Math curriculum

Talking about our new math curriculum seemed really vital to some readers, so I'll write about it before I forget. 

It all started when I read the book Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics: Teachers' Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics in China and the United States by Liping Ma last year. (I linked to the post I wrote about it.) I know it sounds like someone's dissertations, and in fact it is. For those of us who had less-than-spectacular math experiences in grade school, it is also a complete eye opener. 

I don't know about you, but just like described in the book, so much of my math instructions was summed up by the 'learn the trick' method. As far as I was aware, there was little to no explanation of the why we did things we way we did. Why did we carry a number? Why did borrowing work? Why did we add a zero or move over a spot when doing multi-digit multiplication? I had no real idea. I did the trick, I got the right answer, I got placed in the high math group. My attempt to explain that I didn't really get what was going on at the beginning of a grade late in grade school resulted in me being put in a lower group for about two weeks. One day, I was told to collect my things because I would be in a different math class from then on and away I was whooshed to the high math class to continue to do the tricks correctly. 

When I read this book, I felt as though my entire mathematics childhood was suddenly made clear. No wonder I didn't feel as though I didn't understand, I was never really taught it. There wasn't really anything wrong with me and my abilities to understand math after all. This didn't help me when I was teaching my older children math. I taught them the way I was taught and they ended up having the same experience. 

I will say, that as I continued to go back and teach math from the beginning each time, things began to sort themselves out in my head. I would have consistent moments of, "Aha! So that's why we do this!" or some variation of that with great regularity. I felt I did improve greatly in explaining and teaching the concepts, but still felt a little fuzzy about how best to go about really helping my children understand what was happening and not just doing the trick. This is why I so loved reading about the many different ways that Chinese teachers would explain mathematical concepts to their students. It all (finally) made sense and thus seemed to much easier to communicate. It is also why, when I read that Ms. Ma had helped to create an elementary math curriculum, I was immediately on Amazon looking for it.

So here is what it looks like.

This is what was labelled the fifth grade book, and

This is what was labelled the sixth grade book. 

There are no actual grade levels written on the book itself, so I don't know where the 3rd party seller found them. Since I own both, I compared them. The green book (which is the one we're using) is nearly identical to the yellow book. The only difference is that the green book has a few more lessons that the yellow book skips. I would just go with the green book if I were you. 

They begin at a very basic level. Very basic. I think this was good for my crew because they had some really easy success right away which helped them to have positive associations with it. I also like that it backs up and covers real mathematical basics so that if any concept has been missed, they can catch it a second time. 

Here is one lesson. Each lesson is a two-page spread and it is a consumable book. 

This lesson has fewer math problems on it to complete than others, but so far no one has complained about there being too many.

I actually cannot think of anything I don't like about it. The children and teachers who talk about math are a diverse group. It doesn't move too fast. And, most importantly, it uses the language and the concepts in Ms. Ma's book which help explain math in a way that really explains it. Another plus, is that is manages to combine pretty much all of the elementary mathematics concepts into one slim book. If I had any more children coming up, I would spend the first four grades or so playing with numbers. Just playing. And then I would put them in this book and knock it all out in one year. 

I thought it would be helpful to work through, but, after so many years of trying so many different math curricula, I was very guardedly hopeful. I am blown away. Everyone's mental math has improved significantly. They are understanding math in a way they hadn't before so that some problems, which would have sent them all over the edge, do not seem to phase them now. 

Does this mean that every day math is not an issue? Ha. No, of course not. Everything is an issue for everyone at some point. There have been fewer hard moments than is typical, though. And we are still working on memorizing the times tables. [Disclaimer. I never memorized the times tables until D. was in grade school and I finally added 8x8 to my repertoire. I was great at skip counting and made it work. I focus more on skip counting with my children than insisting they overtly memorize the times tables. It's not worth my sanity.] 

If you are going to be really successful with this curriculum, though, I really believe you need to have read the Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics book. While the curriculum uses the same vocabulary and ways to present concepts, unless you, the teacher, really understand why they are doing what they are, it won't be as successful. 

I'm a strong advocate that there is no magic curriculum. It is a tool and the tool is only as good as the person who is using it. Plus, not every curriculum is a good match for every child. This particular math curriculum is about as close as I have found to being the magic bullet.