Re: IMPMath
Posted by Elaine on 5/10/08

This sounds more like an issue with the teacher than the
curriculum. I honestly get very tired of math instruction
being characterized solely by the materials used rather than
the teacher who teachers the materials. How well trained they
are and what educational philosophies they bring into the
classroom.

The authors of IMP NEVER intended for students to "discover"
everything. The purpose is to present students with what seems
to be an overwhelming problem, show them that it CAN be broken
down into smaller parts and each part be studied seperately.
The "jumping around" of topics is intentional because it shows
that not every problem fits into a nice little box with a
label on it. Too many kids in sequential math programs have no
idea how to solve problems without knowing in advance what
section of the book they are studying at the time. Taken out
of that context for them (like SATs) and they are clueless.
IMP counteracts that phenomenon.

In any case, a math class is 20% materials and 80% the
teacher. A good educational experience provides a balance
between direct instruction, practice, and constructivism (AKA
discovery based learning). As a teacher my ultimate goal is
that my students become problem solvers. They see a problem,
break it down into component parts, recognize the parts well
enough to know to reach into their toolkit of skills and then
be able to use the skills to solve the problem. Notice that my
sentence incorporates BOTH ends of the endless math war
debates.

Here is the KEY point: I find that IMP gives me EXCELLENT
materials to foster the problem solving part and I can
supplement the skill part easily. Other, more traditional,
materials provide skill practice but do NOT provide problem
solving practice because like I said above application
problems where you know what skill to use because of the title
of the section its in is NOT true problem solving. It is MUCH
harder to supplement this.

Sorry for my rant. The math wars are awful in my district and
I'm tired of people spouting off their judgement of a
curriculum that they've never even used (not people here,
people in my district). I teach the high level of math in both
IMP and sequential and there are very significant differences
between my students in the next level, IB Calculus. When given
a problem to chew on in IB, the IMP students dive right in and
start discussing it, debating it. The sequential students
mostly sit there like lumps waiting for someone to point them
in the right direction. The kid who shouts "wait don't tell
me! I want to do it myself!" is ALWAYS an IMP kid. ALL of my
former IMP students passed the IB exam this year and only 70%
of my sequential students did. And trust me, just because I
prefer the IMP program, there is no way in hell I'd sabotage
my sequential kids. They just don't have the same problem
solving abilities though they may be able to solve an equation
like the wind.

Ok...sorry...rant off.

On 5/08/08, not popular here wrote:
> On 5/01/08, Bill wrote:
>> Does anyone use the IMP Math curriculum for high school?
>> We just started using it for Algebra I this year along
>> with a traditional textbook. We think it's great.
>
> It's very, very unpopular in my district. One articulate
> student commented (in relation to the Integrated 3 course):
>
> "I have trouble understanding what I'm even studying, due to
> the lack of chapter headings, continuation of study (the
book
> jumps from topic to topic, putting geometry and linear
> algebra together in the same section at one point), and use
> of "discovery based learning." The book doesn't give
> formulas, instead expecting students to discuss the problems
> in groups, look at patterns, and come up with formulas on
> their own. Often times, the teacher will never formally
> introduce the formula to the class, and since no notes are
> taken, we are expected to memorize each formula we come up
> with, before we hand our papers in, since we won't get them
> back in time to use. When this happens, often times I don't
> do very well on the next assignment, simply because I never
> found the formula the book expects me to be utilizing. In
> most cases, I have found my teachers unhelpful because they
> still want me to discover on my own. As a result, I end up
> either looking formulas up on the Internet, or asking
someone
> in a grade higher than me. This means that my understanding
> of the subject isn't what I could be, making that particular
> topic harder for me in the future as well. Often times I
will
> spend half an hour trying to figure out the formula, only to
> discover that Mr. [name deleted] taught it to me last year."
>

Posts on this thread, including this one

• IMPMath, 5/01/08, by Bill.
• Re: IMPMath, 5/03/08, by Elaine.
• Re: IMPMath, 5/05/08, by Pragmatic.
• Re: IMPMath, 5/08/08, by Elaine.
• Re: IMPMath, 5/08/08, by not popular here.
• Re: IMPMath, 5/08/08, by DSF/NJ.
• Re: IMPMath/ Math in general, 5/09/08, by Donna/WI.
• Re: IMPMath/ Math in general, 5/09/08, by Pragmatic.
• Re: IMPMath/ Math in general, 5/09/08, by DSF/NJ.
• Re: IMPMath/ Math in general, 5/10/08, by Donna/WI.
• Re: IMPMath, 5/10/08, by Elaine.
• Re: IMPMath, 5/10/08, by not popular here.
• Re: IMPMath, 5/10/08, by Elaine.
• Re: IMPMath, 5/10/08, by smarkham01.
• Re: IMPMath, 5/12/08, by Interactive Math Program.
• Re: IMPMath, 5/12/08, by DSF/NJ.
• Re: IMPMath, 5/13/08, by not popular here.
• Re: IMPMath, 5/14/08, by smarkham01.
• Re: IMPMath, 5/15/08, by not popular here.
• Re: IMPMath, 5/15/08, by smarkham01.
• Re: IMPMath, 5/15/08, by not popular here.

 
 
 

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