algebra

Do you remember how to do algebra? I subbed for seventh grade pre-algebra and eighth grade algebra last week. On Friday the eighth graders had a test. Can you solve the extra credit problem? It's good for your brain! ;-)

In six years Bill will be five times as old as he was 26 years ago. How old is Bill now?

While the kids were taking the test I had nothing to do, so I spent the hour looking at their math book. I discovered they're using the same algebra book I used! And get this: It was published in 1979. That's a bit scary.

Also, in an article I read for my Theories and Techniques of Reading Assessment and Intervention course:

* Frequently, secondary school content-area textbooks readability levels are even higher than the assigned grade levels. For example, Kinder, Buruck and Epstein (1992) reported readability levels ranging from ninth grade to third year of college, with a mean of a tenth grade level, for social studies textbooks adopted at the eighth grade level.
* Armbruster and Anderson (1988) reported that textbooks frequently lack "considerateness," in that they are inconsistently organized from chapter to chapter, lack good structure, provide insufficient definitions of essential vocabulary, and require inappropriate skill demands of learners.
* Yager (1983) analyzed the amount of vocabulary introduced in science textbooks and concluded that more vocabulary words were introduced in a single year of science than in the first year of a foreign language class.
* Compounding the issue of text density and complexity is the fact that a single paragraph occupies about 15% of the space of one page in an 848 page textbook.

No wonder kids struggle and are overwhelmed!