Scheduling Math U See – Help please

Amy, MathUSee is a mastery-based curriculum.  That means that every child that uses it will need it in different ways and at a different pace. You will likely not need the video every day.  I think it’s best to schedule your lessons in a chunk of time that the child can pay attention–fifteen to twenty minutes of work.  Then stop, and pick up again the next day.  You will  likely have lessons that take you several days; sometimes you might have a lesson that takes a single day; occasionally you might take weeks on one. 

Be sure and watch the introductory video portion for parents on the DVD; also read the introductory information in the teacher’s manual.  There are additional helps on the website, you can contact your representative, and there is a discussion group if you need help on the fine points or help knowing when your child has achieved mastery.  Also, the first material in Alpha is on place value.  Do NOT go on until you are certain your child understands place value THOROUGHLY.  This is critical to the rest of the curriculum. 

Each child will go through at a different pace and need different times and amounts of work.  Here is a rough idea of what to do:

–Begin by watching the video together.  Have the blocks out with you, and have your child do what Steve tells the children on the video to do.  Pause if necessary so your child can “work out” the blocks with the video. 

–Take out the blocks and the teacher manual and go over the concept with the blocks, using the practice ideas in the TM.  Do this for 15-20 minutes a day until you are certain your child understands the concept.  This may take one day; it may take several.  Use the blocks, use words, use writing on paper when appropriate.  When you can sit back and ask the child to demonstrate or explain the idea to you, then if the child has it correctly, decide how much practice he or she needs. There are in most books three practice pages that cover just the new concept; you can do one of those, all of them, or whatever works.  If the child clearly has the concept down, can work quickly, then do a systematic review page.  These are important pages–they review past concepts as well as the new one, and usually also include word problems (the most important ones!)  Again, you can do one or two or all three.  You might spend one day on worksheets or you might take many days to do them all.

–If the lesson includes a memory component (you need to memorize all the +2 facts, for instance) then spend time working on those with your child.  You can do this simply and orally, during lesson time or throughout the day;  you can use the drill function on the website, or whatever other method you like.  You want your child to be comfortable and quick with those  facts–when you call out “5+2” you want to hear that “7” quickly and confidently.

–I like the tests.  Some CM’ers don’t.  But I think they are a useful tool for me to see if my child needs more work in an area.  Then we can go back one lesson or many more lessons and do some additional practice problems if a child misses problems on the test.  You do not have to grade the test and tell your child; until the children are older I just look at the test, notice what they missed, and see if they need review work on that concept. 

So.  A lesson might take a couple of days.  I once had one take almost a month (double-digit by double-digit multiplication!  Ack) 

HTH