8th grader testing at a 7/6 in saxon?

[it's pretty fun]

I'm super new here, so apologies in advance if I'm going about this all wrong.

 

We recently decided to homeschool ds, who will be entering 8th grade this fall. I had him take a saxon placement test, and according to his results, 7/6 would be the appropriate level for him. Math is something that he's always struggled with. Throughout his 7th grade year he averaged a 68 in math, which tells me that he was not grasping the concepts; however, I feel like 7/6 is incredibly far behind his grade level. Do we back up and start over? I feel like the things he's fuzzy on (decimals and percents, even some fractions) are not only important, but essential in order to move up to a higher-level, but at the same time, I'm worried that he'll be so far behind. Is it possible to do some sort of refresher and then jump into 8/7? I realize that even 8/7 is below where most kids his age will be working, but I sort of expected that... I just didn't expect him to place at 7/6.

 

I would love your thoughts. I'd also appreciate any recommendations for curriculum that has worked well with your homeschoolers that struggle with math, if you have them.

 

Thank you!

[regentrude]

First of all: Your student is not THAT far behind. 7/6 is recommended for a slower math student in 7th grade.

 

Do not rush math.

If he places into 7/6, that's what you should use. There is absolutely nothing gained in skipping just to be "caught up" - fractions and decimals are vital math skills your student must have mastered in order to progress to higher math. A grade of 68 is barely scraping by without mastering the material (if that was one of my college students, he would be required to repeat the course.)

 

I personally dislike Saxon, but the incremental spiral and the tons of review may be a good fit for your struggling student.

If you want to speed up progress, work on math through the summers.

[it's pretty fun]

First of all: Your student is not THAT far behind. 7/6 is recommended for a slower math student in 7th grade.

Your student is not THAT far behind. 6/7 is recommended for a slower math student in 7th grade.

 

Do not rush math.

If he places into 7/6, that's what you should use. There is absolutely nothing gained in skipping just to be "caught up" - fractions and decimals are vital math skills your student must have mastered in order to progress to higher math. A grade of 68 is barely scraping by without mastering the material (if that was one of my college students, he would be required to repeat the course.)

 

I personally dislike Saxon, but the incremental spiral and the tons of review may be a good fit for your struggling student.

If you want to speed up progress, work on math through the summers.

 

That's what I'm thinking... I feel like the reason he's been been doing so poorly is because he has just been pushed through his classes, and continuing to do that (by placing him in his "grade appropriate" level) would not help him at all.

[...................]

You said he pretty much failed 7th grade math.  So you should, in your mind, figure that 7th grade pretty much didn't exist for him, in math.  So, logically, that means that he is at BEST a 6th grade level in math.  But, you also said he struggled with math throughout school.  Therefore my guess is that he also missed a bunch of 6th grade math concepts, too.  So, if you just look at it as a question of where his math knowledge sits, versus what grade he's in, in other subjects, you can see, logically, that it makes sense for him to do a 6th grade math textbook.  And, don't forget = 7/6 is for average 7th graders or "bright" or "advanced" 6th graders in math.  

 

Better to build a firm foundation, IMO.  :o)  He can always work through summers to speed up, after he spends a year or two building confidence.  And also, don't forget that SAT's only focus on Alg 1 and Geometry and a tiny bit of Alg 2.  So, even if he never decides to  "speed up" he can still complete what is necessary to graduate and take the SAT's, on his own time.  :o)

[LindaOz]

Agreeing with the responses above. 7/6 will give a good solid basis to move on from. I would definitely start there.

[SilverMoon]

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Edited September 10, 2023 by SilverMoon

[Mike in SA]

Probably, he is missing some fundamental concepts.  Get those down, and the rest will generally fall into place.  If he is showing up as 7/6 Saxon, I'd consider doing a half-pace math, by alternating days of Saxon (MWF) with days of theory (TTh).  AoPS number theory might be interesting, but tough.  If you choose something that pure, don't grade on the number theory, but just on Saxon.

 

Another alternating option would be geometry.  I suspect, though, that he really needs something more fundamental, along the lines of number theory or adult remedial math (e.g., Basic Mathematics by Goetz).  Adult remedial math is really pre-algebra, so you wouldn't lose any time there.  The nice thing about those courses is that they are soup-to-nuts.  They cover everything from the fundamentals on up.

[Reefgazer]

I would put him into whichever book the test says to put him in.  DD is going into 7th grade next year and we pulled her out of public school at the end of 5th grade.  She wasn't terribly "behind", but I did feel her arithmetic concepts from 5th grade were not as solid as they should be, mainly because they just pushed on if a child didn't understand something.  So we repeated 5th grade math, using Saxon 6/5, and then moved on.  She will be going into 7th grade next year and is now officially "caught up" and will be starting 8/7.  We were able to get her up to speed within a year or so by working on Saturdays and summer.  DD is now easily getting 90-95 on math tests; the spiral approach works well for her.  I wouldn't skip ahead to what you feel is "grade level"; work toward mastery instead.  The worst thing would be pushing a child into algebra if they weren't solid with their arithmetic.

[coffeegal]

Your son will be fine. This is the line-up for progression through the Saxon Math. You can also work through the summer months and gain another year if needed. ;)

 

8th grade - Saxon 76

9th grade Saxon 87  (if he does well, he can go directly into Saxon Algebra in the 10th grade)

10th grade Saxon Algebra 1

11th grade Saxon Algebra 2 (geometry is integrated in the older editions of Saxon Algebra 1-Advanced Math. Use those... the homeschool 2nd or 3rd editions.)

12th grade Saxon Advanced Math (the book is dense. If he can get through it in a year, he'll be ready for calculus in college. If not, he'll easily test into precalculus.)

 

Google Art Reed and Saxon homeschool. Art Reed taught Saxon Math for many years, has a book on how to use Saxon Math in the homeschool, and is available to answer questions by phone or e-mail.  He's helped me a couple of times when I had children get stuck. :001_smile:

[...................]

I love Art Reed. He gave us a phone consultation and it was very helpful.

[Pen]

Welcome!

 

One question might be why he struggles with math--different reasons might suggest different curricula.

 

And you might want to also post on Learning Challenges area.

 

Generally Saxon 7/6 may well be a good fit, and as others have posted, getting him secure at his stage would be better than trying to push ahead on a flimsy base.

 

However, if he needs a thorough refresher of everything, then something like Chalk Dust's 6th grade math which uses Basic College Math by Auffman (spelling?) and Lockwood and has videos and teacher support could be good--or just the Basic College Math text if videos and teacher support would not be useful. BCM starts with numbers, adding, and so on, and goes on to cover everything that would be before pre-algebra.

[it's pretty fun]

Thanks. This has all been very helpful and reassuring. Putting him into 8/7 (or even pre-algebra, which he would have had in public school this year) didn't seem to make sense at all, but because we are so new at this I'm second-guessing everything.

 

Welcome!

 

One question might be why he struggles with math--different reasons might suggest different curricula.

 

And you might want to also post on Learning Challenges area.

 

Generally Saxon 7/6 may well be a good fit, and as others have posted, getting him secure at his stage would be better than trying to push ahead on a flimsy base.

 

However, if he needs a thorough refresher of everything, then something like Chalk Dust's 6th grade math which uses Basic College Math by Auffman (spelling?) and Lockwood and has videos and teacher support could be good--or just the Basic College Math text if videos and teacher support would not be useful. BCM starts with numbers, adding, and so on, and goes on to cover everything that would be before pre-algebra.

 

Thank you! I was not aware that there was a learning challenges area. :blushing:

 

He does seem to have a pretty throrough grasp of everything below 7/6, but I'm going to take a look at the Chalk Dust program to see if that might be a better fit.
 

[kiana]

Your son will be fine. This is the line-up for progression through the Saxon Math. You can also work through the summer months and gain another year if needed. ;)

 

8th grade - Saxon 76

9th grade Saxon 87  (if he does well, he can go directly into Saxon Algebra in the 10th grade)

10th grade Saxon Algebra 1

11th grade Saxon Algebra 2 (geometry is integrated in the older editions of Saxon Algebra 1-Advanced Math. Use those... the homeschool 2nd or 3rd editions.)

12th grade Saxon Advanced Math (the book is dense. If he can get through it in a year, he'll be ready for calculus in college. If not, he'll easily test into precalculus.)

 

I would add also that if incorporating school in the summer, it would probably be possible to test through the review sections at the beginning of the books and thus make sure you have enough time to finish advanced math.

[MiMi 4under3]

It sounds like he will benefit from Saxon's spiral method, and that 7/6 is an appropriate place to start.

 

Don't worry about being "behind." Once his basics are solid, there's no reason he can't just start the next book once he's finished with the first one.

 

There are 120 lessons, 23 tests, and 12 investigations. That's about 155 days worth of work in a 180 day school year.

[stupidusername]

7/6 is an excellent book. make sure he does mental math and speed tests every day. Those are a big help in terms of nailing the fundamentals.

[MiMi 4under3]

7/6 is an excellent book. make sure he does mental math and speed tests every day. Those are a big help in terms of nailing the fundamentals.

 

  :iagree: 

 

Yes, don't skip anything!

[Guest]

or look into CLE. Same idea as Saxon, much easier on the wallet, and struggling kids' brains.

 

http://clp.org/store/browse/31_curriculum

 

They have a free placement test, too.

 

http://clp.org/store/by_grade/21