I thought it might be interesting to provide examples of how a lesson is presented in two different sets of Singapore Math materials. There are two editions of Primary Mathematics currently in use throughout the United States, The U.S. Edition and the CA Standards Edition. In this post, we’ll take a look at the new Primary Mathematics Common Core Edition and compare it with Primary Mathematics U.S. Edition and Math in Focus.
Side by side lesson sequences: Primary Mathematics Common Core & Math in Focus
Why these materials?
If you’ve been using Primary Mathematics since forever, or more than six years, you’re probably a real die-hard fan of the U.S. Edition. You might be wondering if, with all the Common Core PARCC and SBAC assessments, it might be time to look at a Common Core aligned version. If you’ve been using Math in Focus (released in 2009 as Math in Focus: The Singapore Approach) you might be wondering what are the differences between the two sets of materials?
Let’s take a look at the materials…
The materials reviewed are:
- Primary Mathematics U.S. Edition (2003) from SingaporeMath.com
- Primary Mathematics Common Core (2014) from SingaporeMath.com
- Math in Focus (2013) from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
The lesson that we’re comparing is from the 2A materials on addition with renaming or regrouping in the tens. Here’s the lesson sequence for the Addition with Renaming by book. All lessons are one class period, unless noted:
Primary Mathematics U.S. Edition
2.4a Add ones or tens to a 3-digit number
2.4b Add numbers within 1000, with renaming in the ones
2.4c Add numbers within 1000, with renaming in the tens
2.4d Solve word problems involving addition of 2-digit numbers with renaming once.
2.4e Add numbers within 1000 with renaming twice
2.4f Add three numbers within 1000 & Solve word problems which involve addition within 1000
Primary Mathematics Common Core
2.4a Add ones or tens to a 3-digit number
2.4b Rename ones
2.4c Rename tens
2.4d Rename ones and tens
2.4e Add more than two numbers
Math in Focus
2.2 Addition with Regrouping in Ones ( 2 days)
2.3 Addition with Regrouping in Tens
2.4 Addition with Regrouping in Ones and Tens Problem Solving (1/2 day)
U.S. Edition Teacher’s Guide for Lesson 2.4c Add numbers within 1000, with renaming in the tens
(Click images to enlarge) 
OK, that wasn’t very helpful. You can see that the U.S. Edition Teacher’s Guides assume that you are teaching all the lessons and know what you need to do to teach a concept. Here’s the prior lesson, that teachers would use as guidance. It includes the number disc examples:
Ahh. That’s more helpful.
Common Core Edition Teacher’s Guide for Lesson 2.4c Rename tens
Here’s what is included in the Common Core Edition that the U.S. and CA Standards editions didn’t have : The textbook and workbook pages, right in the Teacher’s Guide. Hurray!
(Click images to enlarge)
Notice all of the guided questions? And when it is suggested to “Discuss with the students…” In the Common Core Edition, there are suggestions for discussion and emphasis, which is very helpful when working through word problems with the Bar Model in grades 3-5.
Math in Focus Teacher’s Guide for Lesson 2.3 Addition with Regrouping in Tens
(Click images to enlarge)
Some differences…
One major difference you’ll see is that the lesson in the Primary Mathematics Common Core materials use the more abstract Place-value discs, where the Math in Focus uses the more concrete Base-ten blocks. Another major difference is in the actual images if the textbooks themselves. The content in the Math in Focus is very guided. Using the textbook, one gets the feeling that students could teach themselves from the materials. In the Primary Mathematics Common Core materials, the teacher delivers the content of the lesson, then there is one example and some problems to work. What the teacher is doing with the students is important. I’m not sure a student would be able to figure these concepts out with just the textbook. (Nor should they be expected to. Isn’t this why we have schools?) Some other differences: In the Common Core Edition, Teacher’s are reminded that students can use place value discs:
In the Math in Focus, only place value mats are suggested as a manipulative and designed for struggling learners:
If you’re a teacher who is new to the materials, what would you do with these two sets of instructions? Does one edition emphasize the Concrete -> Pictorial-> Abstract learning trajectory better than the other? Which edition do you prefer? [seriesposts sid=103 title=”Teacher’s Guides”] More to come…
