Each year I have several students in my 6th grade special education class who are unable to fit into Saxon3, 4 , or 54 as their reading level, comprehension, etc. are on a 1st-2nd grade level. I am looking for suggestions for a program (inexpensive of course) that might help these students be successful in math. Even with very intensive instruction throughout the elementary years such students make little progress with minimal retention.
This is not happy news, but my general experience is that most of these students are not going to progress in math until their language and reading issues are progressing. Whatever is holding back the reading — vision, hearing, directionality, abstract symbols — is in most cases also going to hold back the math. (rare exceptions exist, but very rare) And if a student can’t read the textbook, unless you are homeschooling one-to-one with a full-time reader, the only math that can be taught is manipulation; both explanations and applied problems are lost. The same retention issues that are holding back the reading will also apply to the math, added to the fact that manipulation without understanding is hardly ever retained.
I would teach the absolute minimum of math that I could get away legally; I would take the kids back to Grade 1 or even K materials so that they can actually develop understanding; and I would concentrate efforts on teaching them phonics and oral reading until they get moving, *then* get moving on the math. (and if you think I’m biased, BTW I am actually a math teacher who also does reading — but as a math teacher, I know exactly how badly reading difficulties interfere with math)