tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post5874527897107450201..comments2024-03-26T14:44:37.985-04:00Comments on D-Ed Reckoning: News from the trenchesKDeRosahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06853211164976890091noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-90309461029372974992008-07-02T16:41:00.000-04:002008-07-02T16:41:00.000-04:00We've been tutoring my older son with Kumon for se...We've been tutoring my older son with Kumon for several years -- my wife is Japanese and this lets her tutor in a way familiar and comfortable to her (do they make DI curriculum in Japanese? I could imagine a lot of the ideas being rather powerful). Anyway, the main point is that with sustained effort it's rather easy to outperform the inefficiencies of regular public schools, even good ones. My son's on fourth grade in Kumon (he'll be going into third in the fall in real life). He's also become good at mental math, and can add numbers into the thousands mentally, and is working on the last stretch of memorizing the multiplication tables to 12*12.<BR/><BR/>I agree that learning algebra is the payoff. And, that the school system's focus on manipulatives is a bit overdone. My son hated drawing the little dogs to add four dogs to five dogs, e.g., and started just scattering check marks or pencil dots to represent the dogs after doing the problem. Fortunately his teachers were relatively understanding about it (though, surprised he seemed bored). <BR/><BR/>I also tutor my preschooler (going into kindergarten this fall) with Engelmann's 100 Easy Lessons. My second son is not fluent in English, so this is a bit of a challenge (in fact, his spoken English is rather poor). Engelmann does warn about non-native speakers in the book, so I hold him blameless for any slow progress on our part. For what it's worth, though, we're making progress and have gotten through about thirty lessons (and it's helped with his English, as well). I could see us getting through another ten before kindergarten, and he'd be reading phonetically what teachers teach as "sight words". He may also be aided by going to a summer day camp for a month where most of the people won't speak Japanese (his first day was yesterday, and a disappointingly high number of the children speak Japanese, but at least none of the counselors do).<BR/><BR/>My third son is two, and has been taking an almost alarming interest in my lessons with my second son.CrypticLifehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05313033952671292402noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-60313288588451908902008-07-01T23:42:00.000-04:002008-07-01T23:42:00.000-04:00I have been meaning to do a field report, but stil...I have been meaning to do a field report, but still haven't worked up the energy.<BR/><BR/>The biggest news is my soon to be 3rd grader improved two grade levels in reading during the year thanks to an awesome teacher. The really good news is she has the same teacher next year (the teacher requested her). She still went to summer school, but she is finally performing on grade level.<BR/><BR/>My new 8th grader, the one who was failing math 2 years ago and spurred my education blogging kick, got straight A's the entire year... <BR/><BR/>The bad news... Anchorage School District formally adopted Everyday Math.TurbineGuyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09781298806992944235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-74442588423252156442008-07-01T20:58:00.000-04:002008-07-01T20:58:00.000-04:00I homeschool my two sons ages 9 and 11. My now 9 ...I homeschool my two sons ages 9 and 11. My now 9 year old began CMC C near the end of 2nd grade, completed it the middle of 3rd and is currently half way through D.<BR/><BR/>He's diagnosed with Tourettes Syndrome and ADHD inattentive variety, as well as expressive language delays. So, I guess he would be a "low performer" if he attended school.<BR/><BR/>In addition to other DI programs, CMC has been a life saver for us. He largely performs at grade level. We do every lesson, although not necessary every problem. I have had to back track lessons, due primarily to my failure to teach to mastery. Our largest issue during lessons is really keeping him focused and on task.<BR/><BR/>When I initially began the program I was too ridgid with the script and not sensitive enough in accessing his understanding. I've improved as a teacher as we've progressed. I have had to fight the urge to press on even when I know he wasn't completely "with me".<BR/><BR/>I've looked in detail at other programs and CMC covers more material with more depth than any other I've seen.<BR/><BR/>Just wanted to add my experience.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-44709338132157895402008-07-01T20:13:00.000-04:002008-07-01T20:13:00.000-04:00With lower performers, you have to use all the exa...<I>With lower performers, you have to use all the examples and non-examples, and you often have to circle back and "repeat until firm." Then farther along, you may find you need to go back and re-do parts of lessons because the group is not firm on those items. Frequently more practice than what was provided would be needed.</I><BR/><BR/>I had read something very similar in a recent DI NEWS article on CMC by Jerry Silbert, I believe. It is simply amazing the amount of extra instruction in math that lower performers need compared to higher performers. That amount of practice provided in CMC is about four times what you find in most other curricula and incrediblly some students need even more than that. When I teach my son, I routinely skip all the paired practice, all the math family practice, and often skip every other lesson if we are doing lessons consistently (4-5 a week). This year I've also been neglecting math, sometime for a month at a time. Then when we resume, he gets right back into it with little or know backtracking. Of course, my son falls into that 25% of kids who is going to learn math regardless how it's taught.<BR/><BR/><I>when students are taught to mastery they retain all or nearly all they were taught -- in fact they may even gain over the summer (e.g. in reading) the way more advantaged students typically do.<BR/></I><BR/><BR/>What's your take on the recent study taht suggested that low SES kids learn as much as high SES kids during the school year, and all the extra learning accomplished during the summer by the high SES kids. I find this difficult to swallow.KDeRosahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06853211164976890091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-215680116734435132008-07-01T18:32:00.000-04:002008-07-01T18:32:00.000-04:00he doesn't consistently provide the units for word...<I>he doesn't consistently provide the units for word problem answers.</I><BR/><BR/>By the middle of the year, my eleventh grade physics students consistently provide the units for word problem answers.Roger Sweenyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12734128265493099062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-51856748868164751162008-07-01T18:31:00.000-04:002008-07-01T18:31:00.000-04:00Now that brings back memories. The only time I us...Now that brings back memories. The only time I used CMC was when I was in the World's Worst Middle School (makes Corey's school look like Groton or Choate by comparison, I'm sure), teaching seventh grade. A couple of us decided to redistribute some of the classes for math -- nobody was anywhere near grade level, but with some grouping the thought was maybe we could teach some of them something. <BR/><BR/> I volunteered for the bottom group (I like a challenge). These were not "special ed" kids, by the way, though some might have been able to meet criteria if they were written up and tested. <BR/> <BR/>I wasn't prepared for the reality. I had 17 or 18 students in the math group, none of whom could add or subtract with regrouping, count money to five dollars, or measure the perimeter of a square. Ouch! Of course we had no materials, either. A generous individual on the DI list sent me a set of CMC-C. Two kids did not pass the placement test, but I tried to nudge them along anyway. With no student materials, I used an old opaque projector (borrowed from another school) for the textbook, and put most of the work on the broken chalkboard (we had no overhead projectors or whiteboards). It took these seventh graders about two days to do a lesson, but at least they started learning some math -- maybe for the first time. <BR/><BR/> With lower performers, you have to use all the examples and non-examples, and you often have to circle back and "repeat until firm." Then farther along, you may find you need to go back and re-do parts of lessons because the group is not firm on those items. Frequently more practice than what was provided would be needed.<BR/> <BR/>CMC is efficient because the students who do NOT need that amount of rehearsal and practice can sail ahead, but some students will progress very slowly. You're correct that in most cases little or no "forgetting" takes place over the summer -- when students are taught to mastery they retain all or nearly all they were taught -- in fact they may even gain over the summer (e.g. in reading) the way more advantaged students typically do.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-37056067854654034592008-07-01T16:17:00.000-04:002008-07-01T16:17:00.000-04:00Success is his motivation.CMC presents its lessons...Success is his motivation.<BR/><BR/>CMC presents its lessons very clearly and quickly, so he learns the material easily and is able to perform at a high level.<BR/><BR/>The work is easy, he is successful doing it, and he sees a tangible benefit.<BR/><BR/>He'd rather be watching Spongebob or playing Wii, but he will sit and do his math, usually without complaint.KDeRosahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06853211164976890091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-60308796576352102082008-07-01T16:03:00.000-04:002008-07-01T16:03:00.000-04:00Thank you for providing a view from the trenches, ...Thank you for providing a view from the trenches, so to speak.<BR/><BR/>I too am tutoring my son, even though he goes to a decent school full time during the school year. It's hard to get the lessons done because there are many distractions, and we're all tired.<BR/><BR/>I was wondering . . . what did you do to keep him motivated? Or is CMC pretty motivating because it allows students to show they can handle the concepts?RMDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08625944233681296812noreply@blogger.com