Comments on: Mastery VS Spiral Math: The Only Way To Choose

By: Haley

Haley

I think one of the biggest points missed in Mastery V. Spiral… is the focus only one bordem and getting frustrated with mastery if not meeting the “expectations” without remotely addressing that kids with things such as dyscalculia you cannot give new concepts daily/weekly because the way their brain understands math is what is added on to it… which is exactly the concept of spiral… but the problem is what is added, from day to day may not directly correlate. so if the concept is not truly understood, and more information is now added. The retention rate of the topic is lower. They also tend to get extremely confused and mix topics. Such as addition and subtraction. Because one has not been mastered they mix these things up more frequently. I just think there was a big miss with a completely different side of mastery vs. spiral.

By: Matthew

Matthew

I haven’t used the spiral curriculum in home schooling because I am a professional teacher with a focus on curriculum and a masters in instructional design. During my first few years of teaching elementary school, we used Saxon Math which was based on a spiral curriculum. The bottom line is that any non-integrated, non student-centered approach can lead to boredom. All commonly used curriculum suffers from these issues, including the spiral method. The HUGE problem we had in public school with a spiral curriculum is that students in general entirely MISS the connections between topics and the big picture (“where are we going with this?”). This issue wasn’t even addressed on this page even though it was a popular theme among forums regarding Saxon which I researched in frustration when my students were mostly performing an average of 2 grades below their level after 4 years of Saxon.

This might not be a problem in homeschooling since the parent can make the connections as appropriate for the child. In public school, however, without the connections being made, students lose site of the lessons relevance to their lives and other related topics. The bouncing back and forth between unconnected topics doesn’t make any sense to students in a public/non-home school setting. In addition, Saxon, at least, did not align with state standards.

In the end, I understand the need for continual practice and switching gears that pervades with elementary school students but these issues can be addressed in mastery teaching as well (mostly by combining the two approaches or using an “entirely different” integrated approach). In the end, without a parent or guardian supporting their education at home, pointing out the relevance of what they are learning to their lives, education is likely to fall short (which is why things might be different with home schooling)

By: Paul Coyne

Paul Coyne

Check out “Connecting Math Concepts” published by SRA. It’s a Direct Instruction Math Curriculum. It’s not a spiral curriculum. It’s a mastery curriculum with lots of review. Researchers say it’s a very effective curriculum.

By: Maryanna

Maryanna

We have used Math Mammoth Light Blue series for 3 years now. It is a spiral approach. I have 2 girls. We have used levels 1-5 and it has been an awesome choice for our family. It continues to blow my mind how well my youngest especially does and makes me wish I had been homeschooling from the start for my oldest. She was in advanced/ gifted classes in public school through 4th grade when I pulled her out to homeschool. I realized just how much anxiety she had around math through discovering more about her as a student while homeschooling. We brought her down a couple levels to go back and work on a strong foundation for her and now when we come across areas she struggled before it just clicks for her. It really has been one of the easiest areas to homeschool since finding Math Mammoth and I am sad it only goes through 8th grade. I know they are always working on new products and have my fingers crossed for high school curriculum.

By: Lauren Schmitz

Lauren Schmitz

In reply to Kaelyn.

Kaelyn, I love a customized education!! Well done, homeschool mama!

By: Kaelyn

Kaelyn

I converted Math U See to spiral without realizing thats what I was doing. My son hated doing the same thing every day so we watched 4-5 lessons (Primer) and then I stacked the worksheets for those lessons so he’d rotate. 25A, 26A, 27A, then 25B, 26B, 27B, etc.

By: Shameka

Shameka

This was a great post. I hated math in high school. It was like a foreign language to me. It didn’t come easy to me and I failed every single year that I had to take it. I felt so ashamed and wondered what was wrong with me.
I realize now after learning about the different methods of teaching math that I could have benefited from a spiral based curriculum. I am currently using The Good And The Beautiful Math curriculum and I absolutely love it. I think it’s great for children and adults with short attention spans. There are days when my child will open up her math book without any instruction from me and complete the review section all on her own.

By: Kathryn

Kathryn

I really enjoyed this post. I definitely agree that spiral math is best! At least for my kids. We started our first grade year using Horizons Math. We didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t super engaging for my daughter and we struggled to get through it every day. We’ve recently switched to Math with Confidence by Kate Snow (she’s written other math books–I’m a big fan of hers!) and it has been a game-changer. It’s a brand new curriculum and it is awesome. It focuses on games and activities rather than worksheets (though there are worksheets in every lesson). Another thing I love about it: there are only four required lessons each week, with one additional optional activity for Fridays. Just thought I’d share in case your interested in checking the curriculum out. Thanks again for all your blogs. I really appreciate them!