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Title: Algebra 1: An Incremental Development, Home Study Packet (Answer Key)
ISBN: 1565771389
Author:
John H., Jr. Saxon
Publicate Date: 1998-04
Publish: 1998-04
List Price: $19.50
Average Customer Rating: 3.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $13.50
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $8.00
Amazon Merchant Price: $17.55
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| Customer Review: |
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1: A Great Course for Self-Taught Students
I have to say that I had a good experience with Saxon mathbooks. The explainations were great for kids learning on there own, when (ie homeschoolers) the subject is commonly one that a parent tends to be least able to confidently guide and instruct their child. The critical review I just read seems qualified by "PhD... etc", however I do know many people who benefitted from the Saxon math line of texts. Retention and learning methods do vary among student after all, and perhaps the instructor referred to encountered students who had not gone far enough into subsequent texts.
The Saxon Algebra 1/2 and 1 are good for providing very easy to understand explainations to students needing help. In my case (and apparently my son's as well) they are also great sources for advancing self-study on your own when they want to challenge themselves. Perhaps that doesn't qualify him as prepared for advanced college concepts, but when the child is age 10, and typically bored/unchallenged at school... it gives them a great guide to develop further at home.
I must also comment on the suggestion made by Ms. Shirley that there is not enough practice (but at the same time too much review?) in Saxon... hogwash! There are plenty of exercises throughout. And I haven't found anything dull or mehodical about the texts, and learning didn't POOF away. On the contrary, I've never read a better written self-instructed textbook. Furthermore, the criticism of research studies focussing on K-8 is unfair and "ridiculous"... this is where kids should be learning basic algebra!
Ms. Shirley's review seems to impede the understanding that this is Beginner's instruction.
Homeschooling instruction (and the level of advancement) is often very inadequate in math, but that is a seperate issue you cannot use as proof against the publisher. Our reviews are both subjective just like styles of learning.
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2: Learning to TEST or Learning to UNDERSTAND?
My mother is a Ph.D. in mathematics and taught Jr. and Sr. High math for several years before moving up to teach college math. She has been pretty vocal that the only math text that will result in imparting a poor understanding of mathematical concepts--a false sense of mastery while using it, but poor retention after--is Saxon. She says that every time she has a home schooled student who is really struggling at the college level and they say "But I did so well in math before!" and they are traumatized at the level of tutoring help they need to make it in college, they all have in common the fact that they learned math using Saxon texts in high school.
After she impressed this on me, I was really leery about choosing jr. & sr. high school curriculum a couple years ago and asked her to go to me with convention to help me pick something out. She said, "You are good at math and a good teacher. Just pick something you like that is NOT SAXON!" I'm not exaggerating. It's the spiral learning method that they use. It doesn't give enough thorough practice of all the variations of a particular concept before moving on and too heavily relies on review throughout. That seems to impedes long-term retention. She thinks the fact that it is so dull and methodical is also ridiculous in this day and age of fabulous graphics and the trend to make math more interesting and multi-modal for the average student who doesn't love math.
I find it interesting that on their website, of the 6 research studies of their curriculum, only one includes high school; the other five utilized k-8 or 6-8 curriculum. Maybe all that dry rote learning makes a student test better. But the sad part is when it comes to taking that learning and building on it, they don't really understand the concepts behind it and can't apply future learning to what they simply practiced over and over but don't really know. Kind of like cramming for a test by going over everything you've learned right beforehand and blocking everything else out until you take the test and then POOF! everything you repeated over and over in your head beforehand just seems "gone" once you go back to normal habits of thinking/doing and you stop all that repetition.
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