Tom and his son (and TCS third grader!) Thomas.
Question: Kellye uses 1/4 of a package of raisins for a fruit cake. She then uses 1/9 of the remainder for muffins. What fraction of the package of raisins does she have left? (Answer Below)
Can you answer this question? Would you like your 5th grade student to be able to?
Around campus, we’ve been talking about Singapore Math a lot lately. We’ve also been saying that you’d have chances to learn more as the year progresses. We’ve even invited parents to a workshop with one of our nation’s leading math experts and Singapore Math advocates, Greg Tang, on Monday at 7:00 p.m. (you can still sign up here!) But, do you know why TCS believes Singapore Math is the best fit for our children?
The Singapore Math curriculum and method of instruction is fairly interesting and can be traced through these two links, from the two most prominent publishers of the curriculum: Singapore Math Inc. and Math In Focus. The short version is that in the late 1970’s, The ministry of education in Singapore wanted to improve the country’s math performance. They went back and created one centralized, well-developed math curriculum based on educational research and trained all their teachers to teach in this very different way. This new approach allowed learners to build real understandings of concepts rather than simply memorize facts and procedures in isolation. The results were staggeringly successful, and many school systems around the world have, over the last ten to fifteen years, looked at how they can bring this kind of math education to their students.
At its core, what makes Singapore Math different is that the main goal is more advanced thinking. To achieve that goal, it focuses on a solid number sense; a true understanding of place value and the implications of a base ten number system; strong problem-solving skills and efficient paper and pencil methods; and mental math strategies. The concrete-pictorial-abstract approach to teaching every new concept and skill makes the content more accessible to all students while also providing more opportunities for teachers to differentiate their instruction and assignments to the needs of a wider array of students.
After many years of using Everyday Math, TCS explored other curricula available that might better match our understanding of how children learn best, and Math In Focus: Singapore Math (by Marshall Cavendish and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) was the best fit for our students and teachers. The idea that students learn about math by playing, experiencing, experimenting and solving real problems related to a particular goal, plus helping us meet the differentiated needs of more of our students are some of the overwhelming reasons that we feel Singapore is a fit for us.
Please watch for more opportunities to learn as the year moves on and reach out with questions as you have them (tomp@tcsatl.org).
Here are some additional (pun intended) resources that you might find helpful.
6 Reasons Why Singapore Math Might Just Be the Better Way
PBS article: What’s Singapore Math
Gregtangmath.com
What is Number Sense?
Thinking Blocks .com model drawing
Talking Math With Kids
Singapore Math Source
And of course …
Answer: 2/3 of the package is remaining.
