I was hoping that teachers who are familiar with Saxon Math could share their opinions. Like it or hate it? What grade do you use it in? Pros? Cons? Our district is considering adopting it next year and I would appreciate any input you can offer! Thanks!
but they use it through 7th grade at our school - not 8th. Some teachers love it, some hate it - not many in between. It requires a huge block of time, and I guess that is the biggest problem. Some have trouble finding time to teach language arts, science, etc. in elementary classes with the time necessary for math. I can tell you that the kids' grades in saxon math classes are the pits and the kids act up a lot and give the teachers a hard time. When they get to 8th and more traditional method it's a more relaxed atmosphere - grade skyrocket so the teacher gets to be a hero they all love. I was tutoring a boy after school and this included his math. I personally didn't care for it. The mix of different skills was very confusing to him. About the time he was getting long division, like the 3rd problem on the sheet, it would switch to fractions and we'd start all over again. If it had stayed long division, he could have continued working and eventually mastered it without my help during each session. As it was, he needed help on his entire assignment - never felt that sense of mastery. However, our state scores in math are awesome and many credit the saxon program for that.
My school uses Saxon through 8th grade, and I teach it, since I have a self-contained class. I personally do not like it because it's not set up the way I've learned to teach. The topics/skills skip around instead of putting them together as a unit, and that makes it hard for kids to get a firm grasp of what they're doing. So, you may have a lesson on adding mixed numbers, but the practice set will have only a few problems that go along with that; everything else is review. I also tutored a kid in math last year, and I had the same problem Kirsten did.
Everyone at our school (except me, apparently) loves Saxon, though. Our students do well on their standardized tests, so no one complains. Saxon does review a lot, which is good, if it would just allow kids to grasp a concept.
I teach 1st grade and I really like it. saxon works with a spiral method so it kinda switches from concept to another but the comes back. It's also really big on basic fact (doubles, add 1. ect) on first grade which I really like. ALL the teachers in our school (K-6) love it and have no complaints. Our test scores have gone up since Saxon. Another thing about Saxon that I like but some people don't is it doesn't work in chapters (at least in lower grades) after 5 lessons their is a quiz. I also like that in first we do one side of the paper together, with a big chart paper I do at the board and then the back is homework. The only con I see is if you want a lot of grades you don't get a lot b/c the homework isn't graded only the every 5 lesson quiz is. Hope this helps...if you have more specific questions just ask/
I have taught it, in first grade as the teacher before me did. A couple of things I didn't like about it was there was not a lot of drill, and when it taught an addition/subtraction concept, it had the child color the number of blocks in two different colors, then ask how many were colored. It doesn't give the child the idea they are adding or subtracting. Also, it doesn't teach adding of more than two digits at a time. I realize I am old, but I remember doing that in first grade when I was a child.
I do like how they explain and have word problems daily. I would always read the problem to the children. Just because the reading skills are bad, doesn't mean they should have problems with doing the math. I like the some and some more, or some and some went away. I still use that although I am teaching a different series.
If your students need a lot of hands on, Saxon is not for you. If learning math is not a big problem in your school, it's not a bad series.
Hi! I have taught it in second grade for the past five years. I do like the spiral approach in that each skill progressively gets harder. I also like that it keeps bringing it back to the forefront of their minds. I do not like the lack of practice on new skills. We are in the process of a new adoption and won't be looking at Saxon. I think we're leaning towards Scott Foresman or Harcourt.
Saxon is good, but it is not the end all be all of a math program. I doubt anything is. Supplements are going to have to be added.
The other posters have covered a lot of the main concerns I had with Saxon. We used it for about 4 years, but abandoned it when it became clear that the 4th and 5th grade books in particular were completely out of alignment with our new state standards.
Another thing that bothered me about Saxon was that the method of presentation for the problems was so repetitive. They could seem to have mastered the concept (say finding the fraction of a whole #), but if that type of question was ever given in another form, they had no idea how to apply their knowledge.
I will say I liked that the book didn't have a lot of extraneous info. on the pages. You know how some math books have all of those little blurbs about science, social studies, tech. connections, etc. My poor kids get lost on a page with those. Also, Saxon is SOOOO easy to leave for a sub. It's like leaving a script to follow. Not that that's a reason to go with them for yoru adoption, but it's a perk if that's what you end up with.
I think we're leaning towards Harcourt.
Some of our 1st grade teachers use it and my co teacher used to use it. I am familiar with Saxon because I have used some of their other programs. I looked into using Saxon math. I didn't like it because it seemed like a review, but no real in depth study of anything. I know several of the children we get that have had it have no number sense. My daughter had it and she struggles with certain math cpncepts. I am sure that that is not all because of Saxon, but I know it didn;t help that she had it in 1st grade. I don't like it at all.
We adoped the Saxon math program and this is our first year to use it. Like another poster said, it does take a big chunk of time. Some lessons require a lot of teacher preparation. I do like that the students don't work out of a math book, but all of the worksheets are sent to us already ran off. That definately is a time saver. One big plus is that unlike a traditional math program that is set up in chapters(addition, subtraction) Saxon hits on a different skill each day. When we take our state test in March we won't have to worry that we didn't get to the chapter on telling time or measurement, because those have already been introduced. Last year a teacher from each grade level piloted Saxon to see how they liked it. A first grade teacher actually had a student test out of resource for math after having Saxon for a year!! Isn't that amazing?!
I hate it with a passion. Saxon does not provide the concepts necessary for passing our state tests. Therefore, I have to supplement with other things. Noone in our district likes the program, except for the superintendent. She refuses to listen to anyone who tells her the program does the kids an injustice. After all she is the queen and we are just her pawns. Get this though, for the next two months until testing is over, we are to can Saxon and teach concepts needed for the test. This is from the superintendent, but she still will not consider another math program.
We use it at my school for 1st thru 8th . . . It is a very structured program. Overall, I don't really like it, although I do like the fact that it provides continual practice of skills already learned. I do think that's very beneficial. My main complaint is that there's really no built in ways to help out students who struggle or who need a bit of enrichment. The philosophy that they'll just get more practice as they go along and eventually get it, truly doesn't work for some of my kids. I also don't like having to teach it the specific way it requires. If I had my choice, I'd like to be able to use more fun, hands-on, real-world math sort of activities (to help get some of my relucant math students more interested in math), but Saxon really does none of that and doesn't allow me time for it either with the structured teaching style it has.
I teach 3rd grade in Texas and I despise Saxon. It is not aligned with our state standards and we have to supplement a great deal. So math takes an enormous amount of time. I will say that I do like they way they keep reviewing skills but that is it! Our campus is k-4 and all grades use it but only the lower grades love it. Our 4th grade math teacher has dropped it altogether.
01-20-2007, 10:14 PM
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