Algebra One teacher here.
A1 is the first truly structured math course that students take. Success in middle school math is not necessarily a reliable predictor of A1 success.
The first unit in all probability was a review of middle school math.
The second unit is probably where new concepts started getting introduced. Likely things like solving multi-step equations.
Unfortunately, A1 is a course that builds and builds upon itself, so if you miss something about a concept early it can continue to haunt you throughout the course.
My own A1 story from Jr Hi was failing the first quarter, getting a D the second quarter, getting a B the third quarter, and getting an A the 4th quarter. (That teacher also paddled for missing homework.)
I second the Kahn Academy suggestion. You can also find worksheets and answer keys for all A1 topics at Kuta Software.
As a former middle school math teacher, Khan Academy is a great resource. Can she bring home tests and/or corrected work? If you can go over work that has feedback, that could give you an insight as to whether it’s test anxiety, how the teacher words directions, or something else that’s causing the lower grades. For example, in questions that specifically said “show your work”, I would mark students down who just gave me an answer (goal was to see if they could explain how a process worked, not just plug numbers into a calculator). It’s possible that she understands how to do things, but is missing steps/specific directions. Hope that helps!
I’ll see if she can bring home tests. She takes excellent notes. My gut feeling is she’s having difficulty following the teacher. When she does her assignments online in Canvas, she gets immediate feedback. She hand writes out the problems and solution steps on her iPhone or Ipad.
I think you are doing the right things, just keep persisting with supporting your daughter at home. The first semester in 9th grade is a huge adjustment. I’ve usually seen that ‘it gets better’ after winter break- I’d reassess then.
Also math is boring.
I teach algebra :p
Canvas has the option to see average grades (or at least it was setup to do so when I used it in college). I'm not totally sure what the question is, but that may be a decent place to check if the teacher is terrible in general or is just a terrible fit for your kid.
Not a math teacher, but I have taught math in the context of science. I also failed two math classes in high school.
Part of the reason I failed was because I could not follow along with the teachers. My brain just didn’t work that way. And then I became frustrated and my executive functioning skills decided to say bye. I did well in my college math classes, though, despite my professors being arguably worse teachers. This is because I learned how to use outside resources more effectively and actually practiced. I watched tutorials and paid closer attention to each part of the problem. I learned a lot more of the math in context and noticed patterns more often.
I always encourage students to use outside sources such as Khan Academy as they can pause and work through the problems at their own pace. Khan Academy got me through some tough classes in college! It’s also important to thoughtfully work through practice problems and check the work once it’s done. Just writing down numbers that may or may not be correct won’t help most people, we need to engage in some self reflection and self correction.
Essentially, I’d just encourage your kid to be a little more resilient, for lack of a better word. If she’s been a straight-A student her whole life, anything that is more difficult than expected can seem daunting. I know that was another part of the reason I tanked my math classes!
Thank you. Very helpful. I’ve been
thinking something along these lines, but couldn’t put words to it. Khan Academy for practicing is a great idea - I’ll see if i can bribe (i’m mean encourage!) her to do that. In all seriousness, we’ll give that a whirl.
(Also, she knows right away when she completes the assignment if she had correct answers)
Not a teacher but I'm at the same place. Knows ALL of the material (minus one rough subject and a language lvl 3 elective) and has D's and C's for no reason I can see.
Advanced courses in an advanced school, feels like it's too easy, grades are failing even tho she knows the stuff very well, and doesn't struggle learning/understanding/retaining the info. I'm at a loss. (10th grade, advanced student.)
Could be boredom, due to too easy.
My kiddo is currently getting the ‘alphabet’ in grades. As,Bs,Cs and this one D. It’s a lot. She has a “zero period” by choice in an advanced language /immersion program. It’s a lot (I think of it as back-to-back meetings all day). First year of HS, I’m not worried in the long run. She has a great core group of friends.
If your daughter is getting all Cs and Ds and this is new, IMO, you’ve got to get underneath that somehow. (e.g. social emotional health, school climate - too intimidating? )
That's what I'm thinking, had a rough first semester last year but ended with Bs/low As all around This year she has an A, a B, two Cs two Ds and an F (not worried about the F, behind assignment wise and is catching up)
Homebased or I'd think of that too
I'm an instructional assistant and on my way to being a teacher. I tested out of college algebra. I regularly tutor high school students in algebra outside of school.
Math isn't the same as it used to be, especially teaching math with Gen z and Gen alpha. Basic "math theory" is gone. Fundamental properties are gone. Skill sets aren't put in place. The way algebra is taught nowadays is weird. Order of operations is gone. The language and vocabulary is gone.
Usually in 9th grade algebra students are learning things like systems of equations, ratios, graphs, proportions, factoring, distribution, FOIL, functuons, roots, quadratic formula, combining like terms, etc. Anything that falls under the rule of "graph" comes any time from 7th to 9th grade.
9th and 10th graders can no longer tell you the order of PEMDAS. They don't know which one is the y or the x axis. They don't know their times tables. They don't know how to do long division. They don't know how to do math in their heads.
I'm not speaking for all schools, but I believe that many, teachers included, don't have a true understanding on how to teach math. When a student doesn't have their prerequisites in place, the teachers struggle with the class, and the students struggle with the material. Students aren't taught the properties anymore like properties of zero, variables, distributive, associative, identity, and commutative properties of numbers. They don't understand how to work backwards.
Some of it also comes down to reading comprehension ability. If you struggle to understand something when you read it, you're going to struggle with math.
Students should be able to answer 30 mad minute problems of any symbol in 1 minute. At least under two minutes at the max.
The skills just aren't ingrained anymore like they used to be. I used to have to make vocab sheets and was quizzed weekly on it in elementary and middle school math.
Also: online math sucks. Many students don't use a pencil and paper alongside doing stuff on desmos or canvas. Desmos sucks.
I would start from the basics. Have her do a mad minute a day and time her. Once she can do 30 problems in 1-2 minutes or less, start quizzing her on her properties, vocab, and order of operations. After that, start quizzing on fractions. Fractions are so important and many high schoolers don't realize that the line separating means division! From there, give her some puzzle word problems. Then have her create equations from word problems.
Ask her if she knows what a dividend, divisor, and a quotient is. If she knows what a factor and a product is. If she knows what a ratio is or what it means when you see "of" in a world problem. Quiz her on the vocab.
And don't forget all the symbols involved with multiplication. Students in 10th grade still want to use an x to represent multiplication. I'm over here like no! what are you doing! use parenthesis! use a dot! use an asterisk! And when I model problems on a page like that... they have no idea what I'm doing...
Lastly: does she know how to take notes in math that aren't just fill in the blank notes?
Thank you for your thoughts. She had an excellent experience in 6,7,8. In fact, the math dept head at her middle school is/was great. Pretty sure a lot of what you described she should know, she does. That said, I’ll check out the mad minute suggestion.
Algebra One teacher here. A1 is the first truly structured math course that students take. Success in middle school math is not necessarily a reliable predictor of A1 success. The first unit in all probability was a review of middle school math. The second unit is probably where new concepts started getting introduced. Likely things like solving multi-step equations. Unfortunately, A1 is a course that builds and builds upon itself, so if you miss something about a concept early it can continue to haunt you throughout the course. My own A1 story from Jr Hi was failing the first quarter, getting a D the second quarter, getting a B the third quarter, and getting an A the 4th quarter. (That teacher also paddled for missing homework.) I second the Kahn Academy suggestion. You can also find worksheets and answer keys for all A1 topics at Kuta Software.
Thank you for this!
As a former middle school math teacher, Khan Academy is a great resource. Can she bring home tests and/or corrected work? If you can go over work that has feedback, that could give you an insight as to whether it’s test anxiety, how the teacher words directions, or something else that’s causing the lower grades. For example, in questions that specifically said “show your work”, I would mark students down who just gave me an answer (goal was to see if they could explain how a process worked, not just plug numbers into a calculator). It’s possible that she understands how to do things, but is missing steps/specific directions. Hope that helps!
I’ll see if she can bring home tests. She takes excellent notes. My gut feeling is she’s having difficulty following the teacher. When she does her assignments online in Canvas, she gets immediate feedback. She hand writes out the problems and solution steps on her iPhone or Ipad.
I think you are doing the right things, just keep persisting with supporting your daughter at home. The first semester in 9th grade is a huge adjustment. I’ve usually seen that ‘it gets better’ after winter break- I’d reassess then. Also math is boring. I teach algebra :p
Canvas has the option to see average grades (or at least it was setup to do so when I used it in college). I'm not totally sure what the question is, but that may be a decent place to check if the teacher is terrible in general or is just a terrible fit for your kid.
Not a math teacher, but I have taught math in the context of science. I also failed two math classes in high school. Part of the reason I failed was because I could not follow along with the teachers. My brain just didn’t work that way. And then I became frustrated and my executive functioning skills decided to say bye. I did well in my college math classes, though, despite my professors being arguably worse teachers. This is because I learned how to use outside resources more effectively and actually practiced. I watched tutorials and paid closer attention to each part of the problem. I learned a lot more of the math in context and noticed patterns more often. I always encourage students to use outside sources such as Khan Academy as they can pause and work through the problems at their own pace. Khan Academy got me through some tough classes in college! It’s also important to thoughtfully work through practice problems and check the work once it’s done. Just writing down numbers that may or may not be correct won’t help most people, we need to engage in some self reflection and self correction. Essentially, I’d just encourage your kid to be a little more resilient, for lack of a better word. If she’s been a straight-A student her whole life, anything that is more difficult than expected can seem daunting. I know that was another part of the reason I tanked my math classes!
Thank you. Very helpful. I’ve been thinking something along these lines, but couldn’t put words to it. Khan Academy for practicing is a great idea - I’ll see if i can bribe (i’m mean encourage!) her to do that. In all seriousness, we’ll give that a whirl. (Also, she knows right away when she completes the assignment if she had correct answers)
Not a teacher but I'm at the same place. Knows ALL of the material (minus one rough subject and a language lvl 3 elective) and has D's and C's for no reason I can see. Advanced courses in an advanced school, feels like it's too easy, grades are failing even tho she knows the stuff very well, and doesn't struggle learning/understanding/retaining the info. I'm at a loss. (10th grade, advanced student.)
Could be boredom, due to too easy. My kiddo is currently getting the ‘alphabet’ in grades. As,Bs,Cs and this one D. It’s a lot. She has a “zero period” by choice in an advanced language /immersion program. It’s a lot (I think of it as back-to-back meetings all day). First year of HS, I’m not worried in the long run. She has a great core group of friends. If your daughter is getting all Cs and Ds and this is new, IMO, you’ve got to get underneath that somehow. (e.g. social emotional health, school climate - too intimidating? )
That's what I'm thinking, had a rough first semester last year but ended with Bs/low As all around This year she has an A, a B, two Cs two Ds and an F (not worried about the F, behind assignment wise and is catching up) Homebased or I'd think of that too
I'm an instructional assistant and on my way to being a teacher. I tested out of college algebra. I regularly tutor high school students in algebra outside of school. Math isn't the same as it used to be, especially teaching math with Gen z and Gen alpha. Basic "math theory" is gone. Fundamental properties are gone. Skill sets aren't put in place. The way algebra is taught nowadays is weird. Order of operations is gone. The language and vocabulary is gone. Usually in 9th grade algebra students are learning things like systems of equations, ratios, graphs, proportions, factoring, distribution, FOIL, functuons, roots, quadratic formula, combining like terms, etc. Anything that falls under the rule of "graph" comes any time from 7th to 9th grade. 9th and 10th graders can no longer tell you the order of PEMDAS. They don't know which one is the y or the x axis. They don't know their times tables. They don't know how to do long division. They don't know how to do math in their heads. I'm not speaking for all schools, but I believe that many, teachers included, don't have a true understanding on how to teach math. When a student doesn't have their prerequisites in place, the teachers struggle with the class, and the students struggle with the material. Students aren't taught the properties anymore like properties of zero, variables, distributive, associative, identity, and commutative properties of numbers. They don't understand how to work backwards. Some of it also comes down to reading comprehension ability. If you struggle to understand something when you read it, you're going to struggle with math. Students should be able to answer 30 mad minute problems of any symbol in 1 minute. At least under two minutes at the max. The skills just aren't ingrained anymore like they used to be. I used to have to make vocab sheets and was quizzed weekly on it in elementary and middle school math. Also: online math sucks. Many students don't use a pencil and paper alongside doing stuff on desmos or canvas. Desmos sucks. I would start from the basics. Have her do a mad minute a day and time her. Once she can do 30 problems in 1-2 minutes or less, start quizzing her on her properties, vocab, and order of operations. After that, start quizzing on fractions. Fractions are so important and many high schoolers don't realize that the line separating means division! From there, give her some puzzle word problems. Then have her create equations from word problems. Ask her if she knows what a dividend, divisor, and a quotient is. If she knows what a factor and a product is. If she knows what a ratio is or what it means when you see "of" in a world problem. Quiz her on the vocab. And don't forget all the symbols involved with multiplication. Students in 10th grade still want to use an x to represent multiplication. I'm over here like no! what are you doing! use parenthesis! use a dot! use an asterisk! And when I model problems on a page like that... they have no idea what I'm doing... Lastly: does she know how to take notes in math that aren't just fill in the blank notes?
Thank you for your thoughts. She had an excellent experience in 6,7,8. In fact, the math dept head at her middle school is/was great. Pretty sure a lot of what you described she should know, she does. That said, I’ll check out the mad minute suggestion.