Common Core...and my pride

[Stellalarella]

Just last month that quiet little part of me was upstairs looking in the closet. It's the part of me that I work very hard to suppress: it's the little gremlin that gets all excited over phrases like, "Collect Them All!" "It's A Set!" And there they were, my lovely MUS books lined up all in a row. Alpha to Zeta. PLUS Pre-Algebra. Accumulated over the course of 3 years. "Those lovely books will be used by all the younger kiddos," I thought. "I have them all!" I thought. They will be useful references for generations to come. I will keep them forever, my precious, yes.

 

But the truth is that those books are now old editions. Yes sir, The new 2013 MUS books, niftily aligned to CCS, are ON SALE NOW.

 

:banghead: :nopity: Give me no pity.

 

Why do I do this to myself? Do I really think that if I get everything now, that I won't just go out in a couple years and get a totally different curriculum? Do I really think that companies won't update? Do I really think I won't WANT the new editions? Do I not dislike pulling out my perfectly fine old edition copy of First Language Lesson 1/2 and wish, oh, wish that I could just get the Revised Editions?

 

But on the other hand, when school districts across the country start dumping their now "OLD" curriculum, I should be able to get that uber cheap on Amazon....right? SIlver lining? :)

[myfatherslily]

LOL! No pity! Older is better! :D

[Another Lynn]

Not sure what your gremlin will do with this thought: Don't buy the new set now even though it's on sale..... you have enough children that for one of them (at least)! MUS will not work. Then you would own two complete sets and still need something else for that one darling child. Bwha hahahahahahaha....... ;)

 

(Secretly hope that's not the case for you.... but you never know.)

[Garga]

But how different is it, really? Read on the MUS website and find out. It looks like there are very few changes made to line up with CC. You might be able to recreate them without having to re-buy everything. Something about adding solving for unknown word problems and statistics. Well, maybe a few more things, but I'm too lazy right now to head back over to the MUS website to check.

 

 

[Greta Lea]

My sister, who teaches 3rd grade math, science and social studies in TN, has been sharing with me a bit about CC. Honestly, it almost sounds as if the CC developers looked at MUS for the idea of how math should be taught. I was excited about what she told me about CC math.

 

Her students, 3rd grade, will be expected to memorize math facts, but she will not be allowed time in class to work on helping them memorize (test the memorization, but not practice in class). Parents will HAVE to work with their kids at home on this skill.

 

Now, CC reading sounded disappointing to me and her. She says that CC has the students doing mostly non-fiction readings. Sounds like studying literature is going to be a lost art with the CC.

 

She says that thankfully her school uses Accelerated Reader, so the students at her school will still be reading plenty of fiction because of that.

[vonfirmath]

My sister, who teaches 3rd grade math, science and social studies in TN, has been sharing with me a bit about CC. Honestly, it almost sounds as if the CC developers looked at MUS for the idea of how math should be taught. I was excited about what she told me about CC math.

 

Her students, 3rd grade, will be expected to memorize math facts, but she will not be allowed time in class to work on helping them memorize (test the memorization, but not practice in class). Parents will HAVE to work with their kids at home on this skill.

 

 

...and just leave behind those kids who, for whatever reason, don't have that outside help to practice? This doesn't seem like a great idea.

[Corraleno]

My sister, who teaches 3rd grade math, science and social studies in TN, has been sharing with me a bit about CC. Honestly, it almost sounds as if the CC developers looked at MUS for the idea of how math should be taught. I was excited about what she told me about CC math.

 

Her students, 3rd grade, will be expected to memorize math facts, but she will not be allowed time in class to work on helping them memorize (test the memorization, but not practice in class). Parents will HAVE to work with their kids at home on this skill.

 

Now, CC reading sounded disappointing to me and her. She says that CC has the students doing mostly non-fiction readings. Sounds like studying literature is going to be a lost art with the CC.

 

She says that thankfully her school uses Accelerated Reader, so the students at her school will still be reading plenty of fiction because of that.

 

 

I recommend reading the actual standards, because the bolded is not true — the standards for nonfiction include history and science, not just English class. The standards for analyzing fiction are still there, and the "nonfiction" standards for English class specify "literary nonfiction." HS examples include essays by Emerson & Thoreau and famous speeches. Many English texts already include materials like these; MCT even has a series based on literary analysis of famous speeches. I remember reading On Walden Pond and assorted essays & speeches when I was in HS.

 

Many colleges require a 2-semester English Comp sequence, one of which focuses on fiction and the other on nonfiction, and most college-level humanities courses require reading and analyzing nonfiction and primary sources. Those who developed the CC standards found that too many college students could not analyze scholarly nonfiction because this skill was not being addressed in schools; this was the motivation for the new standards.

 

Jackie

[AMJ]

THANK YOU for this very timely heads-up/reminder.

 

My two (currently 3rd & 5th grades) are in private school, but we are switching to homeschool at the end if the current school year. I am currently reviewing curricula, trying to decide which to buy to start with, and the advantages of buying sets are enticing. But like pots & pans, if you buy sets you run the risk of getting stuff you don't end up using (that become clutter), and because our (societies') ideas of useful and/or required knowledge changes over time our chosen school materials can become outdated.

 

Thankfully, my DH said to plan on spending extra the first year or two, since undoubtedly we will end up trying more than one approach for certain subjects -- there's just no telling if it will work for us until we start using it, after all. So I will mindfully remind myself of your reminder -- sets are nice but run the risk of not being fully used -- when I start my purchases.

[dereksurfs]

Not sure what your gremlin will do with this thought: Don't buy the new set now even though it's on sale..... you have enough children that for one of them (at least)! MUS will not work. Then you would own two complete sets and still need something else for that one darling child. Bwha hahahahahahaha....... ;)

 

(Secretly hope that's not the case for you.... but you never know.)

 

 

Yes, we discovered this with MUS, twice. While our oldest thrived with it, neither dd liked it. Long story short we switched over to CLE for them and sold off all our MUS books. Now we buy CLE year to year. Buying only the curriculum we are using is much better, though more difficult. We also have a set of MM which we didn't use. The thought was it would be a good backup/reference just in case. Now MM is updating all their curriculum to CC as well. :tongue_smilie:

[Mom2TheTeam]

My oldest is only in 1st. I have already experienced what I have being updated. I don't NEED the new edition. My oldest did and is doing just fine with the old editions, but I just can't handle not getting what must surely be "better." LOL. Thanks for the heads up on buying ahead though. I've not done that too much, but I can see myself doing and definitely I'm into having the whole "set."

[Stellalarella]

You know, I really don't need to buy the new TM for the 2013 MUS curriculum. I know we have to order new workbooks for the kiddos next year, but If we were able to teach and learn effectively from the old edition, we shouldn't need the new edition, right? I just need to hold on strong.

 

The new editions aren't going to produce significantly better mathematicians than the current editions to justify the expense. That brand new face cream isn't going to work better, either. Is it? Or do you all have some great new face cream that is solving all your homeshcooling-acquired facial wrinkles?? :)

 

But anyway, the only cure for curriculum lust is to avoid going to websites to check out what's new....right? :)

[Susan in KY]

My sister, who teaches 3rd grade math, science and social studies in TN, has been sharing with me a bit about CC. Honestly, it almost sounds as if the CC developers looked at MUS for the idea of how math should be taught. I was excited about what she told me about CC math.

 

Her students, 3rd grade, will be expected to memorize math facts, but she will not be allowed time in class to work on helping them memorize (test the memorization, but not practice in class). Parents will HAVE to work with their kids at home on this skill.

 

Now, CC reading sounded disappointing to me and her. She says that CC has the students doing mostly non-fiction readings. Sounds like studying literature is going to be a lost art with the CC.

 

She says that thankfully her school uses Accelerated Reader, so the students at her school will still be reading plenty of fiction because of that.

 

Regarding the bolded, they did not. Singapore math was the "international benchmark" they used. Please see the quotation below from the research:

 

“The composite standards [of Hong Kong, Korea and

Singapore

] have a number of features that can inform an international benchmarking process for the development of K–6 mathematics standards in the U.S.â€

Ginsburg, Leinwand and Decker, 2009