Rod & Staff math

[EMS83]

Spiral or mastery? Straight-forward, no frills? Could the lesson presentation and practice somehow be combined? I read that there's a lot of board work for the teacher. I'd also really like to get the MUS blocks or make my own; could they be incorporated into the R&S math? Math is my last planning obstacle and I keep looking at it, and dropping it, then having to come back to it, and then dropping it again. Such fuss over first grade math. :001_huh: As far as I can tell, DD has mastered about half of the topics in their Grade 1 Math table of contents. We seem to have skipped the correlation between numbers and quantities, though. Go me. :glare: Advice is welcome!

[Tenaj]

Spiral or mastery? Straight-forward, no frills? Could the lesson presentation and practice somehow be combined? I read that there's a lot of board work for the teacher. I'd also really like to get the MUS blocks or make my own; could they be incorporated into the R&S math? Math is my last planning obstacle and I keep looking at it, and dropping it, then having to come back to it, and then dropping it again. Such fuss over first grade math. :001_huh: As far as I can tell, DD has mastered about half of the topics in their Grade 1 Math table of contents. We seem to have skipped the correlation between numbers and quantities, though. Go me. :glare: Advice is welcome!

 

I have one child working his way through R&S math 4. For him, I meet with him and usually I go over a bit of the review work. Then, I present/we read the new concepts that are presented for the current lesson and we do a few problems together. I usually assign him part of the new material and he works on it on his own and then I make sure it's right. I then assign him parts of the review lesson and he goes off to work away.

 

It's a mastery program but has lots of review, no frills. MUS blocks are awesome and I use them all the time - not so much with this kid because math is easy for him but I use them with my younger who is using CLE math.

 

I like R&S but CLE is my first choice. My 10yods is a bit delayed in math, however, so I chose to use R&S with my 8yods so it wouldn't be obvious when he passed his older brother up in math.

[Closeacademy]

It is no frills with lots of review work. But you could add notebooking pages for the instruction, montessori or other math manipulatives, or expand/teach it however you want to teach the math and have the child work on the bookwork.

 

I think it is great for kids who need just a little or a lot of review/working on the problems because there is a lot there you can assign just part or all of the problems. You can skip what you don't want to cover or add to it. The last 1/4 of most of the books is review of what they learned the past year.

 

I actually switched to it after I noticed that my dd wasn't retaining what she learned in Singapore. R&S made it stick.:001_smile:

[Ellie]

Spiral or mastery? Straight-forward, no frills? Could the lesson presentation and practice somehow be combined? I read that there's a lot of board work for the teacher. I'd also really like to get the MUS blocks or make my own; could they be incorporated into the R&S math? Math is my last planning obstacle and I keep looking at it, and dropping it, then having to come back to it, and then dropping it again. Such fuss over first grade math. :001_huh: As far as I can tell, DD has mastered about half of the topics in their Grade 1 Math table of contents. We seem to have skipped the correlation between numbers and quantities, though. Go me. :glare: Advice is welcome!

I have no idea if it's spiral or mastery; that's not an item on my check list. :-)

 

Straighforward, no frills.

 

Not sure what you mean by combining lesson and practice. :confused:

 

I never used a whiteboard when I was teaching R&S. And it's only the first three grades that are dependent on the teacher. You teach the lesson (which is scripted in the TM), then give your dc the seatwork.

 

Have you requested the free curriculum samples from the publisher? Copies of both student book and TM are included.

[SilverMoon]

Spiral or mastery? Straight-forward, no frills? Could the lesson presentation and practice somehow be combined? I read that there's a lot of board work for the teacher. I'd also really like to get the MUS blocks or make my own; could they be incorporated into the R&S math? Math is my last planning obstacle and I keep looking at it, and dropping it, then having to come back to it, and then dropping it again. Such fuss over first grade math. :001_huh: As far as I can tell, DD has mastered about half of the topics in their Grade 1 Math table of contents. We seem to have skipped the correlation between numbers and quantities, though. Go me. :glare: Advice is welcome!

I only have three sips of coffee in me, but I'll try.

 

Mastery. Straight-forward. No frills. Just math here, no gimmicks or flashy objects involved.

 

I don't see how the practice could be put into the teacher's presentation. It's designed for you to do the presentation first; it tells you exactly what to do, with scripting if needed. It will expect you to put parts of oral class time on a whiteboard or chalkboard. Yes, this will take a little time, but this is where the actual teaching is done.

 

One way to get around some of the whiteboard parts is to cover the scripting in the TE with your hand and have the child do the examples right out of the TE. The things to draw on the whiteboard are on the left side of the page without any answers filled in; the answers are in the scripting.

 

Then the kid does their worksheet for review. There aren't any instructions on that worksheet, but they'll already know how to do it; they learned how with you in the oral classtime. Being a first grade child, you'll need to keep him at your elbow for quick redirecting while he works "independently." (I use that term very loosely for this age.)

[EMS83]

Thanks! I prefer no-frill. And to clarify the presentation/practice question: think Phonics Pathways, but math-flavored. I don't know if there's even anything out there like that. For the foundational skills, I'd rather sit next to them to explain a concept and then have them drill it until it's rote. Does R&S introduce a new concept every day or week or does it vary?

 

I honestly didn't think about free samples. I haven't delved into the world of curriculum companies much yet, so I forgot that many of them will offer samples pages. I'll check that out, for sure.

[SilverMoon]

Thanks! I prefer no-frill. And to clarify the presentation/practice question: think Phonics Pathways, but math-flavored. I don't know if there's even anything out there like that. For the foundational skills, I'd rather sit next to them to explain a concept and then have them drill it until it's rote. Does R&S introduce a new concept every day or week or does it vary?

 

I honestly didn't think about free samples. I haven't delved into the world of curriculum companies much yet, so I forgot that many of them will offer samples pages. I'll check that out, for sure.

 

No, it doesn't work like Phonics Pathways. You teach it and work with them so you know they understand it, then they do some extra problems on their own.

 

The new concept introduction varies. Easier ones will be more frequently, harder ones will be slower. There's a spread in the TE that shows you when each new concept is added. Generally a new concept is taught and worked with from the TE a couple days before it ever shows up on the student page.