school math dilema

My daughter is in 7th grade pull-out math. The math teacher was using Saxon 54. Our tutor was using Saxon and so we decided to use Math-u-See instead. That math teacher quit and we got a new math teacher in January who is using connected math per principal's instructions. Our tutor will still be using Math-U-See and my husband is doing a couple chapters out of Saxon with our daughter. The problem is that with the new math teacher there is alot of assignments she is not doing and Fs that she is now getting. I think it is beyond what she knows as a fraction homework sheet came home where she would have to figure out the common denominator and we haven't taught her that yet in our tutoring. The math teacher wants to cover alot of different math concepts so that the students are exposed to it. My husband said he will teach the concept if the teacher gives him an itineary the week before. I am thinking we are doing way too much. Should we give this a go or should I get principal or even higher ups involved?

Agree 100 percent with Janis, although parallelling two programs is often a good idea (twice the practice and sometimes a different view). Exposure in math is tidiculous; just leads to fear and frustration.
As far as the fraction sheet homework, here is a method: just don't do it. Send a note to the teacher saying your daughter has not yet been taught this material and does not know how to do it, so you are not wasting your time doing the sheet for her. Stick to your guns on this. Sure they can hand out lots of F's, but what can they *really* do to you or to her? After enough not-done sheets, they will have to re-think their approach. Doing the sheets would just convince them that they are doing the right thing and it is succeeding, so don't go down that road.

Well now the teacher has contacted me saying that she will be creating materials for the class at the early 3rd grade level and if she sees they comprehend that, then will increase difficulty level. On the WIAT II she scored 5.8 math reasoning and 3.8 numerical operations. So isn't this stepping too far back? She was doing fine getting As & Bs in the Saxon 54.

I"d let the teacher do *whatever*... and carry on your own program.

"Too far back" will be review, and IMO it is difficult to have too much of that. "Exposure" to new stuff is far, far more harmful.

Sue J, webmastress www.resourceroom.net

A supplemental program that might be helpful is the "Key To Fractions" set of workbooks. These are available from many sources. One of them is http://www.rainbowresource.com. These are quite well-done in terms of both explaining how to do things and providing practice. (I am thinking especially of the fraction equivalents you mentioned, but they have a lot more.)

Another approach for fractions that I have used and liked is the book by Marilyn Burns titled "Lessons in Introducing Fractions". This is available from Amazon. Although designed for classroom use, it is pretty easy to adapt to one-on-one. One of the great things about this book is that it starts out by having both the student and the teacher make their own sets of manipulatives (for use in the games in later lessons). This, plus the games, really helps a child take ownership of the concepts being taught.

Nancy

I really like Marilyn Burns' books, though sometimes they have a lot of language for my very dyslexic students. She does an excellent job of building real understanding and application of the concepts.

Sue J, webmastress www.resourceroom.net