freerange Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 I have a while yet before DD will be there, but I'd like to develop my own understanding of the method in advance of that. Should I just buy ahead the HIGs & settle down for a teacher training day? Or is there a better/more efficient (not to mention cheaper!) approach? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam B Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 Hmm... :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freerange Posted March 31, 2010 Author Share Posted March 31, 2010 bump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 I have a while yet before DD will be there, but I'd like to develop my own understanding of the method in advance of that. Should I just buy ahead the HIGs & settle down for a teacher training day? Or is there a better/more efficient (not to mention cheaper!) approach? I'm not sure what you mean by "the model method"? At first I thought you meant the "bar diagram" way of solving word problems, but that's used in 3A and your sig says your daughter is in 3B, so I assume you've already started teaching that. Can you clarify what the "model method" is in Singapore 6? I have all of the Singapore (US) books, as well as the HIGs for 4-6, and I'll be happy to look something up for you, if I understand what you're looking for. :001_smile: Jackie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usetoschool Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 I have a while yet before DD will be there, but I'd like to develop my own understanding of the method in advance of that. Should I just buy ahead the HIGs & settle down for a teacher training day? Or is there a better/more efficient (not to mention cheaper!) approach? The HIG for Singapore 6 Standards Edition won't be available for quite a while. But, the method doesn't really change from year to year. Level 6 is also just like the other levels in that the first problems give you the diagrams and show you how to work the problem and then gradually expect you to solve it completely on your own. The best way for me to teach it was to go ahead of the students and work the problems on my own so I could explain the thinking to them and help them reason through the solutions. There are several places you can educate yourself on how to teach math the way SM does - The Model Method and Elementary Math for Teachers are a couple of my favorites. And either one of them is cheaper than the Teacher's Guide ($44!!) for each level. Is that what you were asking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karensk Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 ....The best way for me to teach it was to go ahead of the students and work the problems on my own so I could explain the thinking to them and help them reason through the solutions. That's pretty much the way I did it, but I was only ahead by a day's worth of work, if that. Many times, we just figured them out at the same time...both of us for the first time. The model diagram (bar diagram) problems started getting quite challenging for me in level PM-4, primarily with problems in IP-4, CWP-4 and My Pals Are Here! Tests 4. If you really wanted to get more ahead than that, you might consider just getting the Challenging Word Problem books for levels 4-6 when they come out. They have a lot of worked out examples of the model method problems. Also, the CWP problems are more difficult than the corresponding ones in the PM books. The IP series also has more difficult word problems than the PM series, but no solutions are given and very few, if any, examples are worked out for you. And I think there are a handful of IP model method problems that are more challenging than those in CWP, but overall, the problems are similar in level of difficulty. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freerange Posted April 4, 2010 Author Share Posted April 4, 2010 Sorry for taking so long to reply - small problem with a cracked water cistern leaking a waterfall into the room below. There are several places you can educate yourself on how to teach math the way SM does - The Model Method and Elementary Math for Teachers are a couple of my favorites. And either one of them is cheaper than the Teacher's Guide ($44!!) for each level. Is that what you were asking? Yes, thank you. I want to get my head round how the approach is used with the harder questions. I can visualise how its used for easier questions, i.e. up to around level 3 or 4, but for the harder stuff it seems to me to be so much easier to do it algebraically. I want to understand how it works for the more advanced stuff so I can better explain as we go along. Do you have a favourite of the books you've read? Being in the UK it gets expensive ordering them, so I'd like to find one really good one. Sort of the 5th/6th grade equivalent of Liping Ma's book. That's pretty much the way I did it, but I was only ahead by a day's worth of work, if that. Many times, we just figured them out at the same time...both of us for the first time. The model diagram (bar diagram) problems started getting quite challenging for me in level PM-4, primarily with problems in IP-4, CWP-4 and My Pals Are Here! Tests 4. If you really wanted to get more ahead than that, you might consider just getting the Challenging Word Problem books for levels 4-6 when they come out. They have a lot of worked out examples of the model method problems. Also, the CWP problems are more difficult than the corresponding ones in the PM books. The IP series also has more difficult word problems than the PM series, but no solutions are given and very few, if any, examples are worked out for you. And I think there are a handful of IP model method problems that are more challenging than those in CWP, but overall, the problems are similar in level of difficulty. HTH! Are there worked solutions given in MPH Tests? CWP haven't yet made it over here, but MPH Tests is available. I'm not sure what you mean by "the model method"? At first I thought you meant the "bar diagram" way of solving word problems, but that's used in 3A and your sig says your daughter is in 3B, so I assume you've already started teaching that. Can you clarify what the "model method" is in Singapore 6? I have all of the Singapore (US) books, as well as the HIGs for 4-6, and I'll be happy to look something up for you, if I understand what you're looking for. :001_smile: Jackie yes, the bar diagram, but applying it to more complex problems than just straightforward +/-/x/division. In my searching around for more info I've come across this interesting looking website http://www.teach-kids-math-by-model-method.com I'm going to try & work through the site & see if that helps my understanding of applying the method. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nd293 Posted April 4, 2010 Share Posted April 4, 2010 We jumped into Singapore at Grade 3 level. I made sure to get a book with worked solutions. As this is a repetition for us (in theory - dd is Grade 4, but Singapore is much more demanding than what she was doing before) we didn't go the text book/workbook route. I selected Classroom Maths Workbook and Classroom Maths Problem Sums. Not sure what Grade that series goes up to. I bought directly from Singapore (SG Box). It's been a tough adjustment, but very much worthwhile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted April 5, 2010 Share Posted April 5, 2010 There's a book called The Singapore Model Method for Learning Mathematics. The book Elementary Mathematics for Teachers is also really good. But, yes, just using the HIG with the textbook/workbook will work fine too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karensk Posted April 8, 2010 Share Posted April 8, 2010 Are there worked solutions given in MPH Tests? CWP haven't yet made it over here, but MPH Tests is available. Yes, MPH Tests 4-6 have solutions to the word problems. Each test has a word problem section, and the answer key shows the bar diagram, labeled, and some math sentences. So, it's not quite as step-by-step as the worked examples in CWP series, but it's definitely more than just a final answer. The MPH series has some of the more unusual word problems, too, compared to the PM and CWP series. If I can figure out how to show a scanned image of a page from MPH-Tests, I'll try to post it.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fractalgal Posted April 8, 2010 Share Posted April 8, 2010 I have a while yet before DD will be there, but I'd like to develop my own understanding of the method in advance of that. Should I just buy ahead the HIGs & settle down for a teacher training day? Or is there a better/more efficient (not to mention cheaper!) approach? The best way to get proficient in the harder word problems in Singapore is to work lots of problems and study the examples given in the workbooks, textbooks, and CWP books. The IP books do not have any examples of problems in them (that I can think of at the moment). When you get to hard problems, draw pictures - first of what the problem has given you, and then label what you know. Work from there to solve the problems thinking about the bigger ideas of the chapter the particular problem is in. They are meant to be challenging and they will not necessarily all follow a particular diagram nor method. At times, the HIG and Teacher's guide will not seem to be of much help. The point is to get you thinking and uncomfortable so that you will be forced to think about the subject of the chapter at a deeper level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karensk Posted April 8, 2010 Share Posted April 8, 2010 Well, I still can't figure out how to insert an image in my post, but here are the links to the images in googledocs: Here's the word problem... and its solution (problem #45., near the top of the page). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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