Kindergarten through 2nd grade students in the South Orange-Maplewood School District (SOMSD) will experience a different approach to learning math this year, as the district implements Math in Focus: Singapore Math. And, according to my Tuscan Elementary School's 5th Grade teacher, 5th graders at Tuscan Elementary will also be using Singapore Math.
The term “Singapore Math” refers to the coherent progression and specific instructional strategies used by all teachers in Singapore, a country that consistently scores at the top on international math tests.
The district announced the new program to the community last year. It replaces the former curriculum, Everyday Math. Math in Focus will be implemented in grades 3-5 in the 2013-2014 school year.
The program adds concrete or hands-on experiences to the math curriculum, rather than emphasizing only abstract learning using memorization. Students will use hands-on materials and visual models before moving on to abstract symbols. According to the district, this emphasis on visualization -- wherein children "see" math in their minds -- has made students in Singapore highly adept at problem solving.
In an article posted on the SOMSD website, Kimberly Beane, Supervisor of Mathematics and Science for Grades K-5, explained several key differences parents might notice.
Instruction is concentrated on fewer topics and teaches them to a deeper level of understanding. Students will spend a lot of time on topics that are most foundational to future math learning: number sense, place value, and computation. Calculators are gone and replaced by mastery of facts and mental math.
Written computation uses traditional methods. Students are explicitly taught to add and subtract using the traditional right to left columns. They will learn alternate strategies for mental math, but written computation follows traditional procedures.
It starts out slowly but ends with advanced rigor. The beginning of each school year spends a lot of time developing deep understanding of numbers and place value. Have patience! By the end of 1st grade students will be doing 2-digit addition and subtraction that has always been taught in the middle of 2nd grade. That rigor continues in other grades, with each grade learning math that used to be taught in higher grade levels.
Reasoning, problem solving, and mental math are taught explicitly starting in first grade. Bar modeling, a highly versatile and powerful problem solving method, is taught explicitly starting in second grade. Bar models allow young students to solve algebraic situations using a visual diagram instead of abstract symbols. Problem solving in SINGAPORE MATH is significantly more rigorous than traditional U.S. problems.
>br>For more of this article: Maplewood Patch
FOR THE SINGAPORE MATH STORY, CLICK ON SINGAPORE MATH SITE
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