I spent a good deal of my time this evening helping my younger daughter with her math homework (right now, she attends PS middle school). Maybe it's just me, but I find that her math textbook really doesn't explain things well. She was in tears because she couldn't grasp the essence of the first problem - and I had to explain to her a couple of principles that the book really wasn't getting across. It was frustrating for both of us, but she got it in the end. For me, this incident just goes to show that some textbooks, no matter how well known the publisher or how many editions they've printed, are really not very good. You don't find this out until you're trying to work through a particular chapter.
I agree with you. For whatever reason my oldest dd is liking her textbook for her Algebra workshop class I guess because it's the same type as she had in ps and she gets it. She was really pleased that she went in to math lab and was able to do her homework without help because she understood the book. I really thought she wouldn't like the book since she liked Saxon so much.
Yup. I've reviewed quite a few different programs and picked up some public school texts and have been frustrated with many of them. It's one of the main reasons I stick with Singapore I think, the explanation are far above anything else I've seen.
Yes, I've seen some terrible math textbooks, at all levels including college. People write them and publish them, and that's it. This is why I have a help forum and activity reports for the algebra course I wrote. I can adjust my course as students take it, just like a classroom teacher can adjust his or her instruction. I've always liked books, but the Internet does offer opportunities that paper books don't. Publishers of medical textbooks are now turning to e-books that can be updated as soon as new information is available, rather than in the next edition.
The school my dd is going to is using two math programs together to be sure the kids are 'getting' math. SOs and MUS, I am in process of working the two together to make them work as one.. this is not easy! they each cover basically the same things but in different time periods so that I have a Lesson 1 working with a Lesson 23 then lesson 2 working with lesson 5, then lesson 3 working with lesson 1 ... and to grade this work I would nto even try with out a teacher book! Btw, dont the publishers for a classroom (ie public school systems) have TE, or TM for all that "instruction stuff'? shouldnt her teacher at the middle school have taught the basic first step? Sigh, but thanks becuase it reminded me why I am homeschooling.
That is why I am hope Teaching Textbooks works for us - it is a completely different method of instruction. Keep your fingers crossed!!!
OK - so the issue came back again today. Last night, my younger daughter had to answer the following multiple-choice question: Which graph would be most appropriate to show the number of miles each student walked in one week for a charity walk-a-thon: a) Circle graph b) Stem-and-leaf plot c) Line graph d) Bar graph I explained to her when to use each type of graph: - Circle graph when numbers represent parts of a whole - Stem and leaf plot when they represent the same thing - Line graph when numbers change over time - Bar graph when comparing different things This was in her textbook, although they explained it a little confusingly. She took one look at the question, saw the words "one week", and promptly selected answer (c). The correct answer is (b) because the numbers all represent the same thing - number of miles walked by a student. Given the school's honor code, I couldn't say that her answer was wrong - but I made a point to ask her about it today when she arrived home. Imagine my frustration when her answer was that the teacher wasn't sure of the correct answer: "She looked it up in her book, daddy, but she was confused." This teacher is a very nice lady, but I'm so frustrated that she doesn't know the material she's trying to teach. I'm going to spend this evening putting together an automated quiz with a bunch of questions of this type so she gets it and isn't confused. In fact, I'm now tempted to create quizzes for every topic she studies in math - my determination probably fueled for as long as my frustration lasts!
I'm not surprised. I saw some prospective math teachers struggling through their courses with C's and D's. When I went to take the Florida Teacher Certification Exam for high school math I was quite nervous because I had read about high failure rates, but it was shockingly easy. I'm sure those struggling students did just fine. We could use higher standards, but I guess then there wouldn't be enough teachers. To see what goes on in middle school I borrowed a middle school math book from the college library. I was disgusted after just an hour. the book covered many advanced concepts but in a very superficial and confusing way. Students were even expected to learn trigonometry, in just two pages! It's sad, but that's why we homeschool - to get away from stuff like that.
And just to confuse her even more, the book's chapter about graphs starts out by showing two example graphs. The second of the two shows values changing over time. So what type of graph did the book authors choose to use? A bar graph! If, later in the chapter, a student had chosen 'bar graph' as the best way to represent values changing over time, the answer would have been marked wrong. (Now she's spotted this, she plans to point it out to her teacher tomorrow. ) I realize I'm really picky about math and science in general, but these are the topics that must be mastered if we're going to continue to lead the world in technology, right? Both China and India graduate more honors students every year than we graduate students, and a far higher percentage of their students (honors or not) pursue degrees in math and science. If we don't do a better job teaching these subjects to our children, we're going to pay the price down the road.
