Investigations Curriculum

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Investigations Curriculum
By A in Delaware

Great reply!
I have used the Investigations Curriculum for 5+years. 2 years in 2nd grade-and loved it! and this is my 4th year using it in 4th grade. I have used another standards based curriculum-Trailblazers and liked
that too.
The Investigations Curriculum does follow the belief that children need to develop strategies for solving problems. Yes, it may not seem as efficient as "the way we learned it" but the children certainly seem to have a better understanding of math concepts and number sense.
If you are using the curriculum note that the games-choice activities are the computation and

other practice and need to be done often. For example, if children play the game "Close to 100" think about the math they are doing-Addition, subtraction, algebra. That is the practice. As children develop strategies they may or you may want to introduce those-"more efficient" ways but don't force children to use them. They may be confused by them or they may decide that they make sense. The key is making sense and the children need to use strategies that make sense to them.
Memorizing multiplication facts is not as important as understanding how to get the answer to a multiplication problem.
I can teach anyone to memorize 6 x 7 =42 but a child who has a true understanding of mathematics will understand and be able to explain WHY 6 sevens make 42.
Hope that help.
Sorry I got long winded.