MEP math - totally lost

[faiths13]

So I have been using Reception for my just turned 5 year old and it's been easy. Well today I wanted to try out an older year for my older kids (11&13) and I am totally confused. I was thinking about starting with Year 4 to make sure we covered things they didn't know, then someone suggested we try Year 7. Year 7 looked easier than I thought, but it almost looked too easy. So I thought I would just give Year 4 a shot. Well I had the teachers pages printed out and I was confused. I wasn't sure exactly why and what I was teaching. Maybe there was another page that explained the objective of the lesson that I didn't see - I will go back and look. I'm hoping for some guidance as to how to best use MEP math. I am not great at math. I can figure alot of stuff out, but there are things that stump me completely. Any advice is appreciated. (Yes I posted in the Yahoo Group, but it takes a long time for the post to be approved).

[faiths13]

bump

[fractalgal]

On the website there are some teacher notes here: Facts to Know and Remember for MEP Year 4, which you may find helpful. Previous years are also listed. Here are the Learning Objectives for Year 4.

 

One of the things I like best about MEP are the Lesson Plans. :) You could go back to previous years for just the topics you haven't seen in awhile. For example, Combinatorics is used throughout MEP, but you may have to back up to a previous year Lesson plan for that topic when it was better explained in an earlier year.

 

I print off the Lesson Plans, some of the Copymasters (to reduce my own need to write it out on the white board), and the Practice book pages. This page has a lot of helpful information.

[stripe]

Here's your problem, I think -- years 1 to 6 are the elementary program. The way I understand it is that years 7 to 9 are for students who've never done their math (eta: I mean, this math program by CIMT, not that the students have never studied math at all). So sort of a second program, put out by the same people, that condenses years 1-6 into three years, Apparently there are people who've moved towards algebra after year 6. So it makes sense if year 7 is easy, because it could end up "starting over" earlier in a sequence than year 6.

 

I would take a look here and see if it helps

http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/primary/default.htm

Edited October 23, 2012 by stripe

[faiths13]

Here's your problem, I think -- years 1 to 6 are the elementary program. The way I understand it is that years 7 to 9 are for students who've never done their math (eta: I mean, this math program by CIMT, not that the students have never studied math at all). So sort of a second program, put out by the same people, that condenses years 1-6 into three years, Apparently there are people who've moved towards algebra after year 6. So it makes sense if year 7 is easy, because it could end up "starting over" earlier in a sequence than year 6.

 

I would take a look here and see if it helps

http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/primary/default.htm

 

i was just reading something about that earlier and I was trying to compare year 4 and year 7. it seems like all the years do cover the same basics, but in different ways. if year 7 is a condensed version, then that makes sense. i have had to put my sons back in math because they really hadnt mastered much that we have done the past two years (or anything before in ps either) so that is why i was going to try year 4. i am just afraid if i start on year 7 they will miss going over some of the things that they might cover in years 4-6. but then i did read year 7 is for older students new to MEP. but that just makes me wonder do you still do years 7-9 if you have completed years 1-6? or just skip it?

[faiths13]

On the website there are some teacher notes here: Facts to Know and Remember for MEP Year 4, which you may find helpful. Previous years are also listed. Here are the Learning Objectives for Year 4.

 

One of the things I like best about MEP are the Lesson Plans. :) You could go back to previous years for just the topics you haven't seen in awhile. For example, Combinatorics is used throughout MEP, but you may have to back up to a previous year Lesson plan for that topic when it was better explained in an earlier year.

 

I print off the Lesson Plans, some of the Copymasters (to reduce my own need to write it out on the white board), and the Practice book pages. This page has a lot of helpful information.

 

that is a good idea : ) thanks

[stripe]

but that just makes me wonder do you still do years 7-9 if you have completed years 1-6? or just skip it?

 

From what I've read, most people don't have their kids complete both. (My kids are still in primary levels, not middle school.)

[Deee]

We've jumped into year 6 and are back tracking where we need to for new concepts (eg negative numbers). I started in yr 6 rather than yr 7 because I thought the concepts were better explained. We'll finish MEP yr6 half way through yr7 for DS11. I plan to use MEP yrs 7&8 as review in the second half of the year, as well as covering some bits of the Australian syllabus that we'll miss. This will leave us doing MEP year 9 in our year 8, on track to finish the course by our year 12 if we don't jump across to an Australian curriculum.

D

[lailasmum]

I have only used MEP in the younger years but I assume the Year 7 thing is because that's the year secondary school starts here so schools using it would have to catch up any students who hadn't used MEP before. Years 7-9 are the pre GCSE years and then the GCSE course would come after that.