Photo taken in a third grade classroom using Primary Mathematics. The teacher had posted the question on the board and students recorded the question and their solution in a math journal.

Discuss.

Photo credit Monica Lim

There have been several items in various news outlets this past week.

From Boston.com comes the story: Wellesley math teachers learn Singapore techniques from Tenacre specialist

Although the Wellesley district  is not considering adopting a Singapore Math curriculum, they asked a a teacher from another school to demonstrate one of Singapore Math’s well-known strategies, the bar model method of  solving word problems. Jen MacPherson, Wellesley Public Schools’ elementary math coordinator may look at further professional development for the teachers:

Kids struggle with word problems. This is an easy tool to use in any curriculum.

Model drawing is a hot topic! The School Board in Briarcliff agrees. Their budget includes:

Approval for consultants to train kindergarten through sixth grade teachers in the Singapore Math Model Drawing Method.

And in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser is a brief snippet amongst a story about a Hawaiian charter school that began in a chicken coop:  With stable teaching staff and financial aid, Waianae school is model for student success

Principal Alvin Parker cites Singapore Math as helping the school meet turnaround goals:

The school adopted Singapore Math in the fall of 2009, and math proficiency jumped from 27 percent of students to 37 percent over the course of that school year, helping the school make “adequate yearly progress.”

Finally, blogger Monica Lim writes about her life with kids in Singapore and periodically includes interesting math problems as well as issues with the PSLE and education in Singapore. She recently posted a couple of interesting problems and student solutions: Revisiting maths models.

Class of 2020 Learns Math the Singapore Way

In September 2007, NBC’s Today Show  launched an ambitious 13-year project to follow a school class from kindergarten through their high school graduation. Students in the Today Show’s “Class of 2020″ segment are now in 3rd grade. From an episode that aired on May 2, 2011, we learn that the class of 2020 is learning Singapore Math.

This story does a very nice job of presenting some of the key features of Singapore Math and the ways American teachers are effectively implementing it. Mrs. Kaprelian explains the curriculum’s emphasis on place values, mental math and mental flexibility with math, all leading to a firm grasp of bar modeling. Note how Mrs. Kaprelian highlights the important role of manipulatives (in this case, cubes) in the concrete -> pictorial -> abstract progression. That groundwork leads seamlessly to the use of the bar model method to solve highly complex problems.

I Wish I Had Singapore Math

The role of parents also is addressed. Mrs. Kaprelian offers lessons to parents to introduce Singapore Math and tell them how it differs from other elementary math curricula. Initially, parents may be puzzled by Singapore Math, but typically there’s an “Ah Ha” moment when they get it and say, “I wish I had (Singapore Math).” (This is very common, I see the same reaction whenever I host Parent Nights at schools implementing Singapore Math.)

Involved parents, with knowledge of Singapore Math, on the same page with their child’s teacher…no wonder math is Eileen’s favorite subject.

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Thanks to a $1.2 million grant, six North Carolina schools will participate in the Singapore Math Pilot, a partnership with the Department of Public Instruction and State Board of Education. The selected schools were among 19 targeted by the initiative. The Singapore Math Pilot will provide approximately $240,000 over six years for teacher training and the purchase of Singapore Math workbooks and manuals.

The schools participating in the Singapore Math Pilot are:

* Murphey Traditional Academy, Greensboro
* Elizabethtown Primary School, Elizabethtown
* East Arcadia School, Riegelwood
* Eastfield Global Magnet School, Marion
* Gallberry Farm Elementary School, Hope Mills
* North Wilkesboro Elementary School, North Wilkesboro

The Singapore Math Pilot is the result of an effort launched by North Carolina foundations, policymakers, educators and business leaders in 2008, when a delegation visited Singapore. I’ll share more about this project in coming weeks.

I found some interesting interviews with noted mathematics experts, James Milgram and Ze’ev Wurman in a new blog called Math Experts – Q & A. The host, Pascal Blacque, asks mathematicians their opinions on current education trends.  Blaque states upfront that he is “concerned about the ‘reform math’ program” in his daughter’s school.

Here’s Milgram on Everyday Math:

There is a pretty good program hidden inside EM.  But no more than 1 in 500 teachers are capable of locating and delivering it.  However, that one teacher would almost certainly be able to do better on her own.

Both Milgram and Wurman are pretty warm and fuzzy on Singapore Math, though.  From the interview with Milgram (full interview):

JM: There are no major deficiencies in the Singapore program, just a few points where it could be better than it is.  On the other hand, the recommended lessons in EM are mostly useless.

ZW: Proficiency is hard to define. I would use the preparation for an authentic Algebra 1 course (Nat’l Advisory Math Panel definition) instead.

TERC = 2,

EDM = 4,

Saxon = 7 or 8,

Singapore (Primary Math) = 10