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AoPS self paced Intro to Algebra questions??


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We started Algebra 1 with the AoPS books at home. We did Chapters 1, 5 and 8 at home together. I had Foerster’s for backup and used the word problems from it for additional systems of equations practice. 
 

Then I decided to just have him do self paced with AoPS. I chose self paced in case the online class went too quickly. Since it is mostly review, we have done some chapters at home, and the alcumus has already been completed through chapter 5, he is already on Chapter 4 after starting on January 10. I expect him to slow down when Alcumus must also be completed. 

I counted over 80 practice problems in chapter one of the book and that chapter didn’t even have the ton of review problems and Challenge problems like most chapters in the book have! He didn’t do that sheer amount of problems in self paced…
 

He gave up on 1 challenge problem in chapter 1, 2 challenge problems in chapter 2 at which point I told him to NEVER hit give up and ask a question of me or post his questions on their forum instead of answering at that moment. Then he gave up on one challenge problem in chapter 3!! So he has a small amount of orange, some green and mostly blue in all 3 completed chapters. 

I have not made him do the actual reading because well, they say you don’t have to and it has been review so far. 

Questions are: 

Am I right about not ever hitting “give up”? He can’t seem to fix the orange at this point…

Alcumus is mostly green, should I insist he turn them blue? 
 

Honestly much of this so far feels like it is no more difficult than Beast Academy. Have you found the self paced to be easier for the student to complete than doing it with just you at home? 

 

Are the “lessons” on self paced pretty much the same discovery they use in the book in the Problem sets? 
 

Do you have your student go through the problems in the book for initial work before the “lesson”, videos and challenge problems on the self paced? In other words, do you make them read through the section first? 
 

Do you have them go through the review and challenge problems in the book before going to the next chapter in self paced? Or is that only if they struggled with a specific concept?

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1 hour ago, Kezia said:

Have you found the self paced to be easier for the student to complete than doing it with just you at home? 

In other words, do you make them read through the section first? 

Working with a parent at home using just the textbook is more time-consuming then letting them work independently online.  The self-paced online option wasn't available to me at the time, so we used the textbooks at home.  My dd's attempted every single problem in the textbooks.  They never did alcumus and never watched the videos.  If there were any problems they couldn't figure out we worked through them together.  

I'm sure there are some students who can read the textbook independently, but I think it's a big ask for most students, even in high school.  I read the textbook out loud with my student next to me.  I had a pad of paper and wrote through their example problems line by line (hence all the time required).  

We spent one day on each section of a chapter and then 1-3 days on Review Problems and 1-3 days on Challenge Problems.  

If you want to salve the Give Up buttons, you can present the problem to him, on paper, once again.  If he can solve it, then move on.  If he can't, review the solution with him.  The problem sets are so short as it is, you want your student attempting as many as possible.  

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1 hour ago, daijobu said:

We spent one day on each section of a chapter and then 1-3 days on Review Problems and 1-3 days on Challenge Problems.  

This is approximately what we did when I was guiding him just with the books at home. We did chapter one like that then we skipped to chapter 5 and then 8 because he had high interest in new material. I only asked for a handful of the Challenge problems, but he did all problems and exercises. 
 

With online self paced, he has not yet touched the book. I told him I want him to read/work through the problems in the sections when he gets to chapter 6. I still am present and working through the self paced with him the majority of the time. I know he would have done quite a few more problems total had we gone through the book like we were previously. 

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