1960s Dolciani users: how do *you* implement these courses?

[Colleen in NS]

I have one TE so far, and I haven't looked closely at it yet. But I am wondering how you 1960s Dolciani fans use your books with your child. I am coming from the background of using R&S math, which tells the teacher everything to do, and then the teacher can adjust it to the child. I like that.

 

I see that the TE does have a 170 day plan, and different levels of plans. Do you use these? How? Do you do it for 170 days, or do you ever combine to make it take less days? How?

 

I will be looking ahead at my books before my kids get around to algebra 1, so I know that self-study and making sure I understand the material is important. I'm more interested in the nitty gritty of teaching. There is handing a book over and letting the child figure it out (not what I want to do); there is following the book's/TE plan, and then there is using all that to come up with your own yearly-but-flexible plan. If you do the last, how?

 

Also, what is your daily or weekly plan like? What do you do, and what does your child do, and why?

 

Anything you can tell me will be helpful. Thank you!

[In The Great White North]

We just do a lesson a day, unless something gives her trouble. I have a TE, but might as well not because I never even read the teacher pages.

[Joan in GE]

only this year. My son had started Algebra II last year simultaneously with Geometry. But then he had to stop the Algebra to study for his Geneva math exams.

 

So this year when he started the Dolciani, he came in with background and tested through the first 2-3 chapters. Even though he had done some of the material for the subsequent ones, I wanted to make sure he got it from a different angle.

 

Then he started studying the next chapters on his own. I would help by reading up on a subject only if he was having trouble, which I could tell by answers to oral questions or the problems.

 

He came in with a lot of self-study habits.

 

I normally did not use the teaching suggestions because if he needed help, then I would read the Dolciani text myself, then go to other Algebra books or a math dictionary (or a friend) if I needed more info and explain it myself. I mostly used the TE for the answers and the alternative chapter tests (as they were different than the ones in the student book - though I have heard that is not the case with older TE editions).

 

As for a weekly program, he works at his own speed. He has one hour set aside for math in the morning. If he thinks he is working too slowly then he will do math homework. I cannot say that he gets through a lesson a day now, though in the easier chapters he did. Now he's in trig and takes two days for a section.

 

When my daughter starts, I'll go through the the lesson with her, give her the oral problems, and then see how focused she is for the problems. Probably we'll do it by time rather than by getting through a certain amount of material unless I see that we are getting way behind, then we'll add time. That way she can spend more time on the difficult material...

 

Just our way,

Joan

[Colleen in NS]

We just do a lesson a day, unless something gives her trouble. I have a TE, but might as well not because I never even read the teacher pages.

 

Can you give me a peek at a few more details about how you conduct your lessons?

 

Then he started studying the next chapters on his own. I would help by reading up on a subject only if he was having trouble, which I could tell by answers to oral questions or the problems.

 

He came in with a lot of self-study habits.

 

I normally did not use the teaching suggestions because if he needed help, then I would read the Dolciani text myself, then go to other Algebra books or a math dictionary (or a friend) if I needed more info and explain it myself. I mostly used the TE for the answers and the alternative chapter tests (as they were different than the ones in the student book - though I have heard that is not the case with older TE editions).

 

As for a weekly program, he works at his own speed. He has one hour set aside for math in the morning. If he thinks he is working too slowly then he will do math homework. I cannot say that he gets through a lesson a day now, though in the easier chapters he did. Now he's in trig and takes two days for a section.

 

When my daughter starts, I'll go through the the lesson with her, give her the oral problems, and then see how focused she is for the problems. Probably we'll do it by time rather than by getting through a certain amount of material unless I see that we are getting way behind, then we'll add time. That way she can spend more time on the difficult material...

 

Just our way,

Joan

 

Thank you, Joan, for all this detail! It's very helpful.

[Blue Hen]

I don't have the TE, just the books. My 8th grader is working through Alg 1 so let me share our week (it has been a good one).

 

Monday we started a new chapter. I read the first section outloud as he followed along. We worked the examples together and did the oral exercises, orally. :) We moved to the Written Exercises: he did #1 and I did #2. We continued for a few more problems like this and then he went off and finished ALL the problems by himself. He returned and I checked his answers.

 

Tuesday, I read the section outloud while DS followed along. Ditto to the previous day. He does a problem, I do a problem and we switch off like this until I feel comfortable with what he is doing. He then goes off and does both the even and odd problems.

 

Wednesday, I read the section outloud while DS followed along. He announced that this was really easy and just like some stuff he remembered doing in Key to Algebra. He demonstrated to me that he knew what to do in that section and the next section. Since I remembered him doing this also I was quite comfortable with us skimming over the section quickly. He sat down though and did quite a number (about 20 each) of problems from each 'skipped' section.

 

Now two weeks ago DS had some issue with exponents and how to work with them. We put Dolciani aside and just concentrated on that topic until DS was solid on it. I have a shelf of Alg 1 books so it is always easy to find additional problems :)

 

I'm fine with the idea of not finishing the Alg 1 book in June. DS will just keep working in it until he is finished. If he finishes early then we'll move back into NEM.

Edited February 25, 2010 by Blue Hen

[Janice H]

I do not know if this is true of older editions, but thought I'd mention the following.

 

We used the 1990 Algebra and Trig last year for awhile. Sometimes the proofs had steps justified by referencing what was proved in previous problems. These previous problems were not necessarily odd or even numbers nor in the same section. (They were, as I recall, in the same chapter though.) So, when you assign problems, you might want to scan ahead in the key for problems that have proof steps based on previous problems.

[Colleen in NS]

Carole and Janice, thank you for your input, too.

 

:lurk5:

[In The Great White North]

Quote:

Originally Posted by In The Great White North

We just do a lesson a day, unless something gives her trouble. I have a TE, but might as well not because I never even read the teacher pages.

 

Can you give me a peek at a few more details about how you conduct your lessons?

 

 

I don't really conduct lessons. I tell her which section to do and she does it. If she has a problem, I explain it and walk her through a few examples. If she really has a problem, we take a few day diversion with another text til I'm sure she gets it, then go back to her book.

[Colleen in NS]

It sounds like, by the time many of your kids get to algebra, there is a lot less parent involvement than in the younger grades? The basic theme I am seeing here is that you generally go over the lesson with a child, give oral problems, maybe work through some others, stop and look elsewhere if there is an understanding problem, let the kids finish the problems, and correct. It seems easier than I thought it would be.

 

Thank you for your responses! (still open to hearing about more experiences)

[Dee in MI]

I used these books in high school. Our teacher went through the lesson and we did the oral exercises in class. This generally took about half an hour. Then he generally assigned the odd As and some Bs. We often started the homework in class and finished at home. Sometimes he spent two days on a lesson, but usually just one.

[Storm Bay]

We use Dolciani for our second time through Algebra 1. How I used it with my eldest was to have her do it independently (her preferred method) and one lesson per day. I helped, or at least tried to help, only when she had difficulty understanding something. (She doesn't like my way of doing Algebra nor does she like any hints of any kind.)She did half the problems, but if she had difficulty, I made her do all of them.

 

I'm not sure yet if that's what I'll do with both of my younger ones yet, but hopefully that will work for my middle one, because they'll have already done it once with something different.

[PollyOR]

I'm resurrecting this thread. :) I found a 1962/1965 Modern Algebra I Dolciani student text last night at Goodwill. Since I had never planned to use it, I'm fairly clueless. Are there any "must read" threads about Dolciani?

 

Just for background...my dd(14) was trying to use Teaching Textbooks, but I don't think she was quite ready for Algebra at the time (1 1/2 years ago?). I added Key to Algebra this past year and it's been going better. We also use Key to Tracker online for extra practice.

 

Karin, what do your children use the first time through Algebra?

 

Thanks,

Polly

[Colleen in NS]

we did the oral exercises in class. This generally took about half an hour. Then he generally assigned the odd As and some Bs. We often started the homework in class and finished at home. Sometimes he spent two days on a lesson, but usually just one.

 

have her do it independently (her preferred method) and one lesson per day.

 

These two responses are very helpful, too, thank you!

 

I found a 1962/1965 Modern Algebra I Dolciani student text last night at Goodwill. Since I had never planned to use it, I'm fairly clueless. Are there any "must read" threads about Dolciani?

 

You people in the States are so lucky - I have *never* seen a Dolciani book in thrift stores here, and I go fairly often!! You got a good edition, too!!!

 

Yes, search for Dolciani by the tag system here. I tagged a bunch of really good threads a few months ago when I was researching.

[PollyOR]

You people in the States are so lucky - I have *never* seen a Dolciani book in thrift stores here, and I go fairly often!! You got a good edition, too!!!

 

Yes, search for Dolciani by the tag system here. I tagged a bunch of really good threads a few months ago when I was researching.

 

 

Colleen, thank you for adding the tags. :thumbup1:

 

BTW, this is the first time I've ever seen a Dolciani text that I know of.

[Mary in NJ]

This has been an interesting thread. I am going through Algebra I on my own right now, before taking my daughter through it.

 

All of the ideas that have been listed are great!

[Storm Bay]

I'm resurrecting this thread.

Karin, what do your children use the first time through Algebra?

 

Thanks,

Polly

 

 

This is my second attempt at an answer, as after I typed the last one, the server was too busy and I lost it!

 

My eldest used a few things first in our attempt to find something that worked for her learning it independently and that didn't bore her. My next two are going to do LoF Beginning and Advanced Algebra first. In fact, my middle one is just finishing chapter 3 today.

 

My middle one is also doing TT Algebra 1 for fun (it starts with some preAlgebra) but my eldest hated TT and it's not my favourite for our set of dc. For my ds I hope to do Hands on Equations as well as LoF.

 

My eldest tried Jacobs, but it was too gentle and boring for her (she just called it boring, but I've noticed that she hates any math program that's too gentle). She liked Lial's, hated TT. We've also done some of Gelfand's Algebra, which she enjoyed at first, but she doesn't have the discipline for the really long problems. I'd like to add it with Dolciani Algebra II, but we'll see since I have to choose my battles. She wants to do LoF Trig before doing the trig with Dolciani, but that's her choice, since she has to do Dolciani whether on not she does the LoF since she's on track to do Calculus before she graduates. She's planning to go into science (or perhaps math, she says once in a while) so this is what she's doing.