Math Question-Mastery vs. Spiral

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  • May 30, 2013 at 3:06 am
    TX-Melissa
    Participant

    Hi y’all!

    Its been a while since I’ve put my .02 in here or asked a question. But I have been checking in to attempt to sort of keep up. 🙂  Anyway, I thought I’d check in to see what your thoughts are regarding math. I was planning on using Teaching Textbooks for my ds this fall. I seem to recall that that program is more of a spiral approach, is that correct? Otherwise I thought it would work well for him. But today I’m having some doubts. We’ve just started using Easy Peasy math for the summer, and it is definately spiral. We’ve pretty much used more mastery based programs in the past. But he would prefer something he can work on more independantly, I believe, because Mom tends to frustrate him when I try to explain math. 🙂

    Anyway, so far he’s been doing pretty well with it. We started off with some multiplication, and continue to work on that. Then it introduced division and he handled that OK. Well, today it introduced decimals and was comparing decimals to fractions – very simple using money and I showed him how we have to use both when we write a check. He kept saying “I don’t get it!” and just about fell apart. But really he did get it and was able to answer questions correctly. When it came down to it, he was frustrated at how the curriculum keeps switching operations on him.

    So now I’m worried whether TT will be a good fit for him after all. Is this frustration just because he’s not used to working this way with math? I actually thought he’d prefer a more spiral approach so he could do various types of math rather than spending so much time just on one concept. Perhaps over the summer he’ll get used to it and be OK? Or should I look for something to stick with the mastery approach? Is there something similar to TT that would fit that bill? Easy Peasy does seem to be switching up pretty quickly, we only started using it a week or so ago. Will TT be a more slow spiral, maybe? What has your experience been – those of you that have used it? Thanks so much for any input, or just talking me down off this wall of doubt and indecision.

    Melissa in TX

    May 31, 2013 at 2:08 am
    Rachel White
    Participant

    Both of mine do Math-U-See. They do it very independently; watching the DVD themselves. It is mastery, but the last three pages incorporate review of previous concepts, so it keeps past things fresh.

    May 31, 2013 at 2:25 am
    JennyMN
    Participant

    We’ve used TT for years.  I think it is a more slow spiral appoach but I don’t have anything to compare it to.  The nice thing is that if they get the problem wrong they can click on view solution and watch how to solve it.  I love this feature because they don’t make the same mistake on several problems in a row.

    May 31, 2013 at 2:32 am
    missceegee
    Participant

    We use MUS like Rachel. We tried TT 4 for my dd a few years ago and she liked it when it was all review, but when the new material started, she HATED it because it jumped around so much. This was simply our experience, of course.

    May 31, 2013 at 3:12 am
    TX-Melissa
    Participant

    Thanks! Good thing I have the summer to keep thinking about it and maybe check out other options.

    Thankfully, he did much better today on Easy Peasy. So it may just be a matter of getting used to it. We’ll see how he does for a little while longer, into the summer.

    I appreciate the input.

    Melissa

    May 31, 2013 at 3:18 am
    Rachel White
    Participant

    I failed to mention that my dd tried TT3, but it wasn’t sticking. She has had a problem with sequential thinking and place value-orderly thinking skills-and TT definitely didn’t work for her. She just thought the games were fun, but didn’t seem to know why she was doing what she was doing and still couldn’t add or subtract more than single digits. It went too quickly before solidifying a previous concept.

    MUS solved all those problems for her.

    Hope you find what works.

    June 1, 2013 at 2:17 am
    pecangrove
    Participant

    We tried TT for 4th grade, but it just didn’t work… my son didn’t retain much. So after a few months we switched to CLE. It is spiral, has plenty of review and is fairly independent with the way they explain things, though I still sit with him and make sure he’s getting it.

    Another somewhat mastery program is BJU math. Though there is a small amount of review each lesson, it really wasn’t enough for my son, so we went back to CLE. I don’t know why we ever left it, but I can’t see us ever leaving it again.

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