8th math & the classical curriculum

[HiTekMom]

Hi,

I was reading an interesting article title, "The Order of Learning" by Martin Cothran in "The Classical Teacher" resource booklet, Winter '06, Vol 6, No.1 published by MP.

Mr. Cothran wrote about teaching the "how" of math concepts first, rather than the "why" of math concepts. I whole heartedly agree. However, he did not mention any referring math resources.

I am struggling to help our 13yo, ds, enjoy math as much as I love teaching it. I have come to understand that 13yo boys, especially visual types, prefer the non-lecture approach to teaching anything. He isn't struggling because he doesn't get it. He struggles because he'd rather do something else.

I'm afraid he's not ready for pre-algrebra. I believe I may have to take him back through the basic. But, this time I want to teach the method which will allow our son to master the basics of math, rather than use the "drill and kill" method, as stated in Mr. Cothran's article.

If anyone has any suggestions, or if Mr. Cothrans scans this forum, I would greatly appreciate your comments.

[Nicole]

Gosh, I don't remember anything in that article about "drill and kill".... I'll have to look back. But I have found that drill does not, in fact, kill. My children (and I myself!) like the confidence that comes from mastery.

You didn't mention which program you're using, or which approach you took during your son's primary years. My oldest went to public school through 5th grade, where he did not learn his facts. He's 14 now, 8th grade, and working through Algebra I, Saxon. It took him an age and a half to get through 8/7, which is a sort of remedial book that is supposed to prepare the student for Algebra 1/2, (pre-algebra). Since my son's test scores averaged close to 90%, we decided to leap right into Algebra. And boy, am I glad that we did! Algebra is actually fun. I had no idea. After a couple of weeks of Algebra I, I commented to my son that his work was so much neater than last year, and it took him far less time to complete his lessons. He shrugged and said, "well, now I look at each problem as a little puzzle to solve, instead of a death threat."

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if your son [I]has [/I]mastered the basic facts, maybe he just needs more challenge. The pre-algebra can get a little long winded. With our younger son (3rd grade) we're taking the same approach as outlined in the article you mentioned. We're using Rod & Staff -- which I highly recommend (you can read other posts on this website about those books). I am embarrassed to say that I truly had no idea how to teach the basic facts, and these texts were very helpful. If I could do 6th and 7th grade over, I would use R & S to lead up to Saxon Algebra.

I know that you said you love to teach math, but have you considered getting a third party involved? I have a friend who is a scientist. She came over one night and went through some of my son's missed problems, because she [I]loves [/I]algebra. She was able to give encouragement and guidance (saying all the same things I had said!) that my son was not able to hear from me. There was an immediate and amazing improvement in his test scores. You might just want to sit down with someone who knows about math and discuss what works and does not work with the program you are using, and what skills might be missing that you could work on during the summer, to prepare for next fall.

Though, I would also say that if you think it's the text that might be the problem, I would recommend that you think very seriously before dumping the program. It truly took us several years to adjust to the Saxon program ("30 problems, Mom! I can't do it!"). Sometimes learning the discipline and routine is half the battle.

You also said that you think your son would rather be doing other things.... Well! I feel the same way about lots of chores, but I do them! Our policy is that math must be completed before 9:30am, when we move on to Latin. No threats, no "or else", that's just the bottom line. This means that we're up and at 'em bright and early and we put the whole business behind us and can move on to other things. We correct missed problems in the evening. Having the math looming over us (him) all day was just horrible. He spent more time agonizing about it that actually doing it. We're a much happier little unit since that 9:30 rule was put into place, let me tell you!

I'm sorry this is long. I don't know if this is helpful at all, but I hope there is something here you can use. I've had such wonderful support from folks in this forum. Hopefully others will weigh in, too.

Good luck!