Since so many have asked about having Khan as a spine

[Jean in Newcastle]

I just wanted to say that after using Khan as a spine for 3rd through 8th grade, dd was able to jump right into Jacobs Algebra.  She is having no problems and so far this year we have not had any holes.  I'm not trying to recommend this or anything but just wanted to give feedback since some people were pretty vocal about how dumb I was for doing this.  Yes, she is 9th grade in Algebra but when we started Khan in 3rd grade, she had cratered in math and had gone all the way back to 1st grade level so we had some catching up to do.  I wanted to wait until we were into the book some before telling people how it was going.  Of course she could crash and burn now, but since it would be on new material she never saw in Khan, I think I can say that Khan did not hurt her.  (Note:  Khan did stop working for her at the end of 8th grade and we are very happy switching to Jacobs.)

[OneStepAtATime]

Yeah.  So glad things are going well with the switch and thanks for posting about your personal experience using Khan for an extended period of time.  I know this comes up a lot on these boards.   :)

[IsabelC]

Although we are still using KA just as a supplement for when the kids want a change from their regular curriculum, this is interesting to know. I've have read some theories about why KA isn't adequate, but ultimately it doesn't matter what somebody's theory says if you find it works for your student.
 

[Jean in Newcastle]

I should note that we never used khan as something for my dd to do without me. I've always taught the material. I don't believe in kids teaching themselves.

 

 

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[Mrs. Tharp]

So how did you use it? Did you watch the lecture, then guide her through the new concept yourself? Or do you mean that you sat with her during the explanations? I am curious because Khan as a spine is something I may consider for my youngest. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

So how did you use it? Did you watch the lecture, then guide her through the new concept yourself? Or do you mean that you sat with her during the explanations? I am curious because Khan as a spine is something I may consider for my youngest. 

 

Dd absolutely hates the Khan videos!  So new explanations were done by me actually explaining it to her.  And showing it to her with pen and paper.

 

We had a system.  For each new grade level she was required to do the mission foundations (found under "show all skills") first.  Once those were mastered then she was allowed to pick from any two skills during math time.  We always started out with mastery challenges (essentially reviewing).  Once she had exhausted all mastery challenges for the day she went to the two skills she chose to work on.  (This was not hard and fast - depending on how long it took her she might do more or she might do less than that.)  Quite often she was able to figure out the new skill based on previous math she knew since it was a short jump ahead in difficulty.  Or she would look at an example of how it was worked out and that would be enough for her.  Or I explained it directly.  I was always sitting right with her unless it was a mastery challenge because I wanted to be able to see immediately if she was understanding and to explain it right away without her learning it incorrectly or spinning her wheels.  She would work on that skill until she was able to do five correct in a row.  Unless this was at the very start of a grade level, and thus easy, it quite often took her awhile because she might do 3 right, get one wrong, have to work out why it was wrong and start again on accruing her five correct.  Again, I was right there so was there to intervene if she continually got some wrong or for some reason was frustrated by this.  Once she had her five right on that skill, we would move on to her next skill choice.  These skills would show up the next day in the mastery challenges when they would get reviewed.  Mastery challenges also reviewed further back and often rotated skills back in that had not been done in awhile so she got review of things that way as well. 

 

I know that may people use Khan as a review/practice with no parental input.  And I think that's fine, of course.  But because I was using it as our spine, and because dd was catching up in math, I was conscious of wanting to be there for all but the review portions. 

[LMD]

Sounds great! I admire your tenacity in doing what works consistently for 5 years! Were you tempted to switch? I enjoyed reading how your lessons ran, thank you for sharing.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Sounds great! I admire your tenacity in doing what works consistently for 5 years! Were you tempted to switch? I enjoyed reading how your lessons ran, thank you for sharing.

 

Since I saw dd proceed from being 2 years behind to 1 1/2 years, to 1 year, to 6 months and then be caught up. . . no.  If I hadn't seen consistent progress, then I would have definitely switched.  Dd is a visual spatial learner though and that might have something to do with it.  (I have no real idea if it does, but it's a possibility since this  method allowed her to see the big picture of how the problems worked and then infer the steps to get there.) 

[gstharr]

I should note that we never used khan as something for my dd to do without me. I've always taught the material. I don't believe in kids teaching themselves.

 

 

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   Seems like you were the backbone, rather than Khan the spine.

[Jean in Newcastle]

   Seems like you were the backbone, rather than Khan the spine.

 

LOL.  In one sense, yes.  I said that because it seems like a lot of people who are looking at Khan are looking for something to teach their kids for them without them having to get involved as a teacher.  I just wanted people to know that that was not how I used it.  It may have different results if you use it with that in mind.  (Or maybe not.  I have no idea and no more kids to experiment on.  ;)  ) 

 

PS - I don't look for the Jacobs Algebra book to teach my dd either.  We are using that book as a text, but I"m still actually teaching the math. 

Edited September 30, 2016 by Jean in Newcastle