distancia Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 Please, ANY kind of feedback on this program. I am so desperate. My daughter (17.5) is super smart in Math (IQ over 140) but whatever she has learned in the public school system just hasn't stuck. The scattered methodology they use doesn't seem to click with the way her brain thinks. She needs to know why why why why and a step-by-step methodical approach. Her best friends who are all math whizzes--yet not as smart as she--never ask "why", they just do it "because that's the way you're supposed to do it" or "because the teacher said so". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cocoabean Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 Ds and I both disliked Video Text Algebra when we first began it because of open-ended questions where you could come up with more than one possible answer. We quit VT and gave it back to the friend who let us borrow it. We went into Ray's Algebra, First Part directly after that (Ray's is free on books.google.com). I don't know if you would like Ray's or not since it doesn't have a TM for Algebra (though I do believe it has one for some of the other levels). Doing without the TM was not a problem for me. Have you thought about these Math programs? Teaching Textbooks Life of Fred ABeka Christian Light Education (CLE) Saxon (we dislike Saxon, but some kids thrive with it) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerriMI Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 Vidoe Text Algebra is loaded with proofs! This is part of what is appealing about it. Proofs, of course, prove that what the students are being taught is right and true. They don't have to take the teacher's word or merely memorize. The questions in the lectures and demonstrations, I think, aren't quite so open-ended. Sure, they are aimed at the student, but the point is to get the student to think for themselves. They are not stuck with any wrong answer. The answers are given so quickly after the question that if you truly want your student to answer them themselves, then you must react quickly to stop the video. That said, the story problems are pretty simplistic. The instruction about solving these employs a Q/A convention that, though helpful in actually calculating the answer, may not move the student to understand the math behind it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeatherInWI Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 We tried it and didn't enjoy it. It impressed all of us as pretty tedious and dull and we quit after only a couple of sections. We chose new curricula which we like much better -- Life of Fred (for my math geek) and Teaching Textbooks (for my non-math geek). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
distancia Posted July 7, 2010 Author Share Posted July 7, 2010 (edited) "We" have already tried TT. At first D really liked it but then she realized that it wasn't giving her enough of the "why", and the text was too wordy. LoF goes totally against the way my D's brain works--I would've loved it, but she gets impatient because it's not right to the point. Her method is to first attempt a problem (without any introduction whatsoever, just jump right in) and then backtrack and see where she has gone wrong. She tries to analyze a problem and solve it herself. Totally the opposite of how I would do it, I like to be told how to do it and then do it. Not her. D's the kind who will gather all the ingredients needed for a recipe, then plow in, head first, without reading the directions. Sometimes it works, but...sometimes it's a big flop. Edited July 7, 2010 by distancia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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