Saturday, April 2, 2011

Comparing Singapore Math to Saxon Math - Which One is Right For You?

The math wars of the 1990's have quieted down and are almost a thing of the past.

With the release of their 2006 guidelines, the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (Nctm) effectively ended 17 years of promoting 'reform math' programs and acknowledged the need for schools to return to more former math programs.

Teachers and Home school parents can now move on to the next question. Which former math curriculum is best? The literal, acknowledge depends largely on the needs and preferences of each teacher and student.

Comparing Singapore Math to Saxon Math - Which One is Right For You?

There are many former math programs to choose from. This provides a brief chronicle of two of the most favorite programs, Singapore Math and Saxon Math. These two curriculum have some things in common:

- Both are used in social schools, incommunicable schools and home schools

- Both have clear track records of enhancing standardized test scores

- Both share the former math emphasis on math facts as the construction blocks of all math concepts

- Both have proven to be effective with a wide range of students

They also have some prominent differences:

Cost Comparison -Saxon Math books are more high-priced than Singapore Math books because Saxon has a lot more pages. Saxon student books are hard cover from 8th grade and up.

Saxon Emphasizes custom - Saxon Math puts more emphasis on doing custom exercises while Singapore Math puts more emphasis on critically reasoning through concepts. After concepts are introduced, Saxon moves immediately into custom exercises to help cement the opinion in the student's mind. Saxon requires students to memorize formulas, achieve fluent recall of math facts and apply algorithms to solve problems.

Singapore Emphasizes reasoning - Singapore teachers spend more time helping students to think through and verbally discuss each component of the concept. Singapore Math avoids belief on memorized formulas and algorithms so there is not as much emphasis on repetitive custom exercises. Instead, Singapore strives to give students an understanding of math concepts by walking students through each component of a problem, and then presenting them with the whole question to solve. This way, students are trained to think actively as they work through each step of a question instead of plugging the question into a formula.

Saxon is More Structured - Saxon Math is more structured, development it easier for teachers and students to succeed the roadmap. Each new opinion is followed by custom exercises. chronicle questions are provided after every 10 lessons.

Singapore Requires More Teaching - Singapore Math is less structured, using an coming which is less customary to whatever who learned math in the U.S. As a result, Singapore Math can be more fascinating for U.S. Teachers and students, especially older students who are already customary with U.S. math programs. Singapore's coming puts more burden on teachers to:

- spend more time teaching new concepts, breaking the concepts into components to ensure students are understanding

- stimulate verbal consulation of the concepts

- supplement the material as needed with flash cards, manipulative items, and extra drills

- continually collate how well students are grasping concepts then furnish added assistance as needed

Singapore is More Focused - Saxon Math custom exercises blend previously covered concepts together with new concepts, forcing students to continually chronicle previous concepts. The rationale is repetitive custom over time is considerable to grasp the concepts and to achieve quick and facile recall of math facts. Singapore focuses on one opinion at a time, seeking mastery of each opinion before fascinating on to the next one. One of the reasons why the Nctm liked the Singapore curriculum is because it focuses only on a few key concepts for each school year. The Nctm recognized a key feebleness with some U.S. Programs is having too many objectives, development them incoherent and difficult for students to scholar anything.

Recommendations - For school teachers who are willing to try something new and put more effort into teaching, my advice is Singapore Math. Singapore students lead the world in math test scores and your students can do the same. For Homeschool parents who are pressed for time and need a program that allows students to work more independently, my advice is Saxon Math. Saxon also offers Cd Rom teaching videos to enable students to work even more independently. Saxon is also a great option for U.S. School teachers looking for a program with a more customary approach. Saxon Math has proven success with a wide range of students, even turning struggling math students into math lovers!

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