time (procedurally I knew what to do, but conceptually I had no clue why any of the algorithms worked). Teaching Singapore these past 7 years has given me a much stronger foundation.

 

Thanks for the advice- I'll look into ALEKS.

[Matryoshka]

Yes,the course content has shifted since we graduated.  Algebra 1 here does not include the quadratic formula..that's been moved to Algebra 2/Trig.  Similar bumping for other units.  The prob & stats is completely missing here, as well as the matrix theory.

 

Not at our high school.  Not only the quadratic formula, but graphing quadratics is in Algebra 1 - the latter is even beyond what was in dd's Foerster Alg 1 book.  That kinda surprised me.

[Matryoshka]

Is your high school using state standards or going beyond?

 

I'm not sure... we're in MA which supposedly had tougher standards than the new CC? (MA is switching over to CC but I think I read here that MA is delaying implementation a couple of years?  Which would make sense because honestly I've heard exactly nothing about any changes coming due to CC, which considering all the clamor I've heard elsewhere has been surprising me...)

 

The regular old Algebra 1 (Holt?) textbook they use has both those topics in it.  The Alg 1 final here is fully 50% quadratics and graphing them.