Saxon

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Home : 2002 : March : 10

Saxon
By Kathy

Our school has been using Saxon math for the past three years. Here's some observations I have about the program:

1. Computation test scores on the ITBS went up dramatically for the upper grades Our upper grade teacher
(who was one the one who convinced the School Board to switch to Saxon)loved the program.
2. The teacher for combination first and second grades finds that it is very teacher-intensive. It's really tough to do with more than one grade in the class. Her evaluation: She likes the "hands-on" activities and says the program does well in helping the children understand math. She does

NOT like the worksheets because first graders can't read them at the first of the year and there's too little work the children can do independently.

3. I have taught Saxon for grades 3 and 4 for the past 2 years. (The first year we did Saxon we were team teaching and I did the Language Arts.) My take is that for third grade it is very scripted. Tells you "word for word" what to say--which is helpful if you have a sub, but I prefer "eye contact" when I'm teaching. The "morning meeting" takes forever if you do all the activities.

What amazed me is that the teacher's guide in the third grade is overly detailed--and there's only a key for fourth grade--no helps at all!! I will say that I like the fourth a lot better than the third.

I have ended up using a "modified Saxon" taking what I think is useful and adding many of my own methods. I'm pretty happy with the program, but it's really tough to finish the fourth grade in a year unless you give the tests and do the lessons on the same day. (Which I think would make my students hate math)

This year I'm having the fourth graders do the whole problem set instead of just odds and evens like I did last year and they are doing much better. It does take them quite a while to complete the assignments though. Sometimes it seems as if math consumes our day.

I do like all the word problems in Saxon--also the way it continually reviews. And children that have "grown up in the system" are doing much better than ones that transfer in.

As far as how it compares difficulty-wise with other programs...it seems to me that it presents some things (such as square roots or area) at an earlier age, but doesn't give enough practice in actual math. And some of the concepts seem idiotic to me. (Example: What will be the date 2 months and 4 years from yesterday? What time was it 12 hours and 55 minutes ago? So who really cares??????!!!!!)

For the most part though I like the program.