Thanks for stopping by the blog, and for your comment. I don’t know that I can weigh in on your question with any more insight than you already have. It’s tough to know without seeing a syllabus what Geo/Trig includes and whether it would allow your daughter to jump into the integrated sequence at a later course. If you have access to any syllabi, feel free to send them over via email and I can give this a second try. You can reach me here: mjfenton at gmail dot com.

Take care,

My daughter had taken Geo/Trig last year and received a B first semester and an A second. Her only options for 9th grade are: Integrated Math I, Integrated Math II, or Integrated Math II w/Data Analysis. I have not been able to find any information on how Geo/Trig fits in the sequence of the new math progression, and am worried about not having enough info to make an informed decision (teachers were asked not to make recommendations to parents this year). Would you happen to have any recommendation or insight as to what class would be most (or least) appropriate? Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Originally, my experience was the reverse of yours. I went through an integrated sequence in JH/HS, and now teach (at least for one more year) in a traditional sequence. The shift in mind set didn’t seem very big in this direction, probably because I tutored a lot of students during HS and college who were taking a traditional sequence. (My HS moved away from the integrated sequence almost immediately after I finished it.) I’m also thinking it might be easier to sever connections than it is to weave them together into a coherent whole.

I would love to compare notes. Send whatever you want to mjfenton at gmail dot com.

If you’re interested in comparing notes, I would love to send you some of the “standards” (individual topics) I’ve created for my units (which I’m in the middle of tying to the CCSS right now) and see what you decide to go with in each of them as well.

4. The range of math interest and ability at our school is fairly wide, so I’m fearful of killing the honors distinction because I want to preserve an opportunity for some students to challenge themselves more than others. I’m just not entirely clear on how to make this happen. I expect I’ll learn a lot this year through reading, discussing, and reflecting.

5. I signed up for Jo Boaler’s course, but haven’t made much progress yet. I anticipate I’ll start that again soon. I know next to nothing about Dweck, but I’m excited to learn.

Thanks again for the comment!

(And congrats on starting up your own blog: http://mrdardy.wordpress.com/)

1. In light of what you shared (which echoes the sentiments of the other teacher in our department) I need to seriously reconsider my “tear the band-aid off” approach. I may still return to it, but a good thinking through of the possibility of a more gradual transition is in order.

2. In my mind, the Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2 sequence is NOT collectively equivalent to the integrated Math 1, Math 2, Math 3 sequence. There seems to be a half year shift between them, possibly because half of what I teach in Algebra 1 is actually contained in CCSSM Grade 8. Also, students who finish Algebra 2 at our school must take Precalculus before enrolling in AP Calculus. In the future, students who finish Math 3 would be able to enroll in AP Calculus. In essence, our fourth course (Precalculus) will be swallowed up by the three year integrated sequence (mostly by Math 2 and Math 3). One other thing worth noting (before I come to an actual point of some kind) is that most of my students in Algebra 1 are in 8th grade. Looking forward, most of my students in Math 1 will be in 9th grade.

All that rambling really just sets the stage for this comment: Since there is not a “straight across” option for transition from traditional to CCSSM integrated, we must decide as a department whether to shift “over and up” (where students might have as much as a one semester gap in knowledge, scattered around in various domains) or “over and down” (where students might have as much as one quarter to one semester in knowledge overlap from previous courses). I plan on taking the latter road.

In case anyone is still reading this comment (what strange sort of punishment you self administer!), here’s an example. Suppose this year there is a 9th grade student who completes Geometry (the 2nd course in our A1, Geo, A2 “high school” sequence). He will move “over and down” into Math 2 (the second course in our integrated high school sequence). There will be some content overlap, and even a few small gaps, but this seems like the least evil of all roads in an all-at-once transition.

(Time for an ice cream break, so I’ll stop here and wrap up my comment in a second reply.)

First off, best of luck on this daunting task. It sounds like you are used to a pretty heavy workload at your school. I’ve taught at some small schools but I always had at least three colleagues from 6 – 12. Just the two of you? Yikes!
I’ll comment on a number of things here

Your Assumptions – My gut feeling about the rollout is the opposite of yours. If you have students already midstream in a more standard slice and dice curriculum, it feels to me that they’d be best served by carrying out the completion of the sequence they are already engaged in. Unless you can be really (really REALLY) careful about keeping track of curricular strands, I cannot imagine them escaping without some real holes or some serious replication of effort. However, with only two of you teaching the simple demands of the school’s bell schedules may force you into the tear the band-aid off approach here. Another question to consider is this one: How many kids do you inherit in the middle of their 7 – 12 career? How to align for them? We have had conversations about redesigning the 3 years of Alg I/Geom/Alg II in a more meaningful way but one huge obstacle is that we have SO many new students at 9th, 10th and 11th every year. I’m having a hard time imagining how to integrate them into an integrated curriculum.

Your goals – I do not know what the breadth of ability is in your student body. I do know that, in my opinion, the school I worked at that had NO honors distinctions until the AP level was one where students and parents had the fewest opportunities to angle their way into classes that did not suit them. I also had a healthy dose of interested/engaged kids in every class I taught. The school where I work now could not sustain that because we have such a wide gap in ability and interest. We have freshman in Calculus and seniors in Algebra II routinely. At times, the honors track situation creates a group of kids who self-identify as not being able to succeed. Perhaps I am being colored by my recent forays into Jo Boaler’s course and the heavy dose of Dweck I am getting there.

Drawing the Big Picture – It is clear that you have done some serious thinking here. Beautifully outlined work.

This is a terrific, thoughtful post. Thanks and best of luck!