College of the Redwoods Pre-Algebra

[Melisa Burke]

We have been using COTR for about two months and I can't seem to find anywhere that the book does review of previous lessons. I am used to constant review with Rod and Staff, plus the Prentice Hall Algebra I book that my daughter is using seems to have a fair amount of review. Am I missing something or is review not deemed necessary? If review it not deemed necessary at this point, are there any suggestions for working with students who would benefit from review work?

[GeorgiaMom]

I too miss the built in review. I have done a couple of things. I made copies of the previous quizzes and trotted them out once a week. I also start each lesson by choosing a few questions from the previous section, putting them in the board, and having him solve them as a warm up to the new material. I do wish there was a dedicated review, but these small things have been helpful for us!

[MamaHill]

I am also running into the same issue with my 7th grader. We just finished the Chapter 1 test, and I can see that she is going to need daily review Rod-and-Staff style.

Thank you for those suggestions, Tracy! As with everything else, I just need to get the daily spiral review scheduled for the chapter so I can just put it on auto-pilot.

[Melisa Burke]

Ladies,


Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It looks like this weekend will be spent working on a review plan.

[Mrs Bee]

I made my poor kids go through *all* the odd exercises, using evens if I saw they were needed. There are so many exercises that you could keep quizzes and tests simply as review material now and then. But you are right, Melisa: all along I had this feeling I was missing something, because there didn't seem to be a strong review component - I just thought I was doing it wrong as usual But a lot of COTR is in itself review of concepts that should have been taught already - at least, for us only the true pre-algebra parts and graphing were completely new (we came to it from 6 years of Singapore Math.) I took it as one last opportunity to make sure some things were understood once and for all.

[SPQR]

I'd be interested in hearing any other opinions on this course, or of any of the above posters' experiences after the passage of three years. We have had tremendous success in using the Rod and Staff mathematics series for mastery with both of our kids. I was starting to look at the 7th grade offerings, and was surprised to see this instead of R&S 7. When I looked at the sample lessons, it felt like so many of the other math courses I've seen and discarded in the past. Perhaps we are spoiled by how good R&S prepares our kids.

Is anyone aware of why COTR replaced R&S? I'd be interested in further impressions / successes/challenges using COTR, as I'm not at all convinced it will be right for our students and our cottage school. Many thanks!

[MamaHill]

I'd be interested in hearing any other opinions on this course, or of any of the above posters' experiences after the passage of three years. We have had tremendous success in using the Rod and Staff mathematics series for mastery with both of our kids. I was starting to look at the 7th grade offerings, and was surprised to see this instead of R&S 7. When I looked at the sample lessons, it felt like so many of the other math courses I've seen and discarded in the past. Perhaps we are spoiled by how good R&S prepares our kids.

Is anyone aware of why COTR replaced R&S? I'd be interested in further impressions / successes/challenges using COTR, as I'm not at all convinced it will be right for our students and our cottage school. Many thanks!

I commented originally on this post, so I'll share the rest of our experience that year.

We waded through a couple of chapters of COTR, but it was not the right fit for us. Then we moved to Saxon 8/7 (huge, HUGE mistake). I finished out Saxon with that poor child, but it was a lost year for her in terms of math. We went on to Algebra I but had to go VERY slowly due to math not being her thing and her awful Pre-A year.

The next 7th grader of mine took BJU's Grade 7 math (it's not Pre-A, but VERY good), and is doing Mr. D's math because this is a very heavy academic year for me to teach and I just couldn't add it in.

Maybe COTR is a good fit for more independent, get-it-the-first time type of learners, but it's not a good fit for my children who need consistent review.

Plus there are no teacher helps. I need much hand-holding in All The Subjects.

[Jen_NH]

I'd be interested in hearing any other opinions on this course, or of any of the above posters' experiences after the passage of three years. We have had tremendous success in using the Rod and Staff mathematics series for mastery with both of our kids. I was starting to look at the 7th grade offerings, and was surprised to see this instead of R&S 7. When I looked at the sample lessons, it felt like so many of the other math courses I've seen and discarded in the past. Perhaps we are spoiled by how good R&S prepares our kids.

Is anyone aware of why COTR replaced R&S? I'd be interested in further impressions / successes/challenges using COTR, as I'm not at all convinced it will be right for our students and our cottage school. Many thanks!

R&S doesn't have pre-algebra or algebra. MP has to use a different program to move into those higher maths.

My older son did COTR on his own without issue.

My younger son is doing it now. It is total hand-holding with him. I don't know that anything else would necessarily be better because he simply HATES school and will do ANYTHING if it means not doing school work.

I am able to teach it myself, though. I find the explanations in the book to be a sufficient reminder to me for what to do, so there's that.

[tanya]

Hello.

We used to use R&S 7 and then went straight into algebra, but we found that it didn't adequately prepare our students for algebra. That's why we moved from R&S to COTR. R&S 7 does have algebra concepts, but they aren't taught to mastery in the way COTR teaches.

Tanya

[HeatherG]

For what it is worth, my very not mathematically inclined, highly distract-able oldest used COTR last year, and it was fantastic. After the first little bit she was mostly able to complete the lessons without my help and it helped fill some gaps she had in math. It is very thorough and increased her math confidence as well as ability. She is now working through algebra one without challenge (at least until they brought in travel word problems, but that is a reading comprehension, not math issue).

[Mom2mthj]

For what it is worth, my very not mathematically inclined, highly distract-able oldest used COTR last year, and it was fantastic. After the first little bit she was mostly able to complete the lessons without my help and it helped fill some gaps she had in math. It is very thorough and increased her math confidence as well as ability. She is now working through algebra one without challenge (at least until they brought in travel word problems, but that is a reading comprehension, not math issue).

I can’t speak to COTR as I have looked it over, but never used it. It is written for older remedial students. The size and formatting of the book seemed intimidating so we passed, but not for actual content reasons. I did want to comment on the word problem statement (not necessarily to you, Heather G, but more a general observation). I have had three kids go through algebra and never really found issues with word problems to be strictly an English reading comprehension issue. Math is a language and word problems remind me of the English to Latin translation exercises. Most really don’t like them and it is easy to talk yourself into skipping them, but they really show how well you understand how the language you are learning (Latin or math) really works. Take the time to do the word problems (and the Latin to English). You will be glad in the long run even if your kids are annoyed at the moment.

[HeatherG]

I can’t speak to COTR as I have looked it over, but never used it. It is written for older remedial students. The size and formatting of the book seemed intimidating so we passed, but not for actual content reasons. I did want to comment on the word problem statement (not necessarily to you, Heather G, but more a general observation). I have had three kids go through algebra and never really found issues with word problems to be strictly an English reading comprehension issue. Math is a language and word problems remind me of the English to Latin translation exercises. Most really don’t like them and it is easy to talk yourself into skipping them, but they really show how well you understand how the language you are learning (Latin or math) really works. Take the time to do the word problems (and the Latin to English). You will be glad in the long run even if your kids are annoyed at the moment.

I appreciate your thoughts on the word problems. We don’t skip them, actually we have slowed way down on math to really dig in to help her figure out what each question is asking and how to turn that into an open statement/math sentence. If I boil it down she can translate it into math but she seems to genuinely not know what it is asking or where in the couple of sentences the information she needs is. I think it is a combination of an attention issue and being smart enough to grasp lower level/ surface concepts quickly. She is the type to read a paragraph and generally get answers correct but not know what some of the words mean, yet also feel no need to check what they mean. It leads to some funny discussions when she has guessed wrong entirely. So for us in our house, it is the same problem across many subjects, and therefore not a math issue specifically.

[sfhargett]

I also had to bail on COTR.

I wish MP would make video lessons. hint hint