Using MEP Math with multiple kids?

[hulaace]

Anyone with experience teaching multiple levels of MEP, I could really use your help!

While I love the program, I feel like it's where time goes to die in our house.  This year I'll have 4 levels going ( Y1, Y4, Y5, and Y6 (unless I accelerate and skip ahead a bit for my Y6)).  

Any advice on how to get through four MEP lessons per day and still get to anything else would be most welcome!  Thanks in advance!

[carrierocha]

We have two levels of MEP in our house and yes, it is time consuming. A couple things - we almost always skip the 5th lesson in each unit since those are review and I work with my kids throughout the week so I am sure that they have the concepts. Then I only do select problems with my kids with a goal of condensing the remaining 4 lessons into 3 teaching sessions.

Here is how I condense: 

I sit down in advance and look at the top of each lesson and see what is review, what is core and what is the extension topic for the lesson. I use that to judge where to focus - maybe 1-2 review questions, the bulk on the core stuff and then 1 extension question. When you read through the 4 lessons right together then it is easier for me to cherry pick the problems that I think encompass what we are trying to do. Typically the teacher leads a certain set of example problems, then the student pages have the kids do a similar type of problem on their own. Often we just do 1 of these and not both, unless it is something that we are working slowly through because retention is proving to be difficult.

We also tend to skip the full weeks of review as we will just add in more review problems if I think we need it.

FWIW - we typically take longer than a single school year to complete a level and I have decided that after my 6th grade daughter completes Y5 (midway through her 6th grade) then we'll try Art of Problem Solving's Pre-Algebra. When I decided to skip Y6 all together it gave me more room to slowly but surely cover all the rich topics MEP covers.

[SporkUK]

I've done Primary MEP with three. What I did from Y3 or 4 is have them to the page first independently and then go through the page and lessons together, focusing on what needed work on rather than doing it all. This worked very well for my oldest and pretty well for my second. We ended up dropping MEP after my oldest finished with it as the time sink was not worth it for my younger kids (though I still quite like it and did use MEP R, it was just too much for my kids who weren't as maths-loving as my oldest). 

We did not do MEP Year 6 or quite a bit of 5, I've found quite a few people like us where MEP 4 or 5 tends to be a burn out point and people just move to either another programme or skip to the secondary MEP which has a very different format, full instructions in the book written to the student, more online tutorials are available, and was made with kids who did not do any of the Primary MEP in mind. My oldest took not quite a full year out from MEP using a mix of things and then moved onto MEP Secondary quite happily. 

[knitgrl]

Just out of curiosity's sake....how long does it take you to go through a lesson? We are working on Year 3 now. I split it up into two sessions, usually about 20-25 minutes each. Finding a way to shorten the time is appealing, since I'll be adding her brother into the mix this year.

[hulaace]

On 7/16/2018 at 8:38 PM, carrierocha said:

We have two levels of MEP in our house and yes, it is time consuming. A couple things - we almost always skip the 5th lesson in each unit since those are review and I work with my kids throughout the week so I am sure that they have the concepts. Then I only do select problems with my kids with a goal of condensing the remaining 4 lessons into 3 teaching sessions.

Here is how I condense: 

I sit down in advance and look at the top of each lesson and see what is review, what is core and what is the extension topic for the lesson. I use that to judge where to focus - maybe 1-2 review questions, the bulk on the core stuff and then 1 extension question. When you read through the 4 lessons right together then it is easier for me to cherry pick the problems that I think encompass what we are trying to do. Typically the teacher leads a certain set of example problems, then the student pages have the kids do a similar type of problem on their own. Often we just do 1 of these and not both, unless it is something that we are working slowly through because retention is proving to be difficult.

We also tend to skip the full weeks of review as we will just add in more review problems if I think we need it.

FWIW - we typically take longer than a single school year to complete a level and I have decided that after my 6th grade daughter completes Y5 (midway through her 6th grade) then we'll try Art of Problem Solving's Pre-Algebra. When I decided to skip Y6 all together it gave me more room to slowly but surely cover all the rich topics MEP covers.

This is helpful, thank you!  I've considered just having them do every other problem or something as long as they're demonstrating understanding.  I like your suggestion of reviewing the lesson for review, expansion and core work ahead of time.  

[hulaace]

On 7/17/2018 at 5:34 AM, SporkUK said:

I've done Primary MEP with three. What I did from Y3 or 4 is have them to the page first independently and then go through the page and lessons together, focusing on what needed work on rather than doing it all. This worked very well for my oldest and pretty well for my second. We ended up dropping MEP after my oldest finished with it as the time sink was not worth it for my younger kids (though I still quite like it and did use MEP R, it was just too much for my kids who weren't as maths-loving as my oldest). 

We did not do MEP Year 6 or quite a bit of 5, I've found quite a few people like us where MEP 4 or 5 tends to be a burn out point and people just move to either another programme or skip to the secondary MEP which has a very different format, full instructions in the book written to the student, more online tutorials are available, and was made with kids who did not do any of the Primary MEP in mind. My oldest took not quite a full year out from MEP using a mix of things and then moved onto MEP Secondary quite happily. 

I'm wondering if I should sit everyone down for math at once and work my way around the table teaching the lessons as they work on the worksheets on their own.  
I've decided to do Y6 with my oldest then reevaluate for next year.  I don't see as many people doing Secondary.  Were you pleased with it?  I'm in the States and I wonder how it would all shake out for a transcript as the maths are integrated in a way we don't do in the US.

[hulaace]

On 7/26/2018 at 8:01 AM, knitgrl said:

Just out of curiosity's sake....how long does it take you to go through a lesson? We are working on Year 3 now. I split it up into two sessions, usually about 20-25 minutes each. Finding a way to shorten the time is appealing, since I'll be adding her brother into the mix this year.

Around 30  to 45 minutes, I guess, if it's going well.  I have a child with CAPD who can't read or write his own math problems very easily, so I usually work with him longer.  I want to do the lessons justice and not try to hurry through math.  But my goodness, with four different levels...

[SporkUK]

2 hours ago, hulaace said:

I'm wondering if I should sit everyone down for math at once and work my way around the table teaching the lessons as they work on the worksheets on their own.  
I've decided to do Y6 with my oldest then reevaluate for next year.  I don't see as many people doing Secondary.  Were you pleased with it?  I'm in the States and I wonder how it would all shake out for a transcript as the maths are integrated in a way we don't do in the US.

 

I prefer Secondary to Primary MEP - it has a very different format with what's taught mostly on the page and done examples right there so I can point to them as we talk through it. We use the online tutorials when available (they like the computer and it means they tend to argue with me less about whether or not the answer is right...) along the side of the books. , the mental tests at the end of each section, and the overhead and other activities as needed or when fun (I used them far more for Year 7 than for later years). The diagnostic tests are helpful for catching growing gaps before they get too far and the revision tests and extra exercises are helpful when they're found. I've only a couple times needed outside resources to help and practice. It's far less parent-intensive, it's a good transition for kids taking on more of the work themselves. 

I think it could be quite possible to do the Y7-Y9 in two years for a strong math student before high school (doing one lesson a day and tests without any days for just activities) or do it as 6-8th instead or have 9th being an integrated math course before moving onto a more traditional format if you don't want to use the GCSE program. 

Some US schools do use integrated math. In the high school I graduated from, there were four years of maths literally titled Integrated Maths (grade level). Having transferred from a high school with a more tradition format it was difficult (and I ended up using the local community college to finish math instead, but that was more an issue of having moved so often I had gaps that I needed to go back to move forward rather than an issue with the program). You might need more of a description for a transcript but if you like MEP, I think it would certainly be doable. 

[hulaace]

8 hours ago, SporkUK said:

 

I prefer Secondary to Primary MEP - it has a very different format with what's taught mostly on the page and done examples right there so I can point to them as we talk through it. We use the online tutorials when available (they like the computer and it means they tend to argue with me less about whether or not the answer is right...) along the side of the books. , the mental tests at the end of each section, and the overhead and other activities as needed or when fun (I used them far more for Year 7 than for later years). The diagnostic tests are helpful for catching growing gaps before they get too far and the revision tests and extra exercises are helpful when they're found. I've only a couple times needed outside resources to help and practice. It's far less parent-intensive, it's a good transition for kids taking on more of the work themselves. 

I think it could be quite possible to do the Y7-Y9 in two years for a strong math student before high school (doing one lesson a day and tests without any days for just activities) or do it as 6-8th instead or have 9th being an integrated math course before moving onto a more traditional format if you don't want to use the GCSE program. 

Some US schools do use integrated math. In the high school I graduated from, there were four years of maths literally titled Integrated Maths (grade level). Having transferred from a high school with a more tradition format it was difficult (and I ended up using the local community college to finish math instead, but that was more an issue of having moved so often I had gaps that I needed to go back to move forward rather than an issue with the program). You might need more of a description for a transcript but if you like MEP, I think it would certainly be doable. 

Thank you so much for this thoughtful response!  Now I'm kind of wondering if I should have prepared for Y7 instead of Y6.  ? I think it's a great program and I like how it teaches math.  Maybe I'll just continue on and put Integrated Math on his transcripts. Maybe that's not an issue at all.  I wondered if colleges would have a hard time with that as it's out of the norm, but maybe it's more common than I knew.   We've used MEP since the Reception level, so as long as he has good understanding he shouldn't have many gaps.  And by he, I mean all my kids!  lol