Text Book Review

I was not surprised to find that the Go Math! curriculum did not meet all the expectations for the fifth grade.  As my school district rushed to adopt curriculum, I felt that many of the topics we awkward to teach. The language is incredibly difficult for students to comprehend.  I feel that the book is written to address the standards written for the fifth grade CCSS.  However, when piloting the Go math!, I also found the mathematical practices were lacking.   I also piloted the My Math curriculum.  I found that it was far less complete then the Go Math!.  I taught chapters from both books and rated them on a scale provided by my district.  The decision was unanimous that Go Math! rated higher on our scale.  However, many of us brought up feeling of disapproval for both curriculums. 

I did find that the CCSS standards for math were fully addressed when piloting the program.  I still found it difficult because of the complex language.  While the conceptual component is present, it is often convoluted for the students.  It is nice to see this website shows some specific areas of success and areas of improvement.  I especially enjoyed the published remarks after the review.  It sounded like they were offended and made excuses for the shortcomings of the program.

After reflection, we rushed to adopt a curriculum so we would have something rather than nothing.  I think this was a mistake.  The test scores are still not counting for anything except research.  We should have taken the time and waited for other curriculums to be written.  However, it seems most curriculum falls short.  It is a reminder for me that the text book is a resource and not the be to all to end all when teaching students.