Stuck in negative space
McDougal Littell Pre-Algebra textbook (2005)
Still poking at and haven't used this much, although probably will to help on the concepts that are being more of a challenge soon.
Reading & Writing
All set for the summer reading program at the library, The Art of Video Games & D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths done for the week. He's on the final edit of the NASCAR party essay - a little behind schedule because on Thursday he got to meet his favorite NASCAR driver!
I have always felt uneasy about the minus one level in our building, but having the negative space elevator break down and be stuck in between floors is taking things to a whole different level.
It's an appropriate image to represent the past week since at the beginning of it I made some assignment assumptions based on negative numbers skills titles and their order in the Khan Academy Knowledge Map. Some are really hard even when other skills that come after them are much easier! I've learned a valuable lesson that prescreening them using my own account to make sure they are achievable with current knowledge and a reasonable amount of challenge is a must. Using the online scratch paper feature isn't working so well either and for the week ahead I'm going to encourage the use of good old fashioned paper & pencil when cranking out some calculations is needed although he's rather resistant to the idea.
Khan Academy
Thankfully he was a good sport despite my gaffes in setting some assignment goals that were way out of whack, recovered nicely to let 3 frustrating areas go, and made solid progress with proficiency/mastery in 9 new skill areas for a total of 36 now. I really appreciated the reinforced concepts between the Key workbooks and Khan with the negative number operations (saving the negative number word problems for later though) properties of numbers, number properties terminology, and order of operations.
Key to Algebra by Key Curriculum Press
Book 1 (operations on integers) is a wrap with a nearly perfect test at the end, including a review of the commutative, associative and distributive operations principles that was reinforced by the Khan number properties terminology. Book 2 (variables, terms and expressions) is up next and will move at a slower pace than Book 1 since there is a lot of new material in here with exponents, simplifying algebraic expressions, determining expressions for perimeters, then bringing order of operations back to the mix again for simplifying problems. Whew.
It's an appropriate image to represent the past week since at the beginning of it I made some assignment assumptions based on negative numbers skills titles and their order in the Khan Academy Knowledge Map. Some are really hard even when other skills that come after them are much easier! I've learned a valuable lesson that prescreening them using my own account to make sure they are achievable with current knowledge and a reasonable amount of challenge is a must. Using the online scratch paper feature isn't working so well either and for the week ahead I'm going to encourage the use of good old fashioned paper & pencil when cranking out some calculations is needed although he's rather resistant to the idea.
Khan Academy
Thankfully he was a good sport despite my gaffes in setting some assignment goals that were way out of whack, recovered nicely to let 3 frustrating areas go, and made solid progress with proficiency/mastery in 9 new skill areas for a total of 36 now. I really appreciated the reinforced concepts between the Key workbooks and Khan with the negative number operations (saving the negative number word problems for later though) properties of numbers, number properties terminology, and order of operations.
Key to Algebra by Key Curriculum Press
Book 1 (operations on integers) is a wrap with a nearly perfect test at the end, including a review of the commutative, associative and distributive operations principles that was reinforced by the Khan number properties terminology. Book 2 (variables, terms and expressions) is up next and will move at a slower pace than Book 1 since there is a lot of new material in here with exponents, simplifying algebraic expressions, determining expressions for perimeters, then bringing order of operations back to the mix again for simplifying problems. Whew.
McDougal Littell Pre-Algebra textbook (2005)
Still poking at and haven't used this much, although probably will to help on the concepts that are being more of a challenge soon.
Reading & Writing
All set for the summer reading program at the library, The Art of Video Games & D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths done for the week. He's on the final edit of the NASCAR party essay - a little behind schedule because on Thursday he got to meet his favorite NASCAR driver!
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