<p>Is the teacher new? You said he’s young. Perhaps he is used to dealing with college students more than high schoolers?
Are there college students in your area? Do they tutor for SAT prep? Since the SAT test includes Algebra, SAT tutors might be able to help your D, identify her weaknesses and help her overcome them.</p>
<p>I think a bright HS student with tutoring ability will do a good job. He/she can explain things the way he/she sees and reasons.</p>
<p>Ok, so by the time this high school freshman finishes this course, she’ll have covered functions, quadratics, other conic sections, exponentials, and trigonometry. So she’ll be set next year for calculus. I’m a math lover and I do understand that some students are exceptionally gifted in math, but wouldn’t it be better for the normally bright student to NOT spend 24 hours a week studying math, and instead take longer to study the same material and learn it better? Students who study calculus in 11th grade are not normally thought of as backward.</p>
<p>Cardinal, I agree its too much. My other concern is that with this type of scheduling, her next math class won’t be until next spring. I can’t see her taking it in the fall - that’s when she plays sports.</p>
<p>Milan87, does your daughter’s school normally have tenth graders taking calculus? What is the point of this acceleration?</p>
<p>Again, I’m not opposed to acceleration in math, in general. But this seems excessive.</p>
<p>Algebra II in 9th grade is very common in our school. It seems that math is offered every other semester in the OP’s school. This would mean geometry in spring of sophomore year, precalc in spring of junior year and calc in senior year (and I would hope the whole year through!).</p>
<p>But marite, look at the topics in the textbook for this class. She’ll already have covered precalc and, I think, also geometry.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s an integrated curriculum.</p>
<p>What would an integrated curriculum be? I’m wondering what a student who finished up the topics listed in that text would still need to know before tackling calculus.</p>
<p>Integrated curricula were the rage in the mid-1990s. Instead of doing discrete subjects, pieces of algebra, precalculus, geometry, trig and discrete math were mixed in with each other. We didn’t bother with this fashion change in our household.</p>
<p>Integrated math is,as the name implies, integrated. Instead of algebra and geometry being taught separately, they are taught together. To me, with my French education, it makes better sense. Some students like it better that way, but many are more comfortable with the traditional American approach in which algebra and geometry are taught as discrete subjects.</p>
<p>How much of the textbook has been covered already?</p>
<p>EDIT: I took a look at the textbook contents. It is not an integrated curriculum but it goes beyond algebra. I would say that from chapter 8 onward, the contents ought to be covered in precalc.</p>
<p>In my area, math goes this way:
Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, PreCalculus, Calculus AB, Calculus BC
If the student is not very strong in math, going directly from Algebra II to Calculus is tough. The EPGY courses that my kids took did not cover all the stuff in the college book.</p>
<p>Algebra II equivalent: [EPGY</a> Secondary Mathematics M012](<a href=“http://epgy.stanford.edu/courses/math/M012/]EPGY”>http://epgy.stanford.edu/courses/math/M012/)
PreCalc: [EPGY</a> Secondary Mathematics M013](<a href=“http://epgy.stanford.edu/courses/math/M013/]EPGY”>http://epgy.stanford.edu/courses/math/M013/)</p>
<p>A lot of stuff is reviewed in PreCalc.</p>
<p>Marite, the OP says the students just finished up Chapter 8, Conic Sections. And the class started in February.</p>
<p>Thanks, CF. It does seem insane. Conic sections do not belong in Algebra II. Sequences and Series, yes, but the rest of the book ought to wait until precalc.</p>
<p>Some few ninth graders would be able to comfortably finish up that textbook in five months. But for a school to imagine it has an entire class of ninth graders ready to finish the book between February and June? What is this school thinking? It’s crazy.</p>
<p>Okay, so I have another take on this: the teacher is going too fast and therefore covering the materials too superficially, leaving the students to try to understand the concepts on their own and mastering the techniques by piling on homework. Milan’s D, who used to be a strong math student, is now struggling. It’s not her fault and she risks being turned off by math. </p>
<p>So Milan and other parents ought to have a chat with the teacher, the school principal, the district math coordinator, if there is one, and discuss the situation. The students need to feel confident that they have mastered the materials thoroughly, especially if they’re not going to have math again until next spring. From watching my S’s classmates struggle with the spiral method, I am convinced that when students don’t thoroughly understand something, they might as well start all over from scratch.</p>
<p>Good suggestion, marite. When Milan and the other parents talk to the administration, they should find out how this class is supposed to fit in the math framework for the school. Are the students doing a pointless, superficial (yet grueling) survey of algebra, with the expectation of studying it again next year, or are they expected to build on this years supposedly-mastered material by going further next year, for example into calculus or statistics?</p>
<p>Has this teacher taught this subject as a block subject before? What do last year’s parents have to say about the course? How are last year’s students faring in their next course?</p>
<p>I can’t believe how much I’m learning about higher math from reading your posts. </p>
<p>Cardinal, D will be in pre-calc next year and believe it or not, she’s been told by friends that class is hard. How much harder than this class can it be?</p>
<p>Marite, the yr. long classes at D’s school are 5 mos long in real time and there’s too big a gap in between levels - its hard enough to have the summer off and resume in the fall - but 8 months w/o math! The school used to have an integrated math program but I haven’t heard about it since block sched. started two years ago. </p>
<p>And my D is only 1 of 2 freshmen in the class. That’s only because they attended a jr high that tested them for alg in 7th gr. Other schools here have only just begun to offer geometry to 8th graders. The other kids are mostly sophs. </p>
<p>coolweather, thanks for the link to your EPGY program. I will share it w/the admin.</p>
<p>I will also share your suggestions w/my H - Thanks!</p>
<p>Milan: As Cardinal Fang and I have agreed, half the book seems to be for precalc. If the teacher insists on covering it in its entirety, your D will have covered half of precalc materials (much of precalc is review anyway). My big issue is that if your D has not mastered the materials the first time around, it’s a big waste of time and effort and angst on her part. If you talk to the powers-that-be, make sure to enlist sophomores; otherwise it will sound as if the only reason your D is unprepared is that she is a freshman in a class full of sophomores who all “get it.”
As I said earlier, Algebra II in 9th grade is quite common here. S1, no math whiz, was put in Algebra II as were many of his classmates because algebra I was introduced in his k-8 school in 7th & 8th grades. But I don’t recall any of them covering all the topics in your D’s textbook in 9th grade.</p>
<p>milan - Your daughter is a strong math student (finished geometry in middle school - this is the proof) and math should be an enjoyable subject for her. I was confused and I almost got lost in middle school math, but luckily I gained confidence after I got a high score on a test (I did not have much confidence before taking it. I gave up on problem sets and the only thing I did was review the basic concepts and examples to prepare for the test) and I enjoyed math since then. Help your daughter to regain confidence is very important.</p>