Friday, February 1, 2008

High School Applied Math

This course was a catch up/review course for my son.  Math is not one of his strong points and his learning difficulties really get in the way.  Since most of this course was a review, I left textbooks behind and tried more alternative hands-on applications.  We used a variety of sources to pull up his math skills.  I found Math-U-See drills online to be very helpful for multiplication and division.  We also used the books I Hate Mathmatics, Skillbooster Workbooks for Middle School, Math Wizzardly for Kids, and A Survey of Mathematics with Applications (my college textbook mostly used for reference).  In addition, we found as many opportunities in real world math as possible, such as measuring to build something and cooking.  Here is a breakdown of the 111 hours that was recorded:

  • Statistics ~ 11 hours
  • Graphing ~ 6 hours
  • Basic Math Skills (multiplication, division, decimals, and fractions) ~ 62 hours
  • Measurements ~ 12 hours
  • Basic Geometry ~ 20 hours
Here is the hard part, and I would love to hear your ideas on this.  What grade do you give for this work?  The truth is that most of it would not be considered 9th grade work.  However, he did B quality work for what he was asked to do; and if he were in public school, he would be in a Special Ed class, struggling away with the same level math.  I really don't care too much for grades, but I want to cover all my bases, since he does not appear college bound at this time.  In our state, he will get a state diploma from our homeschool state organization, and he will have transcripts that he can show job employers.  However, I will be the one that makes those transcripts, so how do you make them a fair assessment of what he knows?  Your thoughts are welcome.

Blessings, Dawn
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  1. proverbsmomof3February 2, 2008 at 5:47 AM

    I worked in a private school that had a lot of lower level learners. We graded them according to what they actually earned on assesments and tests. If you don't use tests make an honest evaluation of what you think he has earned based on his learning ability and effort towards the tasks. Where he has done work in many math areas, you may want to break them down into different groups ie; Basic Math, Consumer Math, Applied Geometry, etc... when working on your transcripts. That way you can build on each math subject over the years with an ending grade in 3 to 4 math areas. You'll have to check with your state for requirements, but most general diplomas allow for these basic maths. Also an FYI, Homeschool Tracker has a built in transcript section in the program that may be of interest. Hope this was a little help if not too wordy.

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