Foerster's Algebra I schedule

[TeaTotaler]

We recently started this and so far have not needed to view the Math without Borders DVD. If you went through the lessons with your dc did you do one section a day and 2-3 days for word problems, as recommended by David Chandler? Ds has completed SM PM 1-6 and Dolciani's Pre Algebra and the first chapter of Foerster was mostly review so we did 2 sections a day but we did the alternate problems and all the word problems. The next couple of chapters will also be review but I don't want to rush through.

 

How do you schedule your Math time? Do you do all the problems? Ds is not thrilled about writing all the steps for problems he can do in his head but I have insisted. Am I right or will I just cause him to hate math.

 

TIA.

[HSDCY]

:bigear:

 

We are using this next year. I just counted up all the sections in 2nd ed., there are 121, and only 180 days of school! Granted that the first 4 chapters are going to be reviews, I envision that we'll have to slow down quite a bit midway through.

 

It'll be nice to know what to expect from other users.

[Rebecca VA]

This may not help you one bit, but I'll tell you what we do. We don't follow a schedule! My goal is to have my daughter complete every single problem in the problem sets. If there are many problems (which happens often -- there can be over 60 problems some days), or if they're especially hard, I just have her work on a reasonable amount for that day. The next day she does another reasonable amount. Most lessons are taking about two days, but we've had some three-day lessons. We're in no hurry at all -- I want her to go at a nice, easy pace that will make algebra pleasant for her.

 

The solution manual is very clear about showing how the problems should be set up. I expect her to set her problems up just the way the book does. She is beginning to appreciate how easy it is to find where she went wrong when she writes down every step. If she gets a problem wrong and can't figure out why, I have her read off each step aloud (while I follow along in the solution manual), and when she gets to the place where the error occurred I tell her to re-work the problem from that point.

Edited March 19, 2010 by Rebecca VA

[Sunshine State Sue]

We just completed Foerster's Algebra I last week. We started in August. In general, the first two sections of a chapter can be done in one day according to the TM. All other sections were generally done in one day, except for the sections with many word problems. Those took 3-4 days. Ds did odds or evens in general, but every single word problem. I got that advice from 8FillsTheHeart. Ds worked 5 days per week. I am a bit of a slave driver :tongue_smilie:, but this was our 2nd year of Algebra. Occasionally, when ds complained, I would set the timer for an hour, and if he couldn't complete the section ithat hour, he could finish it the next day. He didn't often have to finish it the next day.

 

My dental hygienist was hs'ed. She said that they had to follow SESS:

Show

Every

Stinkin'

Step

 

However, ds is fairly non-compliant. :angry: We have to choose our battles, eh?

 

I have it on good authority from a mom who hs'ed and sent 5 kids off to CC in high school, that they learn very quickly that they can increase their test scores if they SESS.

 

HTH!

Edited March 19, 2010 by Sue in St Pete

[HSDCY]

Thank you ladies for the feedback. I do plan to take my time with it because I have heard many times on this board how hard the book is. But it's still nice to know how other people do it and the reasons why they schedule it that way.:)

[Capt_Uhura]

Can someone please provide a link to Dolciani Pre-alg that TeaTotaler mentioned?

 

Thank you,

Capt_Uhura

[Stacy in NJ]

This may not help you one bit, but I'll tell you what we do. We don't follow a schedule! My goal is to have my daughter complete every single problem in the problem sets. If there are many problems (which happens often -- there can be over 60 problems some days), or if they're especially hard, I just have her work on a reasonable amount for that day. The next day she does another reasonable amount. Most lessons are taking about two days, but we've had some three-day lessons. We're in no hurry at all -- I want her to go at a nice, easy pace that will make algebra pleasant for her.

 

The solution manual is very clear about showing how the problems should be set up. I expect her to set her problems up just the way the book does. She is beginning to appreciate how easy it is to find where she went wrong when she writes down every step. If she gets a problem wrong and can't figure out why, I have her read off each step aloud (while I follow along in the solution manual), and when she gets to the place where the error occurred I tell her to re-work the problem from that point.

 

We do something similar. Because ds is a 12 yo 7th grader, I don't really care whether or not he finishes the text this year, and it looks like he won't. We're on chapter 6 and working our way slowly through it. We do all the problems, but I only assign a handful each day. He does them and corrects any errors immediately. He does every problem from every set. I anticipate completing through chapter 9 this year; we'll have to do chapters 10-14 the first semester of next year.

 

Not all of the chapters include word problems. I think chapter 2 or 3 includes many and then chapter 6 includes many as well.

[Rebecca VA]

Pre-Algebra: An Accelerated Course has been out of print for almost 10 years. You can find copies through most used booksellers. We used this program, and I thought it was excellent preparation for algebra.

[Capt_Uhura]

Thank you Rebecca! I'll do a search for it. I've looked at Dolciani before but there is so much talk of different editions, early vs later etc I wanted to make sure I had the correct title.

 

Are there any major differences between the different publication dates? Or is that mainly the later levels of Dolciani?

Edited March 19, 2010 by Capt_Uhura

[Rebecca VA]

I don't think there was much revision during the lifespan of this course (about 15-20 years). I had a student edition from 2000 and a TE and solution key from 1986, and they all matched up well.

[TeaTotaler]

I purchased my copies before I heard about the Accelerated Course. I'm not sure what the differences are but here are the ISBN's for what I used with ds.

Pre-Algebra New Edition by Dolciani, Wooten, Beckenbach, Chinn, Feldman and Markert. Copyright 1977

Student's Edn: 0-395-24646-6

Trs Edn: 0-395-24647-4

 

I know that earlier editions are supposed to be better but this worked fine for us.

 

HTH

P.S. If you do a search there's a post by Beth in Central TX where she lists the different titles etc for the texts.

 

Thank you Rebecca! I'll do a search for it. I've looked at Dolciani before but there is so much talk of different editions, early vs later etc I wanted to make sure I had the correct title.

 

Are there any major differences between the different publication dates? Or is that mainly the later levels of Dolciani?

[TeaTotaler]

Thanks for the replies so far. It is helpful to hear how others are using the text. I did not purchase the teacher manual because I had planned to use the DVDs when necessary. Is it worth it to purchase the Teacher's Manual?

 

Thanks.

 

We recently started this and so far have not needed to view the Math without Borders DVD. If you went through the lessons with your dc did you do one section a day and 2-3 days for word problems, as recommended by David Chandler? Ds has completed SM PM 1-6 and Dolciani's Pre Algebra and the first chapter of Foerster was mostly review so we did 2 sections a day but we did the alternate problems and all the word problems. The next couple of chapters will also be review but I don't want to rush through.

 

How do you schedule your Math time? Do you do all the problems? Ds is not thrilled about writing all the steps for problems he can do in his head but I have insisted. Am I right or will I just cause him to hate math.

 

TIA.

[Rebecca VA]

TeaTotaler, I think that must have been a different course altogether! Pre-Algebra: An Accelerated Course was written by Dolciani, Sorgenfrey, and Graham. That's really interesting that Dolciani published a pre-algebra course in the 1970s. I never knew that.

[Rebecca VA]

We have Mr. Chandler's CD-ROMs and are very pleased with his teaching. I haven't needed the teacher's manual at all. I do use the solution manual every day, though. I purchased both of them from www.bywayofthefamily.com (which charges a fortune for them, but I just wasn't in the mood at the time to sign up with the textbook publishing company as a homeschooler).

[TeaTotaler]

Glad you like the CD ROMs. The Trs Manual is much cheaper from Pearson so I'll get it from there if needed. I did set up an account because I purchased the Solutions Manual from them directly. It really wasn't very difficult to set up. I kept putting it off for the longest time thinking it would be complicated.

 

 

 

We have Mr. Chandler's CD-ROMs and are very pleased with his teaching. I haven't needed the teacher's manual at all. I do use the solution manual every day, though. I purchased both of them from www.bywayofthefamily.com (which charges a fortune for them, but I just wasn't in the mood at the time to sign up with the textbook publishing company as a homeschooler).

[Capt_Uhura]

thanks TeaTotaler!

[Sunshine State Sue]

Thanks for the replies so far. It is helpful to hear how others are using the text. I did not purchase the teacher manual because I had planned to use the DVDs when necessary. Is it worth it to purchase the Teacher's Manual?

 

Thanks.

I like all the help I can get at the high school level, but it really isn't necessary.

[Capt_Uhura]

TeaTotaler: I found this info in a review at Amazon.

 

 

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Text Book, December 23, 1999

By musi215@aol.com (The Nation's Capital (Washington, DC)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pre-Algebra: An Accelerated Course (Library Binding)

My 7th grade math class uses this as our text book. It's a really cool book. It explains things really well. Get this book if you need help with: INTRODUCTION TO ALGEBRA Using Variables, Finding Solutions

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE NUMBERS Sums and Differences, Products and Quocients

 

RATIONAL NUMBERS Number Theory and Fractions, Operations with Fractions

 

SOLVING EQUATIONS Using Transformations, Word Problems

 

GEOMETRIC FIGURES Basic Figures, Figures in the Plane

 

RATIO, PROPORTION, AND PERCENT Ratio and Proportion, Percents

 

PERCENTS AND PROBLEM SOLVING Buisness and Consumer Problems, Investment and Application Problems

 

THE COORDINATE PLANE Equations and the Coordinate Plane, Graphing Systems in the Coordinate Plane

 

AREAS AND VOLUMES Areas, Volumes and Areas of Solids

 

APPLYING ALGEBRA TO RIGHT TRIANGLES Square Roots, Using Right Triangles

 

STATISTICS AND PROBABILITY Analyzing Data, Probability

 

 

How does that compare to the books you have? And do you need both the teacher's edition and the student edition?

 

thanks,

capt_Uhura

[TeaTotaler]

Here are the chapters in mine:

Intro

Operations of Arithmetic

Properties of Arithmetic

Number Names and Operations

Topics in Number Theory

Geometry

Rational Numbers and Fractions

Computing with Fractions

Computing with Decimals

Percentages and Statistics

Positive and Negative Numbers

The Complete set of Rational Numbers

Exponents and Scientific Notation

Real Numbers

Open Number Sentences

Relations, Functions and Graphing

 

Having already completed SM PM 6, the Accelerated Course would've been a better option but I already had the other ones and I just couldn't bring myself to search used book sites again. My Math book collection has grown exponentially in the past two years!! We didn't spend a whole year on the Pre-Algebra because most of it was review for ds but I wanted him to get used to the language of Algebra and be well grounded in the basics which was accomplished by the Dolciani text we used.

 

I would've loved to continue with Dolciani and have Book 1 of Modern Algebra Structure and Method but couldn't not find a Teacher's Edn unless you count the one listed for $120. In the educational system where I grew up we branched off after 10th grade to Junior College so I have not taken math since 10th grade which was a very long time ago. I have taken Statistics courses in graduate school but have never taken Pre-Calc/Calc ever :tongue_smilie: I will likely have to farm out math at that point.

 

The Teacher's Edn is handy because it has all the answers - for the oral and written. The Student's edn has the answers to the odd problems.

 

HTH

 

 

 

TeaTotaler: I found this info in a review at Amazon.

 

 

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Text Book, December 23, 1999

By musi215@aol.com (The Nation's Capital (Washington, DC)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pre-Algebra: An Accelerated Course (Library Binding)

My 7th grade math class uses this as our text book. It's a really cool book. It explains things really well. Get this book if you need help with: INTRODUCTION TO ALGEBRA Using Variables, Finding Solutions

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE NUMBERS Sums and Differences, Products and Quocients

 

RATIONAL NUMBERS Number Theory and Fractions, Operations with Fractions

 

SOLVING EQUATIONS Using Transformations, Word Problems

 

GEOMETRIC FIGURES Basic Figures, Figures in the Plane

 

RATIO, PROPORTION, AND PERCENT Ratio and Proportion, Percents

 

PERCENTS AND PROBLEM SOLVING Buisness and Consumer Problems, Investment and Application Problems

 

THE COORDINATE PLANE Equations and the Coordinate Plane, Graphing Systems in the Coordinate Plane

 

AREAS AND VOLUMES Areas, Volumes and Areas of Solids

 

APPLYING ALGEBRA TO RIGHT TRIANGLES Square Roots, Using Right Triangles

 

STATISTICS AND PROBABILITY Analyzing Data, Probability

 

 

How does that compare to the books you have? And do you need both the teacher's edition and the student edition?

 

thanks,

capt_Uhura

[Capt_Uhura]

thank you! That helps immensely. We will have completed Rightstart levels A-E. Then we will do Singapore Math 5a/5b (quickly as much is review but a bit deeper than RS), then will do SM 6a/6b while we do RS Geo Approach. I do own Foester's Teacher's edition and student book already. I figure 2 years to do SM5a/5b, 6a/6b, RS Geo so that would put him in 7th grade for Algebra I if we do no pre-algebra. he's pretty intuitive for math but needs some maturing I think to accept that you need to actually write things down at some point. :glare: OH and I also own VT mod A since that is what Dr. Cotter recommended for doing w/ RS GEo since she never got around to writing RS Algebraic Approach. My feeling is that VT mod A might be all the pre-algebra he needs. So at any rate, I think the accelerated course would be what he needs, if he needs anything.

 

Capt_Uhura