Another College of the Redwoods Question

[MamaHill]

I'm starting to make the COTR review sections as we talked about in this recent thread.

I am having concerns as we get further into it.

How do you have your students review for the quizzes and tests? We are very used to doing the review section in R&S Math as a great prep for the chapter test.
My 7th grader just finished Chapter 1 and took the test - and scored a 71. I can already tell this is not enough review for her, and I realized it before she took the test. Despite doing many of the even problems prior to the test, she didn't feel very prepared for it.

She scored solid 88-95's on her R&S Math daily work and tests. I feel like she is solid through R&S Math Grade 6.

I'm concerned there are going to be too many mom-made supplements needed to go with COTR in order for her to be successful. Should I stop where we are now and go to something else?

I have Math Mammoth 7th grade (their Pre-A) here at home, but it won't work for her. It was perfect for my son, but it is a hard no-go for this child. She thrives with R&S Math-style.

I have concerns about my daughter being successful with COTR if we only do it as written with no further review.

Any suggestions on how to have success with COTR without me spending hours and hours (that I don't have) to add supplementation?

Lauren

[DiannaKennedy]

I'm paging my friend RunnerJoy ---- she taught her son COTR at home and is now in Prentice Hall Algebra I with him. Hopefully she can help.

And, if it makes you feel better, Rachel's first prealgebra test score was pretty dismal, too.

[RunnerJoy]

Hi There, Thanks for tagging me Dianna ?! We did do COTR at home last year and are nearing the end of Prentice Hall Classics Algebra 1 this year. I'm teaching Algebra 1 to my oldest and a friend's daughter, who used a different program for Pre-Algebra. Hopefully this offers you some peace for the long term, they are both doing well in Algebra 1. I did not do COTR perfectly and I'll do some things differently the next time around. There is much review of Pre-Algebra in Algebra 1, in fact the first chapters are very similar. I dug out my COTR to compare because I wanted to be sure my memory served me well. My oldest has never struggled with Math, I made the mistake last year of letting him go after Pre-Algebra without much instruction. He came to me when he knew he needed help, but he really did a lot on his own. His first test was terrible as well, so I jumped in and became a little more hands on. Then as his grades got better, he started flying solo again. For him, that was ok. It will not be the case for my next three. What I've learned this year teaching Algebra 1 to a kid who gets math easily and one who tells me weekly that she hates math, will hopefully be helpful to you teaching Pre-Algebra.

Have your child create Flashcards for Definitions, Properties, Formulas, etc. For example looking at page 16 & 17 of COTR, I see 4 gray boxes and each one should be a flashcard. This is the ramping up and changing of Math from what our children are used to. When looking at a quiz or test, your child needs to know what they are being asked to do. If they don't know the difference between the properties, they will struggle coming up with how to work the equation, let alone a correct answer.

From the Flashcards, you can create a weekly quiz. This can be really simple if it's just the two of you. Choose 4 or 5 cards, in random order flash the cards and have her orally answer, make note of what she needs to study more. These quizzes shouldn't be heavily weighted for her grade, they are to ensure mastery of the work.

How are your Math skills? You don't have to actually answer that, just mull it over. I have learned for myself that I cannot jump into teaching Pre-Algebra and above without first doing some problems on my own. I actually sit down and work on Algebra 1 for a couple hours each week before I teach new lessons. Normally I get through 4 lessons in 2 hours, sometimes I'm much quicker now that we're nearing the end of the year. I know that's not the answer you were hoping for because it creates more work for you, but because I've been doing this my son gave me the best compliment. He told me recently that this has been his favorite year of Math and he doesn't want to change it up (we discussed trying MPOA), he wants to continue with me teaching Algebra 2! Love that he's enjoying it, secretly wanted him to choose MPOA ?

I hope something in here is helpful! Happy to answer any questions you may have.

[Cindy in Indy]

Hi Lauren,
I have not followed all the previous threads carefully, but my radar goes up when I hear a 7th grader scores 71 on a pre-algebra test.
There is a large jump in abstract reasoning from arithmetic (R&S 6) to pre-algebra/algebra. Readiness for algebra follows development of abstract reasoning and maturation, not necessarily chronological age. It generally cannot be rushed. Some students are ready for more abstract mathematical reasoning in 7th grade; others need another year to mature (not social maturation, but brain maturation).
Have you considered letting your daughter gain maturity by working through R&S Math7 for a time? Perhaps next fall she can make another attempt at COTR.
A risk of pressing on with a student who is not yet ready, is they may develop an attitude of "I'm not good at math", which is exactly what you don't want. Continue to build her math fluency and confidence while waiting for that "magical" brain development to happen. If you hold steady, and she continues to practice arithmetic, she will be ready to thrive when the day comes.

[MamaHill]

Well, please don't throw tomatoes....

I ordered something different for her - Saxon 8/7. It gets here on Friday, so we will see once I look over it.

I know her learning style very well, so I feel confident I'll be able to predict her success from reviewing the curriculum once I have it in my hands. If it's not a good fit, we will return it and I'll rethink this whole scenario for the millionth time.

I really appreciate all of you chiming in. It was so helpful to read and ponder your responses. I DO feel like she's ready to make the leap to Pre-Algebra, and she feels ready too. She does need a bit more practice with calculations, but she's using review sheets from R&S to continue mastering those.

As far as my own math ability...sigh. I have to re-learn the whole chapter (and try to stay way ahead of her) so I can actually teach it to her. You're right in that I have to study a bit each week so I can teach her. The weeks I go into not prepared are bad news.


"A risk of pressing on with a student who is not yet ready, is they may develop an attitude of "I'm not good at math" Cindy in Indy She doesn't say this (yet), but she does say,"I don't take a test well." And to be honest, she doesn't test very well. Something about calculating the correct answers on a test is really hard for her. Her daily math is quite accurate, so I'm not sure how to help her with test testing. Do you have any suggestions by chance?

Thank you all again!
Lauren

[tanya]

Lauren,

I'm no math expert, but I'm wondering if you could build confidence by letting your student have a second go at the problems she misses. Grade the test immediately, and any problems that are incorrect, copy them onto another piece of paper for a second try. Give full credit for any second try correct answers. Then, as your student gets more relaxed (knowing that she is getting a second chance) and more accurate on tests, start only giving half credit for corrected problems. This gives your student the opportunity to immediately see where she has gone wrong, which will hopefully result in fewer errors on succeeding tests.

When I was teaching, I always gave my students partial credit for correcting their tests because I wanted them to be aware of what they did wrong. If I just handed them back, they never looked at them, just filed them away. So I feel like this is a further opportunity to teach.

Tanya

[MBentley]

I'm pretty good at math now....but I flunked my first attempt at pre-algebra. There were extenuating circumstances, and perhaps by teacher was awful (Mrs. Pulaski, if I ever find you....). Still, I never got on board that year. I went from being an A student to a C/D student. The next year, I repeated it with Mrs. Lang ( Angel that woman was). For whatever reason, the second time through everything - EVERYTHING - clicked. I was an A student again.

Point is - What about starting over back at page 1. I vividly remember this great "aha" moment about f(x) during this period that completely went over my head the first time around and all fo the abstract information that followed just put me into a deeper pit of confusion. You know the expression "If you want to get out of the hole, first put down the shovel"? I think pre-algebra is a lot like this. It didn't do me much good to soldier on. I had to go back to the beginning to find where I lost my way.

I think finding alternative resources to explain the same thing is fantastic. There are no perfect math books so having multiple ways to say and show the same thing can be handy here. I'm not saying drop one course for another so much as using the others as references.

Good luck Mama.

[RunnerJoy]

Lauren,

I'm no math expert, but I'm wondering if you could build confidence by letting your student have a second go at the problems she misses. Grade the test immediately, and any problems that are incorrect, copy them onto another piece of paper for a second try. Give full credit for any second try correct answers. Then, as your student gets more relaxed (knowing that she is getting a second chance) and more accurate on tests, start only giving half credit for corrected problems. This gives your student the opportunity to immediately see where she has gone wrong, which will hopefully result in fewer errors on succeeding tests.

When I was teaching, I always gave my students partial credit for correcting their tests because I wanted them to be aware of what they did wrong. If I just handed them back, they never looked at them, just filed them away. So I feel like this is a further opportunity to teach.

Tanya

Yes, we find this necessary too! Especially with quizzes because my kids use their quizzes as one of their studying tools. Just yesterday, we were going over a quiz and many problems were missed because the same mistake was made over and over. When found, they were able to fix them all and get every answer correct!