Greta Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 (I also posted this on the logic/middle grades board.) My daughter is taking classes through an online school now, which we generally love. But I am thinking of supplementing the Algebra, both right now and probably over the summer as well, and I am not sure which resources would be best for this. First of all, my daughter feels that the textbook's explanations are not thorough enough. And I agree with her that they are a bit cryptic. I think she would benefit from something "wordier" and more detailed/thorough. Is there anything you could recommend in such a case? Also, though my daughter has always been bright with math, she has confidence and/or perfectionist issues that are causing her to stumble. Math has always come relatively easy to her, so now when she encounters a problem (especially word problems, or big multiple-step problems) that she doesn't immediately understand, she gets really frustrated and wants to just give up. I need to figure out some strategies for helping her tackle problems when it isn't instantly obvious to her what she needs to do. But I am really at a loss about how to teach this, so any and all advice is appreciated! Also, is there a book (or workbook) full of just Algebra word problems that we could gradually work through to give her extra practice? Thanks for your help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 For additional explanation of specific topics, we've liked the AoPS pre-algebra and algebra videos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Posted March 14, 2014 Author Share Posted March 14, 2014 Great, thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 ... I need to figure out some strategies for helping her tackle problems when it isn't instantly obvious to her what she needs to do. But I am really at a loss about how to teach this [Word Problems], so any and all advice is appreciated! Also, is there a book (or workbook) full of just Algebra word problems that we could gradually work through to give her extra practice? Thanks for your help! You might consider Anita Harnadek's Algebra book. Algebra Word Problems Book 1 (She also has a book for Algebra 2.) Then there is How to Solve Word Problems in Algebra by Mildred Johnson My husband uses both of these in his math tutoring. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Posted March 16, 2014 Author Share Posted March 16, 2014 Thank you, Kareni. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkT Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 What textbook are you using? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Posted March 16, 2014 Author Share Posted March 16, 2014 What textbook are you using? It's K12's course - partially online and partially with their own printed reference manual. But the reference manual is rather . . . "minimalist"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Togo Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Tagging onto this thread. We have a dd who responds to word problems in the same way, and I am exploring options for helping her visualize and translate word problems. Just throwing this out, but which do you think is a better option? Using Singapore elementary materials and working through the portions that deal with word problems or AOPS? Does AOPS help with the visualizing and translating issues? Btw, I am not sure if those are the correct words to describe her problems, but what comes to mind today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 1Togo, Instead of trying to weed through the Singapore elementary texts for the word problems, you might check out the i-Excel: Heuristic & Model Approach series at SingaporeMath.com or available from cbd. The levels correspond to the Singapore Primary Math levels, but they focus on only the word problems and different strategies for solving them. I've started these with my daughter because I really want her to have at least some of the benefits that my boys had from doing the full Singapore PM1-6 series. Singapore was too much of a stretch for my daughter, but, now that she's come into her own with math, I figure we can at least work through some of the word problem solving strategies. The i-Excel books aren't as thorough as doing the whole Singapore textbook/workbook/IP/CWP series, but it's something. yvonne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Togo Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Yvonne, Thank you! I didn't know about these. Dd is finally understanding math and even able to reason through some word problems, but I want to expand on this. Where did you start in the series? 1togo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 I started at 3 with my daughter, because I figure she'll just slow down where it's harder for her. But, she's only 11/6th grade. I don't know if an older student would balk and think it was too simplistic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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