Teaching Textbooks — Math 5, Math 6, Math 7, Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, Pre-Calculus

by Greg Sabouri and Shawn Sabouri

Teaching Textbooks

Teaching Textbooks courses definitely rate at the top of my list! They would have been included among my 100 Top Picks if I had reviewed them before we went to print. These fantastic courses were designed specifically for homeschoolers to solve some of the issues that make math challenging for homeschoolers.

The textbooks are written directly to the student and do not assume the presence of a teacher. Explanations are clear and complete, with plenty of practical examples. Companion CDs actually teach the lesson for Math 5, Math 6, and Math 7, while the upper level courses rely primarily on the textbooks. A light-hearted touch avoids silliness but gives the texts a user-friendly feeling. This is evident in everything from the typeface and layout through the occasional cartoon illustration and the wording of the text itself. Key points are highlighted for quick student review.

Lessons are taught in a traditional fashion. The new concept is presented, followed by examples then practice problems. Next, students work through a set of problems (about 18-25 problems per lesson) on their own. Problem sets include review of previous learned concepts

The textbooks are softcover, plastic-spiral bound, ranging from 612 to 872 pages in length. The paper is a bit thin for textbooks, but the books are already more than an inch thick. (Pre-Calculus is two inches thick!) Durability might be a concern. I know that is a lot of pages for each course, but there are two obvious reasons: each page is less crowded than pages in many other courses, and expanded explanations (particularly in high school level books) that make the material much more understandable take up extra space.

Problem sets in each lesson are laid out such that students can actually do some of their work directly in the textbook. However, in high school level books there is not enough space for solving some of the problems, so you might want to have students solve and/or answer all problems in a separate notebook. I would encourage the latter approach, because you really want to see the work (how a student arrives at his/her answer) alongside the answers.

One complaint I have about the textbooks is the lack of an index. Sure, you can look up things in the table of contents, but you won’t be able to locate everything, and it takes much longer to scan through lesson titles.

Content in Teaching Textbook courses is equivalent to that of similar courses targeting average students. In the elementary grades, these books are a bit less challenging than their equivalents in the Horizons and Saxon series. Of course, you can always move ahead more quickly with a child who is able, so this matters most in the initial selection of the book in which the student will begin.

Math 5 will be released in December 2008, so I have not yet reviewed it.

Math 6 reviews the four basic arithmetic operations, place value, and time. It spends a great deal of time reviewing and teaching new concepts with fractions, decimals, and percents. It also covers geometry (points, lines, line segments, angles,both area and perimeter for polygons, circumference for circles, and introduction of geometric solids), units of measure (including metric system), and graphing concepts (e.g., number line, thremometers, bar graphs, circle graphs). A section of "additional topics" at the ends includes order of operations, decimal remainders, equations, and probability. A student with weak math skills might be able to pick up what he or she is missing since this course is fairly comprehensive on arithmetic basics.

Math 7 covers many of the same topics as Math 6, but review is much more brief, then each topic is tackled at a distinctly more challenging level. For example, fractions moves on to ratios, percents include work with fractions and decimals plus real life applications like commissions and sales tax, and geometry gets into computing the volume of solids. Statistics, probability, graphing, equations, and inequalities are also taught this year. "Additional topics" delves into powers, exponents, square roots, Pythagorean theorem, and work with negative numbers.

Pre-Algebra reteaches whole number operations, albeit even more briefly than in earlier grades. Still, there are plenty of explanation and illustrations. Even though the approach here isn't as hands-on as that of Math-U-See, I appreciate the way this and other Teaching Textbooks frequently explain how and why an algorithm (such as the process for long division) works rather than simply teaching children the steps to memorize. After lessons on whole numbers, the topics of fractions, decimals, percents, and measurement receive plenty of attention. In fact, the first nine out of the book’s fifteen chapters might be too much review for students who have already mastered arithmetic basics. The rest of the book covers beginning algebra, negative numbers, exponents and roots—topics typical of all pre-algebra courses. "Additional Topics” include concepts such as exponents of 0 and measuring mass. This course might be best for a student who has weak math skills or who has fallen behind grade level, since it covers much of what is usually contained in math courses for fifth grade and up.

Algebra 1seems to have more review of basic operations and pre-algebra concepts at the beginning than do some other texts, and the quadratic formula is not introduced until the second year. This is consistent with the approach and rate of progression found in Pre-Algebra. Overall, topic coverage is similar to that of other first year algebra courses, but with more thorough explanation.

Algebra 2 also reflects typical second year algebra course content. It gets into functions at the end of the book, but matrices and determinants aren’t covered. More advanced programs include all these topics. While Teaching Textbooks algebra courses are not as advanced as some, they do include practical applications in areas such as banking and physics that make them more practical than others. Word problems in all lessons also help students grasp how they might actually use algebra in real life. [Note that advanced topics such as matrices and determinants are covered in Teaching Textbook's Pre-calculus course. The publisher also tells me: "For students who want to cover those extra topics (e.g. matrices, determinants) without going to the next book, we plan to post lessons and problem sets covering those topics on our website. That way a student can access them without charge as a supplement to the TT course he is currently using."]

Geometry uses a traditional Euclidean approach, beginning with a chapter on logic and reasoning, then moving onto definitions, postulates and theorems. Formal proofs are introduced very early at the beginning of chapter three. However, constructions are not really incorporated into the text; they’re in the final section of the book titled “Additional Topics. Analytical geometry using the coordinate plane is also reserved for the end of the book. As with the algebra courses, practical applications and occasional word problems help students understand how they might make use of geometry.

The Pre-Calculus text and Answer Key & Test Bank components are now available with the CDs due in Fall of 2008. This course includes problems modeled after those on the SAT II Math test and the CLEP Pre-Calculus test which should help students on either or both college admissions and getting college credit for Pre-Calculus. This is a challenging course that begins with functions and moves on from. Topics covered are polynomial functions, rational functions, exponential and logarithmic functions, radical functions, power functions, triangle trigonometry, trigonometric functions, trigonometric identities, vectors and polar coordinates, systems/matrices/determinants, analytic geometry (advanced), sequences/probability/statistics, and introduction to calculus. "Additional topics" include Pascal's triangle, the binomial theorem, synthetic division, more on sines and cosines, more on complex numbers, De Moivre's theorem, and fitting a graph to data.

There are from 95 to 130 lessons per course, with lessons grouped into smaller numbers of chapters that concentrate on different topics. In all these texts, students should aim to complete about one lesson per day. Adding in test days still should leave you at least 30 days in the school year for extra work on troublesome concepts, review, or “mathless” school days.

There are some very important differences between Math 5, Math 6, and Math 7 and the rest of the series from Pre-Algebra and beyond. I'll first address the first three courses. Each course comes with a st of four CDs. You will need to do an initial installation on your computer for these, unlike the CDs for upper level courses. CDs include lectures, problems, quizzes, and complete solutions. Students actually enter answers on the computer. The CD will track student responses. They can have a second try if they miss a problem, but the program will report this. This automatic gradebook feature enters reports for practice problems (which are optional), assigned problems, and quizzes. The final score (expressed as a percentage) does not include the practice problems. The program also reports whether or not students view the step-by-step solutions to problems.

Significantly, students begin by watching the lectures on the CD, then they read the summary in the textbook. Next, the work the practice problems in the workbook, entering their answers in the computer. For problems they miss, they should watch the solution on the CD. Then they are ready to tackle the problem set, again beginning in the workbook, then entering answers on the computer. They can still view solutions if they continue to make errors. Parents should review progress before students go on to the next lesson. Each chapter concludes with a quiz. These three courses also come with an Answer Booklet that is strictly an answer key for practice problems, lesson problems, and quizzes.

Families are given permission to install the CDs on two computers, which means that two students might be working in the course at the same time. Even better, each time a student completes the course, you can simply reinstall for a new student. That means that all of your children can use the course over subsequent years.

Now, I'll focus on the courses for Pre-Algebra and above.

Each textbook comes with an Answer Key & Test Bank book. The first part is strictly answers (without solutions) for all problems sets. Second are chapter tests with 24-25 problems per test. Finally, there is an answer key for the test problems.

Although tests are not reproducible according to language on the back of the title page, they are printed with pages from different tests printed back to back so you cannot simply tear out a single test to give to a student. I checked with the publisher about this problem since you won’t want to give students the book containing the answer key while they take the test. They said, that this was an oversight and customers DO have permission to photocopy tests. Complete solutions to test problems are available on a separate CD for each course (which comes with the CD sets described below) but are not in the book itself.

CD sets are not essential as with the lower level courses, but they are a very positive feature. All courses have optional CD packages—none of which require installation. Let’s look first at the Lecture & Practice CD sets. There are three CDs each for Pre-Algebra and Algebra 1, and four CDs each for Algebra 2 and Geometry. CDs are not yet available for Pre-Calculus. Pop one in a computer and it comes up with an easy-to-use interface listing lessons and your choice of lecture or specific problems.

The lecture is an audio presentation accompanied by step-by-step written explanation showing how to work each problem. The screen design is colorful and nicely illustrated without being too busy. The audio follows the same presentation and wording as the lesson in the book. Students can actually choose to use either the CD or the textbook—they will get the complete presentation either way with the exception of solutions/explanations to the practice problems which are only on the CDs. Students might work through the lesson in the textbook, then use the lecture/practice problem CDs only when they need help working out the sample problems. It is very easy to quickly access a single problem.

The Solutions CDs—four each for Pre-Algebra and Algebra 1, and six each for Algebra 2 and Geometry—provide complete solutions for all problems except those on the tests. An audio track explains while the screen shows each step. The screen/interface is similar to that in the other CD set. Again, students can go directly to the lesson and a particular problem very quickly, so it’s very easy to get just the help they need. These Solution CDs make it possible for students to work independently, even when parents lack familiarity with the subject matter.

Both sets of CDs are packaged together for each course along with the separate Test Solutions CD and come as part of the complete package. I highly recommend purchasing the complete package with CDs, even if only for the solutions. However, if you choose to purchase only the books, you still have a complete, high-quality course, albeit without a solutions manual.

If you have a high speed connection to the internet, you can access a free demo at their website: www.teachingtextbooks.com.