Callahan syllabus for Jacobs Algebra

[ColleenInWis]

Thanks to another thread, I heard about the Callahan syllabus.  I don't believe we need the dvds, but I'm curious about the free syllabus.  Since they pick-and-choose which problems to assign from Sets 2/3, is it thorough enough?  I've been through Jacobs 5 times with other children, so I think I'll be able to tell if dd isn't getting it.  But, the other students did all the problems (from one set or the other).  I also like the fact that they don't test after every single chapter.  Any other pros or cons from your perspective?  Thanks.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I asked this question awhile ago, and based on the responses  I decided to go with assigning Set 1, 3 & 4 rather than the Callahan syllabus.  This way if she needs more practice, it's easy to assign the additional set rather than having to go back through and figure out which number problems she didn't do already.  But I like the tests that are included with that syllabus and plan to use them.

[JadeOrchidSong]

We do Sets I, II, and IV. I only have the textbook.

 

Rose, I find the first few chapters unnecessarily wordy. I haven't looked at the later chapters and I miss good word problems. Younger ds is doing Singapore 6A and there are many good challenging word problems in the Intensive Practice. I really miss that part for older ds who is doing Chapter 3 of Jacob's. I broke down and just ordered Foerster Algebra 1 to add that in. I wonder if I am overshooting. I would rather spend more time on Algebra 1 to build a solid foundation than to move fast on to geometry. What do you think so far of Jacob's?

[Chrysalis Academy]

It's really too soon to say - she's still in Ch. 1 and finding it really, really easy.  Like, too easy . . . but this is clearly review for her, after having done JA.  In retrospect, we could have skipped that and jumped right into Jacobs last year.  Anyway,  I'm withholding judgment until she gets a little further along.  But I do hear good things about the word problems in Foerster's . . . I do think that adding that in would be a reasonable thing to do.   I have the AoPS Algebra book too, so that adding problems from the chapter review/challenge section is what I'm currently planning on, in the interests of not buying yet another Algebra 1 text.  But that option is not off the table!

 

We both like the approach of Jacobs and find the wordiness just right - a welcome reduction from the wordiness of AoPS!  :laugh: I have trouble figuring out if Jacobs seems easy because we really click with the presentation - a good thing! Or if its actually substantially easier than other things.  I'm not looking to make things harder than they need to be! Just to be sure it's challenging.  The fact that other kids here have used Jacobs and gone on to major/excel in math makes me feel confident that it is solid, and relieved that the presentation seems to be working for Shannon so far.

[JadeOrchidSong]

Double post.

[JadeOrchidSong]

Rose, you are right about a lot of it in the beginning is review after we have done Life of Fred Prealgebra and most of Dolciani Prealgebra plus some Discovering Mathematics. Foerster algebra 1 used is pretty inexpensive, so I think there is no harm having it on hand to add in some word problems once in a while. I do not plan to use very much of it. I simply do not want him to forget how to do word problems.

Thanks for the reassurance that many students using Jacob's have gone on to be successful in higher math and science.

[wapiti]

Jade, FWIW, I think the first half is easier than the second half.  As I've been typing up the exercises into worksheets for my ds to use at school, I can see how the difficulty ramps up both later in the book and toward the end of the set 2 exercises.  (I'm literally at a point that I'd have to look up the lesson to remember how to do some of them.)

 

I don't have Jacobs in front of me (both my copies are at school today) but the word problems I have seen so far are broken down into steps more.  IIRC, Foerster will have a greater number of, and more challenging, word problems for simultaneous equations, for example.  I like Foerster too, but for the ds11 in question, the gentle presentation of Jacobs is key, as this one has a tendency to freak out if he sniffs a whiff of difficulty.  If I could do the math together with him, we would probably do quite a bit of AoPS too as we have in the past.  I think Jacobs is perfect for his situation - it'll make him think, but it's sneaky about it.  (Other ds11, who has already done quite a bit of AoPS but has other issues going on, admitted last night that Jacobs moves to slow for him - and then he said that AoPS does too - but I don't think he means that.. maybe I'll see if I can convince him to take the online class and be done with it - that would make me so happy.)

 

Eta, sorry Colleen, I didn't mean to take your thread off-topic.  I can't even find my old link to the syllabus.

[ColleenInWis]

Eta, sorry Colleen, I didn't mean to take your thread off-topic.  I can't even find my old link to the syllabus.

 

That's ok...  I'm looking the syllabus over each day as we come to a new lesson, seeing which problems Callahan chooses and experimenting with whether those are enough.  I suspect the dvds cover some of the material in the problems Callahan doesn't assign for homework.  I don't like that Callahan doesn't include all the Set 1 problems, unless they are also reviewing that material in "class" via dvd.  I will stick to having dd do all the Set 1 problems--I know kids forget how to do some of those so I can't see any reason to skip them.

[JadeOrchidSong]

Sorry, Colleen, to be off track.

Wapiti thanks for the thorough review of Jacob's. As I said coming from Singapore's multi step word problems to the baby steps of Jacob's takes ME time to get used to. Ds11 does not say it is easy. So it is just right for him. However, I would like him to be able to solve multi step problems sometimes without the scaffolding Jacob's provides, if that makes sense. Thanks!

[songsparrow]

I tried picking and choosing which questions to assign to my daughter, and I did not find it to work well.

 

I've come to think that the Set II / III problems are designed to be an integral part of the lesson.  The lesson text introduces the basic concepts, but the Set II / III problems allow the student to expand that information step-by-step into new areas.  It lets them have a series of aha! moments that allows them to really explore and extend the concepts in a logical manner.  When we skipped problems - even if they looked repetitive - there was more confusion than when we did them all.  Now, we do the Set II problems together as part of the lesson and I assign the Set III problems as homework.

 

I actually just wrote a blog post about it, if you're interested in a little more detail.

 

ETA:  As far as the scaffolding, I think that you could often adjust to skip that by simply introducing the problem and asking for the final answer, and checking to make sure the key interim points were hit in reaching the answer.  If the student is struggling with how to approach the problem, you could then use the sub-questions for guidance in working through the steps.  We often start discussing the problem before we've read all the way through the sub-questions, only to discover that in our discussion we already answered a number of the sub-questions.  

[Chrysalis Academy]

Thanks for linking your blog post! That was great to read, as Jacobs newbies.