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First grade math help!


lulalu
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I posted a while back about math, but I can't find it.

 

Here is what we have done: MEP reception and some of 1, Miquon orange with Gattegno book 1 activities. I bought RightStart A but that was a no go jumped around too much and I don't like overly scripted. I need to see the big picture before I can teach something. I didn't like the lesson plans of MEP 1 just not clear enough for me and keeping everything printed off and together was too much for me to stay on top of. Although I loved reception.

 

So I know I want to continue with Miquon ds and I both love it. But it isn't enough by itself for me. We also love RS games.

 

Life is unpredictable in our house. We have to be flexible with school. So I know eventually I would like something somewhat independent in later elementary. But my ideal would be to do living math through games and rods and direct teaching from me. But I need to live in the here and now.

 

This is what I am looking at give me your get it done advice.

Rod and Staff- I like the simplicity and focus on basic skills. But I wonder if it may be too slow. And I don't know if memorizing is the most focus in R&S

 

CLE- This looks like it eventually can be independent. Seems like a good balance between conceptual and traditional.

 

Singapore- This seems to do a good job of conceptual learning and fit well with miquon.

 

Kitchen Table Math- And just make my own curriculum off this

 

I know whatever we use I can teach conceptually first with rods. So maybe I should stick with r&s to add fact practice and teach first with miquon.

 

Would it be too much to use miquon to introduce material, r&s for fact practice, and singapore?

 

For some reason singapore keeps pulling me, but I also want to get basic facts down. Or maybe I should just use games to focus on facts.

 

Sorry for rambling, but I just have too many going through my head.

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You already own the RS games book?

 

Here's what I would do.  I would pick ONE curriculum to do 3-4 days a week.  One.  It doesn't matter what.  The last day of the week spend on RS games, math-lit from the library (like Sir Cumference, Anno, Math Start, etc), board games, or something like a math unit study, like AIMS.  But use what you have free first.  If you don't like the main curriculum after the year, figure out what exactly you need to change and then search again.

 

We use a main curriculum each week (Right Start) and supplements we already have (Life of Fred, Math U See, Montessori material) at the end of most lessons as either a bite of something new/challenging, or something to relax with after a challenging main lesson.  If he doesn't want to, he doesn't have to use the supplement, but it's there if he is interested.

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R and staff is a lot of fact practice. You could go faster or slower if you want. Memoria press has a lot of information on it as they use it. It may go slow but it would get facts down and leave you time for RS games or living math minquin...I would not try to do more than 2 math programs.

Edited by Rjha
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Rod and Staff- I like the simplicity and focus on basic skills. But I wonder if it may be too slow. And I don't know if memorizing is the most focus in R&S

 

 

 

Would it be too much to use miquon to introduce material, r&s for fact practice, and singapore?

 

Rod and Staff is not about memorizing anything, although that's certainly a part of it, and it's an important skill. Children can move on more easily to more advanced math when their basic arithmetic is

strong.

 

R&S appears "slow" compared to some other publishers in the first three years. From fourth grade on, however, R&S's scope and sequence is comparable to the others.

 

The basis of R&S in the first three grade levels is the oral class instruction. The seatwork only reinforces what the teacher taught.

 

Here's a long review from my friend Laura, in answer to a question on another forum:

 

Rod and Staff is a traditional math program, more similar to the math programs used in the 50s and 60s to many of the programs used today. These were excellent math programs, and most would acknowledge that Americans were better at math when we used these traditional math programs than students are today who are using all of these programs that are emphasizing “conceptual understanding†every step of the way. Traditionally, math was taught with the classical model, where there was more emphasis on drill and memorization in the early years, with an increase in conceptual understanding or analysis occurring each year. R&S does teach conceptual understanding, but it is quite difficult to see until you are perhaps 2 or 3 months into the program because it is done in the early years with little baby steps.

 

The best example I can think of this is the instruction with fractions. My daughter’s understanding of fractions, now in the fourth grade, is absolutely wonderful. Rod and Staff began with the traditional dividing of shapes into halves and thirds and fourths in the second grade, and also advancing to two-thirds or three-fourths, and the idea the three-thirds or four-fourths equals one. In the third grade, they apply this knowledge to math in all types of contexts - what is one half of a foot, what is one-fourth of a pound, what is one-fourth of a dollar? What is three-fourths of a dollar? This is done pretty much, off and on in the daily lesson, all year long, and is seen in MANY word problems. My daughter really understood fractions and applying them to numbers and real problems.

 

Then you move to fourth grade, and they introduce counting by halves, by fourths, and by eighth, using a ruler as a visual aid at first. So they count 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1, 1 1/4, 1 1/2, etc. and also 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, 7/8, 1. After doing this exercise for several days, they do equivalent fractions, but it is almost not necessary to explain anything, because they have already figured out that 4/8 = 1/2 and that 2/8 = 1/4 because of the counting exercises. They just now learn the algorithm that shows that this same logic can apply to numbers which can’t be visualized, such as 27/36. By the time my daughter reached the lesson where they taught how add fractions, she already ‘understood’ that you could just add the numerators of like fractions, but that you couldn’t do that with a fractions like 1/8 + 1/4, but that you needed a common denominator. This understanding was about 2 months in the developing and it would have been difficult to see by just flipping through the book.

 

Somewhere around this general timeframe, they are also doing long division and giving remainders as an answer, but combining it with word problems so that it is obvious why the remainder is actually a fraction such as “3 boys share 4 peaches. How many peaches will each boy get? What part of the remaining peach will they get?†After a couple lessons with word problems like this, they have division problems where they are supposed to give their answer with the remainder as a fraction, and they are then introduced to the term “mixed numbers.â€

 

So, yes, I would say there is wonderful teaching in R&S that leads to conceptual understanding, it is just done in a different way than many modern math programs, and that it occurs very slowly in the lower grades. Because there is a strong emphasis in the primary grades on drill, particularly fact drill, people often get this misperception of R&S, especially if they look primarily at the student workbooks or text instead of at the TM. The real lesson and the real learning takes place in the daily lesson at the whiteboard. The workbook and/or textbook is mainly just review problems and/or drill.

 

I recommend that you read this article which is linked on The Mathematically Correct Web page by Dr. H. Wu called “Basic Skills Versus Conceptual Understanding: A False Dichotomy in Mathematics Education.†This article will help you understand why it is essential that students get plenty of drill and review as well as lessons that work towards conceptual understanding; and also why conceptual understanding can only get you so far - no one can visualize a problem such as 2/97 divided by 31/17; eventually a student must become fluent with the algorithms, which means to have them memorized to the point of automaticity. This only happens with drill and review.

 

One more thing, since you are currently using Singapore, I can compare it a little to that program. Singapore pushes conceptual understanding more than many math programs. It has some drill and review, and the assumption is that teachers in Singapore are providing much more drill and review, but this program pushes to the limit for conceptual understanding in the early grades. It doesn’t take small steps in this area, it wants total understanding in one lesson of some concept that R&S might spend two or three months developing. Additionally, Singapore wants them begin applying this new understanding immediately to problems and word problems. This is excellent for some children, especially the math-bright among us, but for many, it is too much too soon. My daughter needed the slow and steady approach of Rod and Staff for the primary years. I knew this, but I couldn’t really verbalize it, until I read the excellent review of Singapore math by Susan Wise Bauer of the Well-Trained Mind which you can find on her Web page.

 

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It sounds like you're doing what we did. I added in Singapore textbooks which I paired with Greg Tang's books and worksheets for first grade. We did not do the Singapore workbooks. And LoF and other living books.

 

That went fine for through second grade level where I added in CWP then he went into BA3 just fine and is now doing BA2 since its out.

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Sounds like a good fit for Horizons to me, personally. It does teach conceptually, but it doesn't give much teacher assistance. It sounds like you don't need that. Lessons were a nice blend of mom time and doing parts on their own. There were spells they'd say "I got this" (ie.. butt out mom.. lol) and others they needed me more. It's *fabulous* for unpredictable or messy schedule seasons. We didn't work on memorizing facts separately, but they all picked it up from the repetition.

Edited by SilverMoon
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I didn't use the lesson plans for MEP 1, just the worksheets. We were using other products as well so the lesson plans seemed like overkill.

 

Just out of curiosity, what else did you use? I discovered MEP once dd was in 2nd grade, so we got through the last quarter of Yr 1. I am looking at using it again with ds, and am interested in other ways folks use it.

 

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With DS I have done Miquon and Math in Focus. It’s been a great combination. I’m really impressed with how well Miquon teaches multiplication and division. When DS had them show up in MIF he thought they were so easy because of his foundation with Miquon. After seeing that I’m starting DD with Miquon even earlier.

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Just out of curiosity, what else did you use? I discovered MEP once dd was in 2nd grade, so we got through the last quarter of Yr 1. I am looking at using it again with ds, and am interested in other ways folks use it.

 

 

I used CSMP for the teaching (without which my dd wouldn't have learned maths at all because she has a non-standard brain,) the MEP for the handy drill and puzzles, and Miquon for times when extra practice or portability was needed. 

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If you like the idea of teaching math conceptually, one option is just to get a book like Liping Ma's Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics, or to try to find a cheap used copy of one of Singapore's teacher or homeschool manuals for your year, or just to Google as you go. What you've got-- the Miquon and R&S-- sounds like enough for me otherwise.

 

This works if you have a little extra time to think about math yourself, but don't necessarily want to juggle extra curricula.

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We're using Rod & Staff (just finishing book 1). I'm confused why others have said it doesn't focus on memorization: memorization seems to be a major focus (flash cards, speed drills, daily lessons with the same facts over and over). It does go slow, but that gives us some flexibility to skip lessons or combine lessons if my son is ready to move on. We've been pretty pleased with R&S-it's simple and no nonsense and gets the job done.

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We're using Rod & Staff (just finishing book 1). I'm confused why others have said it doesn't focus on memorization: memorization seems to be a major focus (flash cards, speed drills, daily lessons with the same facts over and over). It does go slow, but that gives us some flexibility to skip lessons or combine lessons if my son is ready to move on. We've been pretty pleased with R&S-it's simple and no nonsense and gets the job done.

 

But it isn't just drill for the sake of memorizing facts. Did you read my review above? :-)

 

The flash cards have different functions. For example, the before-and-after flash cards help children learn, and remember, just that: the numbers that come before and after. The ones with the dots help them recognize groups. When the children know and can easily find that information in their heads, they're not bogged down with the basic arithmetic when they're doing advanced maths.

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Thanks Ellie for the great review.

 

It helps me see my real struggle is knowing what method I want to go. Traditional or Asian.

 

So many choices!

 

You can do both if you're willing to spend that much time on maths. I *had* to spend that much time on maths because dd had a maths disability. One of the ways I "cured" it was by presenting the same concepts in so many different ways. It taught her mental flexibility.

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