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Re: (Radically) revamping the early grades curriculum

I've obviously missed the beginning of this thread, but I assume it is on 
restructuring the way we teach mathematics. Daniel mentioned several 
programs that are on the market, but he didn't give names. I have 
recently been evaluating math programs for adoption by our school. We 
narrowed the field to Everyday Mathematics, Creative Publications - 
Mathland, and the TERC series entitled Investigations in Number Data and 
Space - published by Dale Seymour. I'm curious as to whether any of these 
series are among the ones you're referring to, Daniel.

Regarding Michael South's comments:
You present a strong case...with a good deal of humor (if one happens to 
agree with you). Thank you for not only pointing our the weaknesses, but 
also for giving examples of how our "correct way" of doing algorithms 
limits our thinking. I've taught outside the USA for 18 years now, but I 
am USA university trained. I learned all sorts of new algorithms from 
children who were taught in France, Germany and the UK. Their ways 
seemed, at first to be wrong to me. I hadn't seen their ways of doing 
arithmetic before I left the USA, and needed to learn that there are a 
lot of other ways to do things correctly. Teaching from a constructivist 
viewpoint, children can make their own meanings. Third graders in my 
class can very easily explain to you how to solve a problem that would 
ask, "If note cards come in packs of twenty and I have 380 cards, how 
many packs do I have." However, I venture to say that not one would write 
an algorithm to do so. They'd talk of how many 20s in one hundred and 
work from there. They've worked with landmark numbers (5, 10, 20, 25, 
etc.) and feel very comfortable explaining their reasoning on how to 
solve this sort of problem. Yes, they are introduced to the algorithm... 
and they will cerainly need to have some practice with it. Now the 
problem is, how can the algorithm be approached in such a way that it 
will make sense to them?
Michael, when you talk about restructuring math instruction, what ages to 
you consider as early?
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Gary Woodford                           Hong Kong International School
garyw@es.hkis.edu.hk                    23 South Bay Close
garyw@iohk.                             Repulse Bay, HONG KONG
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