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Hello everyone. I'll keep it short and quick! I posted before about a tutor for my H.S. Freshman son. We tried the tutor for about a month now with mixed results. Son is an A/B student overall taking Accelerated Algebra 1. His grade is now hovering at a mid to lower C. I have worked with him at home before, and although I took college Algebra, and other Algebra classes, it is definitely not my stongest subject!
I need a recommendation for a good refresher text for me, so that I may help him better. His textbook is not the best. I have used a variety of books from teacher stores, traditional book stores, etc. but it seems that NONE of the books address the concepts in the same way they are presented in my son's textbooks. We'll go over something, he and I both get it, , then when doing homework, without fail, the concept is addressed in a completely different way, shown with a problem that has no worked out examples!!! Have mercy!
Is there not any way he can get help from the teacher or another classmate?
I am not trying to knock you;I think it's wonderful that you're trying to help.
Hi there. He has seen the teacher, will be going more. They also offer peer tutoring which he will be frequenting more frequently!!! Thanks for the suggestions, familiar with the book, will check the videos out.
I feel for you here. I once tried to help my niece out with her math, trying to follow the book. I assumed she'd have more problems in the future if I showed her a more normal way to solve the problem. The trouble I had with the book was that there were no complete examples given. As far as I could figure, the example were to be completed in class (where you would get additional theory). What the authors of the book didn't understand is that kids are sometimes sick and miss class. There must have been a lot of lost kids in her class with that book.
My suggestion would be to google the authors of the book to see if they've written any other books on the subject matter. Hopefully there's one that's easier for non-math majors to understand.
This was a while back (did algebra in the 8th grade back in 1989), but I really wanted to do well in it, so my parents actually hired a tutor to come once a week for a while - he was actually a math teacher from a different school. We did my problems plus extra problems he already had. Got straight As after that and loved algebra.
The lesson I learned from that was put to use in college - had these Nobel prize winning physic profs who didn't know how to teach for sh*t and would write big proofs on the board and talk about how obvious it all was. Well, I went over to the physics department and hired a physics tutor from the MCAT course I was already taking just to teach me physics. Straight As and 100% on exams that semester and he taught me how cool and actually simple physics is - I love it to this day!
public school textbooks suck these days; get yourself/son some used SAXON algebra textbooks (and teachers answer key)- cheap on eaby; written for homeschoolers - SELF EXPLANATORY, fully cover the concepts, and subsequent lessons overlap and continuously reinforce concepts covered ....
It will be tough finding a textbook that explains any form of math in a usable manner. And frankly many are just plain bad. They take the simplest concept and mix it up and make it as confusing as possible, because, well, the way that worked to get us to the moon and back just isn't modern enough. I have marked out things in my kids textbooks that were wrong and boy caught heck from the teacher for that. But also found out that many of my coworkers have done the same thing.
Unfortunately the best I can offer is find someone who can help him with whatever they are using because he will be graded on that and not on real math.
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, then when doing homework, without fail, the concept is addressed in a completely different way, shown with a problem that has no worked out examples!!! Have mercy!
Thanks for the suggestions, familiar with the book, will check the videos out.
