WTM AOPS approach PreA

[EmilyGF]

If your child is in this, how is it going? What percentage of the problems in the AOPS books do they do?

 

This is a subject I am completely confident in and even passionate about, but a certain child of mine and I have conflict about it, and the best thing we could do for our relationship might be to put her in an online class.

Thanks,

Emily

[HeWillSoar]

I am having a love/hate relationship with AOPS Prealgebra right now.  I actually have another kid doing Chalkdust prealgebra.  Chalkdust is the way I learned so it's easy for me to teach that.  AOPS, though, is a challenge (which is the point)!!!  Sometimes I am helping him, and sometimes he's helping me!!!

[EmilyGF]

DS11 just finished AOPS prealgebra, and I think the book is wonderful. I feel completely confident teaching it. I'm just wondering how WTMA teaches it because of a personality difference in my family.

 

Emily

[HeWillSoar]

Oh sorry!  I misread your post.  Can I send my son to your house? 

[EmilyGF]

Oh sorry!  I misread your post.  Can I send my son to your house? 

I wrote my post poorly! I worked through Alcumus before giving my son the book so as to reacquaint myself with what I'd forgotten, and I definitely had to do a bit of googling at points!

Emily

[redsquirrel]

I am curious about the same thing. My older boy took the AoPS pre-A online class and liked it very much. It was an evening class though, so difficult for a 12 year old to feel particularly enthusiastic about it. And it being weekly, instead of twice a week, was a little challenging. But, he absolutely learned a lot and got what he needed from the class. He would have taken the AoPS Algebra online class if it were spread over an entire year, instead of being going to quickly.  We managed with the book just fine, but he often wished he had an online class like with the Pre-A.

[Soror]

I was curious about this, more for AoPS algebra and up. Reading the syllabus and info, I understood it to mean that they were also pulling problems from other texts along with the AoPS texts. I'm doing pre-A with ds now, much like you I ran through Alcumus first to familiarize myself, I don't know if I'm up for that for Algebra but then again I don't know if continuing with AoPS will be the best choice going forward.

[redsquirrel]

I was curious about this, more for AoPS algebra and up. Reading the syllabus and info, I understood it to mean that they were also pulling problems from other texts along with the AoPS texts. I'm doing pre-A with ds now, much like you I ran through Alcumus first to familiarize myself, I don't know if I'm up for that for Algebra but then again I don't know if continuing with AoPS will be the best choice going forward.

 

That is something I am also curious about.  FWIW, and it's prob not worth much, lol, my son has taken Expository writing 1, and is currently in 2.  I think for both years the class description has said that there could be assignments pulled from other books...I know that for Expo 1 last year it specifically mentioned the possibility of supplementing from a Killgallon book. In expo 1 it never happened. The teacher stuck very closely with WWS 1 with no other supplements.  So far, that has held true for Expo 2 and we are just about halfway through the year.

 

To be clear, I am perfectly happy with the teachers only using WWS and no Killgallon or whatever else. This is not a criticism.  OTOH, I would have been perfectly find if it had happened as well. I am neutral on the subject, lol.  I'm pointing out that just because the class description gives the teacher the leeway to use other sources doesn't mean it will happen.

 

And, I am also just remembering that when DS1 took the AoPS Pre-A class, his assignments were all on alcumus. He wasn't given assignments in the book to hand in.  Now, and my poor memory is grasping here, but I seem to remember that he went to his online class and signed in and was given questions online. Some were straight math questions and some required a completely written explanation, but it was all on the computer.  I remember grumbling that we were required to buy the pre-A book for the class, but he never had an assignment in it.  Now, I am pretty sure that I saw one person here saying that their kid did all the problems in the book as well as the assigned problems. But there was no requirement in the class to do so. My son certainly wasn't looking for any extra math on top of what he was assigned for class, lol.

[wapiti]

And, I am also just remembering that when DS1 took the AoPS Pre-A class, his assignments were all on alcumus. He wasn't given assignments in the book to hand in.  Now, and my poor memory is grasping here, but I seem to remember that he went to his online class and signed in and was given questions online. Some were straight math questions and some required a completely written explanation, but it was all on the computer.  I remember grumbling that we were required to buy the pre-A book for the class, but he never had an assignment in it.  Now, I am pretty sure that I saw one person here saying that their kid did all the problems in the book as well as the assigned problems. But there was no requirement in the class to do so. My son certainly wasn't looking for any extra math on top of what he was assigned for class, lol.

 

For the AoPS courses, technically the book IS assigned for the class (it used to be called the "reading" assignment but I don't know what it's called these days).  There is no official accountability for doing the book problems, but it's hard to learn the material well without doing at least some of them (BTDT lol, cuz no accountability).  On the other hand, the book + alcumus + weekly challenge problems is a lot to get through in a timely manner.  I think a reasonable approach would be to do some of the book problems but not the book challenge problems in light of the weekly online challenge assignment.  At a minimum, it would be pretty tough to do online problems without looking back at some of the instruction in the book, I think.

Edited December 6, 2016 by wapiti

[redsquirrel]

For the AoPS courses, technically the book IS assigned for the class (it used to be called the "reading" assignment but I don't know what it's called these days).  There is no official accountability for doing the book problems, but it's hard to learn the material well without doing at least some of them (BTDT lol, cuz no accountability).  On the other hand, the book + alcumus + weekly challenge problems is a lot to get through in a timely manner.  I think a reasonable approach would be to do some of the book problems but not the book challenge problems in light of the weekly online challenge assignment.  At a minimum, it would be pretty tough to do online problems without looking back at some of the instruction in the book, I think.

 

yeah, dh was responsible for that so my memories are pretty vague, but I think he pulled the book out to provide support to ds1 during the assignments.  He was very good at saying things like 'why don't you read this page before you go any further'.  But ds1 did not voluntarily do any of the book problems. And I really don't remember there ever being reading assignments, but this was 5 years ago.

 

When ds1 was in the pre-A class, it was the absolute peak of middle school brain fog...the worst! So dh would come home from work and sit with ds1 while he did his math and try to keep him focused and doing his work.  DH also sat in for the class so he could use the same language with ds1 and say things like 'remember in class when you did this...."

 

Essentially ds1 had a private tutor for the class, lol.  I should add that DH adores AoPS and was very happy to be along for the ride. It's been great b/c  now that ds1 is in high school dh has remained the in home tutor for all math.  It was nice they could establish that relationship when ds1 was younger.

[mckive6]

We didn't do AOPS pre-algebra here but my son is in WTMA's AOPS Algebra class now.  He's really enjoyed it and learned a lot.  The teacher is good at explaining the concepts and she makes it interesting. Meeting twice a week has been very helpful.

 

Also, if the student submits their assignment early enough to get it graded  before the due date, he can retry any problems he missed. There is feedback on the assignment , too, like where there is a similar problem in the book. 

 

Hope that helps.