Connected Mathematics

[KimD]

Anyone use this series of math books? I teach 6th grade, and my students are having a really hard time with the problems, and especially the ACE questions and quizzes. I currently have 2 students with a passing grade in math. I feel like I'm failing. Any suggestions on how best to teach this math so they get it? Thanks in advance for all your help.

 

[musicbug]

Connected....

Kim -
I use the sister program for younger students ,Investigations. From my experience, you could have one of 3 problems. 1. Are these students used to this type of math? If they had traditional math for the past 5 years, relax and go a little slower and accept the traditional answer and ask for one other way to solve the problem. Share good answers with explainations to model what is expected. 2. Is this your first year using Connected? If it is, cut yourself some slack. This program takes inservice experience and trial and error to figure out pacing and how activities work. 3. Do you have some one in the school who has been trained to help you when you get stuck? Try if you haven't already, try the web site cited in the teacher materials. That will give you an overview and help with FAQ. Hang in there, Kim. I'm in year two with the Investigations with a trained Investigations person at my grade level and I still have problems. Let me know how you make out.

 

[tcf]

connected

yes,
i used connected math and i didn't like it. it too was my first year teaching this math series. it was difficult for me to get used to it because i'm used to teaching the traditional method, plus i was coming from another state. the only problem i had with it was that there was no examples in the children's book so the parents had problems with the homework as they were trying to help their child. i wouldn't recommend this series to any school district.

 

[Chery]

SPED teacher

I taught Connected Math at the middle school level for two years. I absolutely loved it.
I did get two weeks of training. The manipulatives are the key. I did not do every single lesson because I was special ed, however, I did enough for my kids to advance an average of 1.3 years on the ubiquitous standardized testing. This is amazing for SPED. The kids enjoyed it. It was about a month for them to get used to it. Do you have the teacher's manuals? The manuals gave me almost a whole lesson plan. I learned to organize the manipulatives in plastic shoe boxes to cut down on set up time.
I sincerely hope you can either get some training or enough manipulatives or whatever else you need. I truly believe this program really works for the students.