BEMS 4th-8th grades ask school to approve Reveal for next year’s math curriculum
BREMEN—JESSICA Klingerman spoke on behalf of the fourth through eighth grade teachers regarding Reveal by Mcgraw Hill, the mathematics curriculum that the teachers believe will best suit the older students in the Bremen Elementary and Middle School (BEMS).
In first through third grades, students are focusing on learning the concrete basics that will set them up for the rest of their years in school and for taking ilearn, the state’s standardized test which begins in third grade. By fourth grade, the students start transitioning into more abstract concepts, but still use some hands-on learning methods, like math manipulatives. By sixth grade, students need to understand the abstract concepts so that they can build on them throughout middle and high school. according to Klingerman, Reveal is the best way to ensure that process.
Reveal Math is mostly an online curriculum, but can be accessed offline and has a consumable workbook that comes with it. another benefit of this curriculum is that is easier to link to Canvas, which is the school’s online database and management system. “Everything automatically syncs to it. They work together,” Klingerman explained. The software comes with a Desmos Calculator embedded in the program, which is the calculator that students use on the ilearn. “We no longer have to have separate links and the kids don’t have to pull up double screens or flip back and forth and post on the program. That may not be a big deal for you, but it is for me. I don’t have to spend half the day going, ‘Get the calculator out! You need the calculator!’”
The lessons are customizable, so teachers can change things around or scrap a lecture entirely if they deem it necessary, but are streamlined enough that subs will be able to pick up where the teacher left off and keep up with the class’ course schedule.
One of the biggest selling points for the fourth through eighth grade teachers is that ALEKS can be added onto the curriculum for a minimal fee. This curriculum addition is an adaptive learning program based on research. according to the curriculum website, 90% of students achieve mastery in the subject. “ALEKS, in my opinion, is the best individual math program I have seen,” Klingerman told the board. “It was way too expensive to ever even bring it here and ask, and finally, it’s included. When I told my fellow middle school math teachers, they go, ‘Sold. I can supplement any other way, but we want ALEKS.’ ALEKS is a very individualized program and you can’t fail and keep moving. That is a problem I have with some of our current programs, is that you can fail and keep moving.” according to Klingerman, ALEKS would replace Edgenuity on the students’ ipads.
ALEKS is success-oriented and incorporates daily reviews to make sure that what the students have learned previously is further ingrained in their understanding. “You can read how to do a problem and if you get three right, you move on,” Klingerman explained. “There’s a test then, and if you don’t pass, guess what? It puts it back into your path! You don’t have to pass it multiple times.”
Klingerman also pointed out that this curriculum is kid-tested and approved, something that other teachers at BEMS can attest to from their experiences at different schools. “Kids love it. They really do. You have to take a math class. No matter what. You love it, you hate it. You gotta be there. So if they’d rather do this, let them,” Klingerman said.
The school board unanimously passed all the teachers’ recommendations for BEMS curriculum for kindergarten through eighth grades. Board member Dr. Suzanne Ginter did request, however, that in future, the teachers bring their recommendations before the board sooner so discussion and negotiations are possible before the curriculum ordering deadline. Curriculum Director Jill Hassel explained that that would be difficult due to the deadline’s juxtaposition to the end of the school year and the strain that puts on the K-8 administration.