Hands-On-Equations question

[Meriwether]

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[Lily_Grace]

Have you read through the books?

 

I wouldn't leave her to do it alone no matter her preference. It's an interactive program. It needs someone there to bounce problem solving strategy off of and teach the format. Giving her the program isn't going to cut it.

 

And depending on where she's at, yes, I might expect just the answer. Until most of the way through that is how it is taught - do the problem, write the solution. Writing the steps comes later.

[Meriwether]

Hmm. I've looked at the books but haven't read every problem. I'm not sure what you mean by read through. Is there something I should have read before starting her on it?

[FairProspects]

I think the answer to this depends on where you are in the program. Ds just completed level 1, and the guide specifically says to allow "guess and go" as a strategy for the verbal problems at this level. Ds doesn't use that strategy too often, but at this point I let him if he does. I'm not sure about Level 2 & 3 problems though.

[Lily_Grace]

Hmm. I've looked at the books but haven't read every problem. I'm not sure what you mean by read through. Is there something I should have read before starting her on it?

 

 

 

The book is very detailed at what is expected at each lesson: learning the rules, learning the x/-x- pairs, learning to verbalize the steps properly., . You need to sit down and take note of what is expected at each level. Then flip to lesson #26, the optional end lesson where they are taught to write the problem steps.

 

Yes, you should have read the books before handing them off to your child if you weren't going to work with her. It's a teacher-intensive program. When we went through the program it was helpful to me to know how much my son was grasping at a time (whether we needed to break a lesson down into 2 days or go through 3 at once) as well as where he was continually having trouble. At the same time, it gave him an extra person there to help him understand the concepts.

 

You, as the teacher, need to see what is being taught and create demands equal to that.

[8filltheheart]

The benefit of HOE is that students learn to represent physically what is happening in mathematical terms. Making the connection between the 2 is at the heart of its value from my perspective.

 

My dd works out 1 problem with the pawns and then we sit and discuss how to write down the steps in terms of a mathematical equation. Then she moves on to the next one.

 

So, the step where we write it down as an equation and follow through with the steps to solve numerically vs. pictorially is helping her understand rudimentary algebraic thinking which is what I am attempting to foster by using HOE in the first place.

 

 

 

 

[Meriwether]

 

 

The book is very detailed at what is expected at each lesson: learning the rules, learning the x/-x- pairs, learning to verbalize the steps properly., . You need to sit down and take note of what is expected at each level. Then flip to lesson #26, the optional end lesson where they are taught to write the problem steps.

 

Yes, you should have read the books before handing them off to your child if you weren't going to work with her. It's a teacher-intensive program. When we went through the program it was helpful to me to know how much my son was grasping at a time (whether we needed to break a lesson down into 2 days or go through 3 at once) as well as where he was continually having trouble. At the same time, it gave him an extra person there to help him understand the concepts.

 

You, as the teacher, need to see what is being taught and create demands equal to that.

 

Do you mean the little red, green, and blue booklets? That go along with the video lessons? I did look through those, but I don't teach from them. Dd watches the video lessons and does the exercises that go with them independently. I can see you don't like that. And that's okay. I did ask after all. I am in the same room with her and I'll answer the occasional question, but I don't sit with her. Dd does most of her work independently and has since she was a 4yo sitting on her booster seat doing her Saxon 1. She likes direct instruction, but she wants it short and sweet and then she wants me to leave her be.

 

Dd doesn't have trouble understanding the lessons. She gets those problems all correct. The ones she misses are in the verbal problems book. If it is really hard, she'll draw a picture, but she wants to do them in her head. So, she'll get the easy ones right and the hardest ones right (because she'll put something down on paper for them), but she will miss some of the middle ones because she is trying to do them in her head. I don't really care if she does them in her head, uses the pieces, draws pictures, or writes the equations if she gets them correct. I don't want her to get in the habit of missing some because she didn't write something down (or use the manipulatives). While looking through the materials again last night I did see a sheet of verbal problems that I didn't notice the first time around. It said at the top that a student should be allowed to solve the problems in different ways, including mentally, if they want to. I'm not really liking our results with that so I think I will change something.

[Meriwether]

The benefit of HOE is that students learn to represent physically what is happening in mathematical terms. Making the connection between the 2 is at the heart of its value from my perspective.

 

My dd works out 1 problem with the pawns and then we sit and discuss how to write down the steps in terms of a mathematical equation. Then she moves on to the next one.

 

So, the step where we write it down as an equation and follow through with the steps to solve numerically vs. pictorially is helping her understand rudimentary algebraic thinking which is what I am attempting to foster by using HOE in the first place.

 

I think Dd would balk at doing them all with me, but it would be good to do this with a couple each week. I am going to require her to use the pawns or pictures on all the problems, though. I think that is what bothered me the most about her doing the problems mentally. I didn't want to insist on using the manipulatives if she was getting them all right. Now that the problems are harder, I feel more justified in making her use the pawns or pictures.

[letsplaymath]

... HOE is an extra for us - not quite optional, but not quite mandatory either. ...

 

C) continue on with what she is doing. She has to show her work on her regular math. Should I let her do whatever she wants on this?

 

... I'm more concerned about developing bad habits than I am about this particular program.

 

 

She's 9yo and this is an enrichment program for her. I'd say let her do it the way she wants to, and don't worry about it. If she doesn't happen to notice the fraction in a problem (or notices and then forgets), but she does the rest correctly, then she is still practicing how to work with variables---she's just doing a slightly different problem.

 

If she takes correction moderately well, you could point out the error gently. "Hm, the book got a different answer. It might be a typo. Can you figure out which answer is correct?"

 

But if she's a perfectionist like my daughter, then let it slide. The big thing now is to let her enjoy playing with algebra. Precision can come later, when she studies it "for real."