enVision Math?

[Miss Information]

Does anyone know about this differentiated math curriculum enVision by Scott Foresman?


It's a new math curriculum for my third grader. She started out doing Saxon Math from grades K-2. I am not sure if my younger daughters will be doing Saxon or enVision now, but it seems interesting. I like the concept of the built in differentiation and that it's supposedly more visual than not.

Is anyone aware of the pros and cons of this curriculum?

TIA.

[Lisa1970]

I don't think Envision could be worse than Saxon. I do have copies of it and looked over it and thought Envision looked ok. I have copies of 1st and 2nd grade. My sister teaches 3rd using Envision, she hates it. I am not sure why. But most of what is out there for math in the public schools right now is just not that good. Check out www.mathematicallycorrect.com

[AZ mom&teacher]

I have taught it and hate it. It has really wierd ways of explaining concepts and assumes the student know a lot already. It also moves very fast. As a teacher I had to use alot of my own materials and lesson ideas to help the students grasp the info.

[almama]

As a mom, I hate it. My kids had it for the first year last year. My first grader was BORED to death, but the amount of minute details in the worksheets scared the teacher from skipping the overwhelming repetition for him. It was a total waste for him. For my then 4th grader, it taught concepts very oddly - for example, 5 different ways to do long division in two weeks - my head was spinning on the hows and whys and I have excelled at math even in graduate school. More importantly, he hated it (and his friends) and started to think of themselves as "bad at math."

I have heard of some parents who like it - those of younger kids who need the repetition are one. I also hear it is better in the upper grades. I'm not holding my breath.

It is making me want a math revolution!!! (the previous year, I believe their program was called Investigations - might be another name though - and it was soooo much better)

[MattBronsil]

http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3...eek%2Fdata.htm

[marilynmama]

This is the math program they are using in my 3rd graders classroom. It is new to the teacher this year as well. I guess it is too early to tell, they just finished up their first week of school.

She brought home her math book tonight for us to look at and I just cant tell this early on.

[karne]

Because it is a program that "spirals", kids are supposed to have the chance to return to various concepts. It was not very engaging for my kid who quickly gets math concepts, and I'm on the fence about my other who struggles more in math. I didn't see a lot of room for kids to move quickly if they are mastering concepts easily.

[Miss Information]

Hmmm...thanks for the input.


I have no idea why they decided to up and switch the math program. It bothers me some because the teachers I spoke to at open house don't seem to feel to positively about the program.

I don't mind if they are bored so much (I mean, yes, I do mind but they were already kind of bored anyway), but if they get confused or if they start getting upset about it...I have no idea how to object peaceably.

At this point I'm going to have to take a wait and see look.

Matt Bronsil - I'll check out that link. Thanks for sharing it.

[shanniesue2]

In my district, we are in our first year of adoption with this curriculum. I'm 3 1/2 weeks into the school year, and I've only just now gotten all the pieces to it. I teach kdg and so far, it seems like more pencil/paper than I like to do... but there are supposed to be a lot of good resources for smartboard. I only just got my smartboard set up on Friday, so I haven't used them all, yet. My general rule of thumb is to stick pretty closely to the curriculum my first year of using it and then adapt it as I see most effective with my kiddos. I'm at a new school in my district this year, and last year the school I was at, I had an incomplete curriculum set (lots of issues not worth going into here) so I basically followed the topics and created my own activities using lots of games/manipulatives. I need more time with Envision to get a good feel for it.

[MichaelsSahm]

In 1st grade last year towards the end his teacher started Envision. We started second grade 2 weeks ago and his new teacher uses this also. I am not sure about it yet. I know DS doesn't like!