LindaG Posted April 21, 2013 Share Posted April 21, 2013 My dd is entering 9th grade and has Dyslexia and a math disability. Will the Key to Algebra be enough? I'm also looking at LoF and TT. Thoughts? Linda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CupOCoffee Posted April 21, 2013 Share Posted April 21, 2013 FWIW: I contacted the company once asking if the "Key To" series was = to a full Algebra course. They told me that it was more like pre-Algebra. ~coffee~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara H Posted April 21, 2013 Share Posted April 21, 2013 I liked the nondistracting look of Keys to and I really wanted to love it, but we found it just didn't have enough to explanation to really understand how to the problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bugs Posted April 21, 2013 Share Posted April 21, 2013 I have used "Key to" when my kids were stuck on a topic and needed a different approach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LindaG Posted April 21, 2013 Author Share Posted April 21, 2013 thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
at the beach Posted April 21, 2013 Share Posted April 21, 2013 My dd is entering 9th grade and has Dyslexia and a math disability. Will the Key to Algebra be enough? I'm also looking at LoF and TT. Thoughts? Linda I'll add another to your list. Have you looked at Basic Algebra by Brown? http://www.amazon.co...n/dp/0395564808 It is an excellent text IMO. You can get a teacher edition, too, if you need it. Used copies are very inexpensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1pageatatime Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 I'll add another to your list. Have you looked at Basic Algebra by Brown? http://www.amazon.co...n/dp/0395564808 It is an excellent text IMO. You can get a teacher edition, too, if you need it. Used copies are very inexpensive. This looks interesting! Do you know how this compares to Lial's and can you tell me about the page layout? Are there sidebars, plenty of white space, etc.? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngieW in Texas Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 Key to Algebra does cover all the topics that are typically considered Algebra I, although a little lighter than most. My dyslexic had a really hard time with the cluttered pages. She has done better with MUS Algebra I which everybody seems to consider a full Algebra I course even though it is far lighter than Key to and doesn't cover all the typical Algebra I topics. It was the only course my dyslexic dd could handle and it was still a struggle. I did it with her in 8th grade because she said that another year of fractions/decimals/percents would kill her. We are working through MUS Geometry right now and it is going much better. Geometry makes sense to her in a way that algebra did not. I am not looking forward to moving on Algebra II when she has finished Geometry. I'm just hoping that the extra year of maturity will have helped. She does seem to understand her algebra better now than she did when we were covering it last year. I plan to stick with MUS for her. She needs black print on white paper with plenty of whitespace on the pages. The other programs we tried were: Lial's - way too cluttered and busy and lots of colors on the pages Algebra I: A Fresh Approach - font too fussy and too small and pages were cluttered Key to Algebra - pages far too cluttered, but good otherwise Teaching Textbooks - the voice annoyed her in the sample videos and she didn't want to do it on the computer, the sample pages from the text were too cluttered and the pages in the actual textbook were too cluttered. She has visual processing issues, so it is important that the pages not be too cluttered. She can handle that for science where I can just read everything to her and she only has to look at the book to see occasional pictures, but she can't handle it for math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 This looks interesting! Do you know how this compares to Lial's and can you tell me about the page layout? Are there sidebars, plenty of white space, etc.? Thanks! Basic Algebra is black & white with a little red for highlights; it is very similar in layout to Jacobs, which is B&W with bits of green for highlights. Plenty of white space, no sidebars, just a very plain layout. It is aimed at lower level students and includes a lot of review of arithmetic (e.g. decimals & percents), but it does cover quadratics in the last chapter (which MUS Alg 1 does not). One of the co-authors, BTW, is Mary Dolciani. Jackie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 Keys really isn't enough to be a full algebra 1 course and will cause difficulties when trying to continue on to Alg 2. What has she done for pre-algebra and how did she do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 The Keys aren't a full algebra course. I'd recommend taking a look at Jacobs or Lial. I used Jacobs for Algebra I and Lial for Algebra II and they were excellent for my dyslexic son. (The other thing I would recommend is teaching the material and not requiring independent learning. As part of the teaching be sure to have her solve problems (with you sitting there). Then when she's working through the problem sets make sure you give feedback on each answer as she does them. You don't want her to do a series of problems wrong and then have to unlearn whatever way she was doing it.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1pageatatime Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 Basic Algebra is black & white with a little red for highlights; it is very similar in layout to Jacobs, which is B&W with bits of green for highlights. Plenty of white space, no sidebars, just a very plain layout. It is aimed at lower level students and includes a lot of review of arithmetic (e.g. decimals & percents), but it does cover quadratics in the last chapter (which MUS Alg 1 does not). One of the co-authors, BTW, is Mary Dolciani. Jackie BIG thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1pageatatime Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 Basic Algebra is black & white with a little red for highlights; it is very similar in layout to Jacobs, which is B&W with bits of green for highlights. Plenty of white space, no sidebars, just a very plain layout. It is aimed at lower level students and includes a lot of review of arithmetic (e.g. decimals & percents), but it does cover quadratics in the last chapter (which MUS Alg 1 does not). One of the co-authors, BTW, is Mary Dolciani. Jackie BIG thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1pageatatime Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 I'll add another to your list. Have you looked at Basic Algebra by Brown? http://www.amazon.co...n/dp/0395564808 It is an excellent text IMO. You can get a teacher edition, too, if you need it. Used copies are very inexpensive. Basic Algebra is black & white with a little red for highlights; it is very similar in layout to Jacobs, which is B&W with bits of green for highlights. Plenty of white space, no sidebars, just a very plain layout. It is aimed at lower level students and includes a lot of review of arithmetic (e.g. decimals & percents), but it does cover quadratics in the last chapter (which MUS Alg 1 does not). One of the co-authors, BTW, is Mary Dolciani. Jackie Can either of you tell me if this text or the matching teacher's book includes solutions & answers? Thanks so much.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 The text has all the answers to the chapter self-tests (not the main chapter tests), and answers to the odds of the exercises (including the Skills Review, Chapter Review, and Cumulative Review exercises), in the back of the book. There is a separate paperback Solutions Key here. Jackie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LindaG Posted May 10, 2013 Author Share Posted May 10, 2013 THANKS!! I 've been away from the computer for a while will definitely check out your suggestions. Linda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 We used Key to Algebra as part of pre-Algebra this year, and it would have met the minimums to pass the Algebra I end of course exam in my local school district IF the student had mastered all the topics in Key to Algebra, because there really weren't any topics on that syllabus not addressed in the 10 booklet series, but I'd call it more "Algebra 3/4" than Algebra 1. It was a good fit for my DD because of the relatively clean, large print, white space format, and I could see it being a good fit for kids with LD for that reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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