Has anyone used this Japanese math program?

[stripe]

I just saw a review of this program here:

 

http://www.homeschoolmath.net/curriculum_reviews/mathematics_elementary_school.php

 

It also seems (per worldcat) that the following libraries own these:

 

Morehead State University

 

 

Eastern Illinois University

 

 

Eden-Webster Library

 

 

University of St Thomas

 

 

Concordia College Library

 

 

Eastern Washington University Libraries

 

 

Univ Bibl Johann Christian Senckenberg

Edited April 25, 2009 by stripe

[stripe]

I've stumbled across Tad Watanabe's webpage. (He is a consultant with Global Education Resources, which distributes the Tokyo Shoseki books' English translations.) There is some nice information on his website.

 

Incidentally, the very last item on the Conference Notes section is a PDF file that contains many pages of excerpts from the texts that I hadn't seen elsewhere.

Edited May 1, 2009 by stripe
It's Tad not Ted

[Spy Car]

I've stumbled across Ted Watanabe's webpage. (He is a consultant with Global Education Resources, which distributes the Tokyo Shoseki books' English translations.) There is some nice information on his website.

 

Incidentally, the very last item on the Conference Notes section is a PDF file that contains many pages of excerpts from the texts that I hadn't seen elsewhere.

 

Thanks for the link!

[stripe]

I'm still reading the teacher's guide. Slowly.

 

It seems that many of the presentation slides have numerous examples of pages from the book. I really like the use of geometry in these books.

 

Watanabe claims that Georgia (the US state) has been heavily influenced by Japanese standards.

[Spy Car]

Watanabe claims that Georgia (the US state) has been heavily influenced by Japanese standards.

 

Is that something he really wants to boast about? :D

 

Ducks to avoid incoming peaches :tongue_smilie:

 

I really like the use of geometry in these books.

 

Is there a short version of what's unique about their geometry approach?

 

Bill

[stripe]

Is that something he really wants to boast about? :D

 

Ducks to avoid incoming peaches :tongue_smilie:

Couldn't one say the same about the California/Singapore connection? The Japanese model thing is new, anyway.

 

I'm telling you - the Japanese and Singaporean approaches are very similar.

 

You can read this blog about it

http://mathgpselaboration.blogspot.com/

 

Is there a short version of what's unique about their geometry approach?

I haven't a clue what's unique about it. But it seems like the Japanese books have a big emphasis on it. And it looks fun!

[Spy Car]

Couldn't one say the same about the California/Singapore connection?

 

I can't say I didn't see that coming :D

 

 

I'm telling you - the Japanese and Singaporean approaches are very similar.

 

You can read this blog about it

http://mathgpselaboration.blogspot.com/

 

I haven't a clue what's unique about it. But it seems like the Japanese books have a big emphasis on it. And it looks fun!

 

I'll follow this link too, thanks.

[JudyJudyJudy]

Is that something he really wants to boast about? :D

 

Ducks to avoid incoming peaches :tongue_smilie:

 

I live in Georgia. If what I was required to teach in sixth grade in the 2007-2008 school year was in any way related to Japanese math, I will run very fast from Japanese math.

[samba2nite]

California - Singapore Math connection? Humm....never heard of singapore until I arrived here in Home schooling world and two of my yahoos are PS and the two older were as well....

 

News to me...but I can say we love Kumon... and the kids get it in terms of how much it helping them with day to day math.

[stripe]

California - Singapore Math connection? Humm....never heard of singapore until I arrived here in Home schooling world and two of my yahoos are PS and the two older were as well....

The "standards" referred to in the Singapore Standards edition, are California standards, per SingaporeMath.com.

[stripe]

I don't know what all the hullabaloo is, setting up some Singapore/Japanese contrast as the Japanese approach is quite similar to Singapore's, and they both rank highly in math in international testing. I also have no idea what either Georgia or California is up to, and if using J/S textbooks will get J/S results.

[JudyJudyJudy]

Stripe, supposedly Georgia's standards are among the best in the country. Unfortunately, however, our performance is near the bottom. I don't necessarily blame the standards for it, but I do think we try to teach a little bit of everything but not a whole lot of anything. The reasons for our low performance go far beyond just that, though.

[stripe]

I would think that it would take time, even with the best effort and best goals, to get students up to the standards. But having standards and having students who meet them are certainly two different things. Math knowledge as a whole in this country is generally sorely lacking.

[Guest blockdude]

I have used the set of K-6 texts and workbooks and LOVE THEM!!!!!

 

I have a friend who is a cognitive expert and she says it is the best math material for that age group she has ever seen, and she has over 20 years of experience.

 

CANNOT RECOMMEND IT MORE HIGHLY.

 

David

[lisabees]

I have used the set of K-6 texts and workbooks and LOVE THEM!!!!!

 

I have a friend who is a cognitive expert and she says it is the best math material for that age group she has ever seen, and she has over 20 years of experience.

 

CANNOT RECOMMEND IT MORE HIGHLY.

 

David

 

:lurk5:

[stripe]

Really, wow. I cannot escape from this program! Just when I had sort of moved away from my idea of using it....I will have to set down and seriously decide.

[Rainbows]

May order one of the workbooks for 1st grade....

 

would this be the right one?

 

Kyoiku Dojinsha's Mathematics Workbook Grade 1 (2 volumes)

ISBN #: 1-934046-25-6

 

 

 

This one:

Tokyo Shoseki's Mathematics for Elementary School Grade 1

(1 volume)

ISBN #: 1-934046-01-9

 

looks too easy (looks like what we covered in Singapore kindy)

[stripe]

I'm not sure what those links are to. You can find these ones here http://www.globaledresources.com/ , and you do have the right titles.

 

But they have a different order of introducing topics. You can see them here

http://www.globaledresources.com/products/books/dojinsha.html <-- look under topics covered, it's a PDF file, for the workbooks

and http://www.globaledresources.com/products/books/math_elementary/topics.html <-- for the textbooks

 

although the introduction order is determined by the Japanese national curriculum, so it is the same.

[Rainbows]

not sure what happened to my links lol....this is the one I was considering:

 

http://www.globaledresources.com/pro.../dojinsha.html <-- look under topics covered, it's a PDF file, for the workbooks

 

How do these compare to Singapore as far as placement? DS finished Singapore Earlybird this past year and is already doing numbers up to 30, addition, subtraction, etc. Not sure if I should get the first grade or if it would be too much of what he did last year? Anyone tried both?

 

thanks!

 

ETA I was thinking of just trying the workbook first, then ordering the textbook if I liked the workbook

[Saille]

I'm bumping this thread to see how people feel about it this far in...also, we're about to start our last year of Miquon now. What do you think about going into a combination of Singapore and Japanese math from there? Some folks who've done Miquon have suggested MUS for use afterwards, but I'm on the fence, as international math performance has been so much higher than ours.

[Saille]

*bump* (Shouldn't have done it so late at night.)

[Ray]

"I'm bumping this thread to see how people feel about it this far in...also, we're about to start our last year of Miquon now. What do you think about going into a combination of Singapore and Japanese math from there? Some folks who've done Miquon have suggested MUS for use afterwards, but I'm on the fence, as international math performance has been so much higher than ours. "

 

We are using the Japanese Math (Global resources) along with U.S. Edition of Singapore math. Japanese Math was added this April the topics are tight and align well with Singapore’s U.S Ed. Our current level is 3A for both programs.

I have looked at Miquon only and have no strong opinion about what works well after Miquon.

 

Ray

[Rainbows]

"I'm bumping this thread to see how people feel about it this far in...also, we're about to start our last year of Miquon now. What do you think about going into a combination of Singapore and Japanese math from there? Some folks who've done Miquon have suggested MUS for use afterwards, but I'm on the fence, as international math performance has been so much higher than ours. "

 

 

We are using the Japanese Math (Global resources) along with U.S. Edition of Singapore math. Japanese Math was added this April the topics are tight and align well with Singapore’s U.S Ed. Our current level is 3A for both programs.

 

I have looked at Miquon only and have no strong opinion about what works well after Miquon.

 

Ray

 

for the Japanese math, are you using both the workbook and the textbook?

[Ray]

for the Japanese math, are you using both the workbook and the textbook?

 

Yes. But they are really short the textbooks are around 80 pages with the workbooks at about 55 pages long.

[Rainbows]

Thanks Ray

I think Im going to try a set for DS, am I correct in assuming he would be the same level he is in Singapore math? (primary 1 in Singapore)

[Ray]

Thanks Ray

I think Im going to try a set for DS, am I correct in assuming he would be the same level he is in Singapore math? (primary 1 in Singapore)

Rainbows,

the number crunching stuff (add/sub/multiply/divide) is more advanced in the Singapore 1 a/b books vs. the grade 1 books of the Japanese program. The geometry-measuring-time topics will be on par or be a bit ahead of Singapore’s. You may want to consider jumping in at the grade 2 level taking a guess based on what your student has already done number wise.

Now I did not do that because we did not spend any time doing the addition/subtraction facts work in the HIG for Singapores 1/a-b books. Our DD did a page or two of the JM 1(a) workbook, but only the 1(b) workbook was done completely. I wanted her to go through the math facts activities plus get familiar with the JM approach.

The 2(b) level of JM does introduce at least 1 topic (10,000 numbers) that shows up in Singapore 3A books. So for awhile JM has been mainly reinforcement of previously learned number crunching stuff, the Geometry topics seemed more rigorous from the get go.

[Saille]

SpyCar, where are you?

[Spy Car]

SpyCar, where are you?

 

Here I am.

[Spy Car]

I'm bumping this thread to see how people feel about it this far in...also, we're about to start our last year of Miquon now. What do you think about going into a combination of Singapore and Japanese math from there? Some folks who've done Miquon have suggested MUS for use afterwards, but I'm on the fence, as international math performance has been so much higher than ours.

 

Oh, you actually had a question :D

 

My perspective is pretty limited. We played around with Level One, but then sort of got puled in the direction of Singapore and MEP. Part of that is because I didn't have all the teacher elements for Japanese math, and so if there is any fault it's mine, not the math programs.

 

So I would want to dissuade you because *I* didn't do a full "follow-through".

 

Bill

[Melinda S in TX]

Oh, you actually had a question :D

 

My perspective is pretty limited. We played around with Level One, but then sort of got puled in the direction of Singapore and MEP. Part of that is because I didn't have all the teacher elements for Japanese math, and so if there is any fault it's mine, not the math programs.

 

So I would want to dissuade you because *I* didn't do a full "follow-through".

 

Bill

 

 

What "teacher elements" did you lack that might have helped?

 

Melinda

[stripe]

There are some teaching resources available in English, but there is no teacher's guide per se for the books.

[Halcyon]

Bumping this old thread, as both Japanese curriculums are available at a reduced price for the next week. Click on the OP's link. :)

[cellocoffee]

Thanks so much for introducing this Shoseki curriculum. Just got this and the Dojinsha workbooks sale package. I am really excited as it's close to how I learned math in Taiwan but also it's cuter with manga style, explicit drawing for each math concept they introduce.

 

We have been using Miquon and Singapore and I can see using Shoseki as an optional reinforcement for its progression goes along with SM. (No, we don't finish every page in SM but Miquon.)

 

Thanks again to all the gurus!!