Re: Klein/Everyday Mathematics

[ALCAMUS36@aol.com]

"So you get the teaching of adding by any method
EXCEPT carrying, divididing by any method EXCEPT long
division with a remainder, computing volume by any method
EXCEPT length times width times height, comparing fractions
by 8 methods, but NOT converting to a common denominator,
etc."

I taught Everyday Mathematics and found it to be quite a good program.   
Instead of giving kids the "answer/formula" so to speak from the start, they 
were asked to do a variety of investigations, generate data, present their 
findings and then look for patterns.   Of course we would look at all the 
ways kids solved the problem, but then point to the most efficient ways.   
When you said that now no students "would get it", that isn't actually what I 
found.   Previously, only the students with good memorization skills would 
remember how to solve a problem (not that they understood the mathematics 
behind it!).   Other students would just get further and further behind.   
With Everyday Math ( and later Connected Math, out of Michigan State 
University), I found that more children had access to the mathematics because 
they had connected the concepts to one of many concrete models or procedures 
that they had experienced and were able to use these strategies throughout 
the year in many different contexts.   I think this change in mathematics 
instruction has been especially profound for Second Language Learners.   They 
have been given other tools to develop not only computational fluency, but 
access to more abstract and complex mathematics.   I, personally, have 
welcomed the change!
Cristina