New Math: Everyday Math

[angerona]

igorlord сегодня ходил на собрание в нашей школе по поводу обучения математики. Там рассказывали, какой из методов используется в этой школе. Есть несколько распространенных в Америке curriculums: Terc Investigations, Everyday Math, Singapore Math, и т.д. В школах нашего города используется Terc Investigations, в школе Пухтышкина -- Everyday Math

Comments

[angerona]

да, получается, что если хочешь, чтоб ребенок нормально потом справлялся с более сложными вещами, то надо на дополнительные задания водить или радоваться, если в городской школе нормальный curriculum (как есть в некоторых городах, причем не всегда тех, что считаются продвинутыми, а иногда даже наоборот).

Про SAT не знаю, и в любом случае, все может поменяться еще.

[meshko]

Они вообще долбанулись, надо сказать. Собственно, само наличие "double digit multiplication" меня удивляет. Мне кажется, нас такому не учили, сразу сказали, что работает для любых чисел.
Теперь понятно, почему в нашей школе так гордятся тем, что у них программа по математике из 80-ых годов.

[angerona]

я там дописала просьбу писать какую программу используют в вашей школе (и название школы и частная или городская :) ).

[meshko]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxon_(teaching_method)
школа частная
я, собственно, про метод этот еще ничего не знаю, у нас пока задания по математике раз в месяц, и ребенок как раз считает так, как хотят все эти современные -- на пальцах, запоминать отказывается, когда пальцев не хватает, придумывает какие-то альтернативные подходы (типа одалживания папиных пальцев).

[ant_fugue]

If my local public school decided to teach Everyday Math as their primary curriculum, I would then consider that my child's math education is mostly my own affair, and that she will be getting nice supplementary skills at school - how to do interesting mind-expanding algorithms and group projects. In other words, I would appreciate that my school is working hard at math enrichment, while my job will be to provide basic math education in a Kumon-like fashion.

If my private school did that, I would have issues along the lines, "Ok, what are we paying here for, Singapore math anyone???", but once again, as long as you don't rely on EveryDay Math to teach your son mathematical proficiency, it may work out well.

In addition, you have an excellent resource in RMS, which is obviously a pretty unique advantage since they won't sell their materials to people outside your geographical area. ;-)

[angerona]

What math curriculum does your daughter's school use?

[ant_fugue]

Our school uses their own curriculum, geared to pass the Maryland school exams. Other than terminology (children are taught to think in terms of "number sentences" instead of "equations"), it seems fine. Last year, she had to pass a test of adding and subtracting 40 problems along the lines of "7+8" and "21-12" in under 4 minutes with an 80% passing score which took us a couple of months of daily home study to master; something similar is coming this semester with the multiplication table.

We are memorizing the multiplication table now. :-)

[meshko]

Yes, we have number sentences too.

[marmir]

Reminds me of reading methods in "To Kill A Mockingbird"...
Seriously, though, it's completely scary...

[angerona]

it is, isn't it? Although all those methods are fine for understanding the concepts - but so are lots of other things that RSM is doing, that go hand in hand with the traditional math concepts.

[marmir]

Just checked our elementary school - it's Everyday Math.

I also found rather puzzling the following sentence from the description of Newton schools' math curriculum: "By developing the curriculum one grade level at a time, the authors were able to carefully map out a sequence of instruction that interweaves concepts from each of these content strands throughout the curriculum." It's like they're saying that it's better to have a myopic view limited to the current year as opposed to looking ahead and planning accordingly.

In fact, my reaction to all this is SO negative and it seems SO illogical that I am wondering if indeed I am being a dinosaur, missing something major, and what I think is "right" is akin to rote memorization we look down upon at, say, Chinese schools.

[pro_sha]

I am very confused as well.
Lets not forget that this curriculum was developed by UofC and that most of graduates of UofC Lab School go to very prestigious universities. Do they succeed in spite of how they are taught math at UofC Lab School?

[ksushis]

This is scary.... I just watched both videos. I guess kids still need to know how to add, and also multiply by 1 and 10. An interesting question is, would anyone ever try to teach them how to divide 1 by 6?
I hope this will go away soon, as some of those "new and improved" methods do. In any case we'll have to make sure to check if they are still doing it this way when it becomes relevant to us...

[angerona]

Check what your town uses. As I said, sometimes the least likely towns will have the most robust math instruction actually :).

yes, seems like they still need to be able to add and multiply by 1 and 10, but even that can be done creatively. E.g., if I understand my coworker correctly, they are taught to add 2-digit numbers (and more) also through this "cluster guessing" approach. E.g., from her words, her son was solving "362+362" through reasoning "well, it's like 350+350, which is 300+300+100, which is 700, and then we need to add 10+10 and then 2+2..."

[ant_fugue]

See, I think this is awesome for mental math! How else would you add those two numbers in your head (OK, maybe not specifically you, but for most people that would be along the lines they would think). Ideally, kids should be able to do both.

[angerona]

http://angerona.livejournal.com/1141524.html?thread=23875348#t23875348