Compacting Derek Owens PreAlgebra

[MamaSprout]

Are the homework/ tests a good indicator of what is covered on the videos? Dd has done some PreA but I didn't feel comfortable putting her in Algebra yet, and need her to work independently.

 

She took the Chapter 1 test and missed a few- two were carrying errors, the other she simply skipped. She told me she was "racing" to see how fast she could be done. I had her re-work her missed ones.

 

Looking at chapter 2, she knows 80-90% of the material. Can I have her work through the homework until she sees something she doesn't know and have her stop and watch the video? Or will she miss some significant teaching?

 

Thanks!

[kiana]

Seems reasonable, but I would establish a rule (given what you said about "racing") that if she misses a problem, she clearly doesn't know that topic well enough, and thus must work a couple more like it. I think that would slow down the racing. 

[lmrich]

I would want her to complete the homework assignments as well. There are usually only ten problems are so on a page so it is not a huge time commitment. But please teach her to be neat, and how to solve her problems showing her work and completing each step. I teach DO curriculum in a classroom, and I can tell you having strong math skills is only one part of being a strong math student. I cannot tell you how many times the kids forget to include the negative in their answer, or cannot find their steps to a problem. And please teach her how to check her work and make her do it. (Can you tell it is near the end of the semester and so many students are struggling because of neatness and organization...)

 

 

 

[MamaSprout]

Good advice both. I will insist on showing her work. She can do a lot in her head, so it will be a transition. She is pretty organized, so that part won't be bad for her. I like that the solutions are handwritten so I can show her that it's not mean ol' mom who needs her to show her work.

 

She does need to slow down- she did the three page test in a few minutes.

 

I will have her do all of the homework. Any other advice/ thoughts?

 

Thanks!

[EKS]

Here's what we did:  

 

We would watch any introductory videos--the ones where he was presenting general concepts without doing example problems.  Then I would show my son the first example problem to see if he could do it.  If he could, we'd do the example problems together without watching the videos, then he'd do the homework and take the tests.  If he couldn't do the first example, we'd watch the video and that was usually enough for him to be able to do the rest of the examples on his own.

 

This makes things go *much* faster.  It is also more active than just passively watching videos and writing things down.  We had a really good experience with DO prealgebra doing it this way.