Dolciani Pre-algebra and Algebra

[Bocky]

I am thinking I will use Dolciani pre-A and algebra for my dd12. We used Singapore for 2nd through 4th, and Horizons in 5th and 6th. Horizons has gone well and is an option for pre-algebra, though she tends to race through it. I'd like to use something that challenges her more and takes more than 20 minutes a day. I did try adding in Jousting Armadillos this year, but she really loathes the discovery method, and hated it. She is a "just explain it to me clearly then get out of my way" student for math.

 

So Dolciani has Student books, Teacher's books and Solutions guides with many different publication dates. What do I want? Does it matter if I mix and match the dates, or does my teachers guide need to be the same publication date as my student book? I have a weak math background myself, so I can use all the help I can get. (I am currently working through Khan Academy's algebra challenge to refresh my math knowledge.)

 

Any Dolciani users out there? What do I need?

[Mrs Twain]

Dolciani pre-algebra is very challenging. There is no way your child will finish it in 20 minutes.

 

We really liked using the Teacher's Edition for pre-A, especially because it has daily lesson plans for both the core course and for the enriched course. The enriched course includes many of the most difficult problems.

 

You can search by ISBN for the edition you like to make sure the TE goes with the student book you are using. There was an old thread that listed ISBN for Dolciani, but here are the ones I used:

 

Dolciani pre-algebra: An accelerated Course

1985/1988 teacher edition: 0395430518

1985/1988 student text: 039543050X

[Roadrunner]

I am familiar with SM and Dolciani, but not Horizons. If you have a kid who finds math easy, the odds are Dolciani preA will be a piece of cake. My 4th grader began zipping through it so fast, I had to change the course. As far as challenging math goes for preA, I see AoPS and SM as the only options. Since AoPS is discovery method, why not try SM 7 for preA? I wouldn't call Dolciani preA challenging.

[Haiku]

I agree that Dolciani is challenging. My dd liked it, for the most part, but her biggest complaint was that each chapter was its own topic; there was no real building on concepts from chapter to chapter. It seemed to be more of a last catch-all before algebra.

 

It did prepare her very well for Foerster's algebra. She has frequently remarked, "Oh, I remember this from pre-algebra."

 

All we used was the student text (1985). The answers to the odd problems are in the back of the book. I assigned every odd problem in the entire book to my dd and it was (in hindsight) more than enough. The problems are in A, B, and C sets. The C sets can be particularly challenging. My dd generally worked on Dolciani for 20 - 90 minutes a day (the 20-minute days were rare).

 

I think there were two problems in the book that we couldn't solve just by looking at the answer alone. I asked a friend who was a math teacher to help us with those. Other than that, the instruction in the book is very clear, and if dd wasn't able to work out a problem on her own, either I could do it or she and I together could figure it out.

 

I highly recommend Dolciani for students who are good at math and who don't mind spending an hour or more a day on it. I would not recommend it for kids who struggle or who would be frustrated by the need to spend up to 90 minutes (or more) to finish a lesson.

 

Dd plans to keep her Dolciani book as a reference book. She has referred to it several times this year in algebra.

[Haiku]

My 4th grader began zipping through it so fast

 

This is not typical.

[Bocky]

Dolciani pre-algebra is very challenging. There is no way your child will finish it in 20 minutes.

 

We really liked using the Teacher's Edition for pre-A, especially because it has daily lesson plans for both the core course and for the enriched course. The enriched course includes many of the most difficult problems.

 

You can search by ISBN for the edition you like to make sure the TE goes with the student book you are using. There was an old thread that listed ISBN for Dolciani, but here are the ones I used:

 

Dolciani pre-algebra: An accelerated Course

1985/1988 teacher edition: 0395430518

1985/1988 student text: 039543050X

 

Challenging sounds good. I would like her to be challenged at math, rather than coasting as she is now. I am a big fan of teacher's editions; I really like having a daily lesson plan as a guide. I typically spend five to ten minutes at the beginning of math working with my dd, then just answer questions if she has one as she works. It is a great help to have an answer guide too so I can grade the lesson quickly right after she does it - that way we catch mistakes early.

 

Thanks for including the isbns.

[Bocky]

I am familiar with SM and Dolciani, but not Horizons. If you have a kid who finds math easy, the odds are Dolciani preA will be a piece of cake. My 4th grader began zipping through it so fast, I had to change the course. As far as challenging math goes for preA, I see AoPS and SM as the only options. Since AoPS is discovery method, why not try SM 7 for preA? I wouldn't call Dolciani preA challenging.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience with Dolciani. If dd12 starts zipping through it, I will have to find something more challenging; but I'm hoping it will be at a good level for her. Making the middle school math decision has been tough. I have read and read over the fence-straddlers thread.  :001_smile: I changed from Singapore (which I really liked) at my daughter's request. She disliked it, and asked for "more review"; so I picked Horizons as it seemed to be a solid course that spirals. It's worked well too for these two years; I just think she could use more challenge.

[Bocky]

I agree that Dolciani is challenging. My dd liked it, for the most part, but her biggest complaint was that each chapter was its own topic; there was no real building on concepts from chapter to chapter. It seemed to be more of a last catch-all before algebra.

 

It did prepare her very well for Foerster's algebra. She has frequently remarked, "Oh, I remember this from pre-algebra."

 

All we used was the student text (1985). The answers to the odd problems are in the back of the book. I assigned every odd problem in the entire book to my dd and it was (in hindsight) more than enough. The problems are in A, B, and C sets. The C sets can be particularly challenging. My dd generally worked on Dolciani for 20 - 90 minutes a day (the 20-minute days were rare).

 

I think there were two problems in the book that we couldn't solve just by looking at the answer alone. I asked a friend who was a math teacher to help us with those. Other than that, the instruction in the book is very clear, and if dd wasn't able to work out a problem on her own, either I could do it or she and I together could figure it out.

 

I highly recommend Dolciani for students who are good at math and who don't mind spending an hour or more a day on it. I would not recommend it for kids who struggle or who would be frustrated by the need to spend up to 90 minutes (or more) to finish a lesson.

 

Dd plans to keep her Dolciani book as a reference book. She has referred to it several times this year in algebra.

 

Good to hear that Dolciani worked for your dd. I really appreciate hearing other people's experience. I am thinking "good at math and willing to work hard at it" is my dd. I hope the lack of review won't be a problem. It's good to know about it up front. Maybe I will need to make up some warm-up sheets that review past concepts as we go through, as my daughter has complained about lack of review in the past.

 

Thanks for posting the edition you used - that is helpful too.

[Bocky]

I appreciate your replies. It looks like I do need to match the year of the teacher's guide and student edition that we use. It sounds like 1985 has worked well for a couple of you. The student guide has answers to the odd problems - so are the answers to the even problems in the teacher's guide? Has anyone used the Solutions Guide? Is it all the problems with each step laid out, or something different?

[Mrs Twain]

The TE has all the answers for all the problems, including the evens. It does not show how to solve the problems. I don't have the solutions guide.

[Lucy the Valiant]

Using Dolciani (1985) pre-algebra this year with 2 12-year-olds after Singapore 1A-6B, and it is going quite well. Some chapters are nearly all review of concepts they already know from SM, and we zip through those quickly (area, volume); other chapters are almost brand-new material, and we take those more slowly (graphing inequalities). We do just the odd-numbered problems for most chapters. The "word problems" in Dolciani are several levels behind SM's word problems; we just do a few of the Dolciani ones orally every now and then to confirm the English-math translation abilities.

 

We have the student book and the teacher book, and all 3 of us would probably classify as "math adequate" (one of them enjoys it, and the other just does it). We will do Dolciani Algebra next year.