Challenging Maths by Ammiel Wan - which grades?

[Brenda10]

tisha:

I try new publications if highly recommended. On sponge was recommended by a friend and I was also quite impressed by the problems on thier website/forum. So I gave it a try. DS enjoyed doing it.

DD used it last year. Yes. Those ratio, percentage question as well as angles question are very impressive. This year school also asked them to get in the onsponge book 6.

[tisha]

mrswongtuition:

I think Ammiel Wan is also writing for the publishing house I'm working with because the editor was mentioning about it too...

mrswong, do you also write assesment/guide books?

[janet88]

tisha:

janet_lee88:

[quote=\"tisha\"]
I try new publications if highly recommended. On sponge was recommended by a friend and I was also quite impressed by the problems on thier website/forum. So I gave it a try. DS enjoyed doing it.

I bought onsponge bcos school teacher asked kids to buy...otherwise wouldn't even know its existence. Get Henry Lee, Simon Eio, Andrew Er every year.

As far as I know OnSponge can only be ordered online. Was every parent asked to create an account and buy online or was it purchased by school and sold to the students? Just curious... :roll:[/quote]Someone told me this book is avail in school bookshop...but I didn't pay any notice when I bought my son's new books in Nov. If it was mentioned in booklist, I would have gotten it earlier.

[NickleBee Tutors]

I personally find that problem sums in the OnSponge books to be :


1) Reasonably challenging so as to help the student integrate the method/heuristics they have learnt in a progressive manner.

2) Very well designed such that even within the same unit, each question requires the student to really read and understand the question, think through the method and vary the thought process was so to solve the question.

3) Arranged by difficulty and methods used so that the students can work their way though each concept systematically.

I used to have to dig up challenging questions from top exams papers and modify them for my students but now that OnSponge is doing all the hard work for me, i can just focus on teaching my kids and helping them understand mathematical concepts and problem solving skills. Less grey hair for me! However i personally find some of the methods taught in Onsponge to be a little cumbersome and so in such cases, i teach my students my own methods and heuristics which they find easier to understand.

I noticed that some kids have been doing the OnSponge books before i took them in as my students and a high proportion of them did the whole book by memorizing the methods in the examples and mimicking the same method for all the questions in that particular unit without proper understanding on when and how to actually apply the methods learnt.

I would think that using the OnSponge books requires that the parent or the educator to be beside the child to guide him or her on proper understanding and application of the methods taught.

Anyway as a side note, was doing a spot of shopping at popular today and i noticed that Mr Ammiel Wan has written a new book entitled "Visible Thinking in Mathematics (Marshall Cavendish) Published 2011" with other co-authors and there are 12 books in total… Pri 1A all the way to Pri 6B. First impressions are that the new books :

1) Deals with some of the fundamental stuff which OnSponge does not cover (as OnSponge is more of a Problem solving book catering to section C)
2) Contain a lot more in-depth explanations for the methods taught.
3) Tips for the parents and educators on how to help their child understand certain difficult concepts.

Just to clarify, i am in no way affiliated with OnSponge or Visible Maths.

Yours

Zhou Shicai
NickleBee Tutors

[mrswongtuition]

tisha:

mrswongtuition:

I think Ammiel Wan is also writing for the publishing house I'm working with because the editor was mentioning about it too...

mrswong, do you also write assesment/guide books?

Yes

[Lynn2]

Hi Nicklebee tutors and Brenda10,

Thanks for the details.

May I ask how is the onsponge math books different from andrew er, A star series and top school past year papers?

Thanks again.

Regards,
Lynn2

NickleBee Tutors:

I personally find that problem sums in the OnSponge books to be :

1) Reasonably challenging so as to help the student integrate the






method/heuristics they have learnt in a progressive manner.

2) Very well designed such that even within the same unit, each question requires the student to really read and understand the question, think through the method and vary the thought process was so to solve the question.

3) Arranged by difficulty and methods used so that the students can work their way though each concept systematically.

I used to have to dig up challenging questions from top exams papers and modify them for my students but now that OnSponge is doing all the hard work for me, i can just focus on teaching my kids and helping them understand mathematical concepts and problem solving skills. Less grey hair for me! However i personally find some of the methods taught in Onsponge to be a little cumbersome and so in such cases, i teach my students my own methods and heuristics which they find easier to understand.

I noticed that some kids have been doing the OnSponge books before i took them in as my students and a high proportion of them did the whole book by memorizing the methods in the examples and mimicking the same method for all the questions in that particular unit without proper understanding on when and how to actually apply the methods learnt.

I would think that using the OnSponge books requires that the parent or the educator to be beside the child to guide him or her on proper understanding and application of the methods taught.

Anyway as a side note, was doing a spot of shopping at popular today and i noticed that Mr Ammiel Wan has written a new book entitled \"Visible Thinking in Mathematics (Marshall Cavendish) Published 2011\" with other co-authors and there are 12 books in total.. Pri 1A all the way to Pri 6B. First impressions are that the new books :

1) Deals with some of the fundamental stuff which OnSponge does not cover (as OnSponge is more of a Problem solving book catering to section C)
2) Contain a lot more in-depth explanations for the methods taught.
3) Tips for the parents and educators on how to help their child understand certain difficult concepts.

Just to clarify, i am in no way affiliated with OnSponge or Visible Maths.

Yours

Zhou Shicai

[Tinkerbelle]

tisha:

As far as I know OnSponge can only be ordered online. Was every parent asked to create an account and buy online or was it purchased by school and sold to the students? Just curious... :roll:

Hi Tisha,
DD's sch ordered the onsponge Book 6 for the whole class. Seems like more schs are using the Onsponge books now.

[Tinkerbelle]

Brenda10:

tisha:

I try new publications if highly recommended. On sponge was recommended by a friend and I was also quite impressed by the problems on thier website/forum. So I gave it a try. DS enjoyed doing it.

DD used it last year. Yes. Those ratio, percentage question as well as angles question are very impressive. This year school also asked them to get in the onsponge book 6.

Hi Brenda,
I remembered you mentioned you were using onsponge last year. Thanks for giving me more info about it...Wanted to send DD for the Dec holiday workshop last year but it was full house and they can't squeeze DD in. Will try to enrol for Mar holiday prog. Thanks.

[Tinkerbelle]

NickleBee Tutors:

Anyway as a side note, was doing a spot of shopping at popular today and i noticed that Mr Ammiel Wan has written a new book entitled \"Visible Thinking in Mathematics (Marshall Cavendish) Published 2011\" with other co-authors and there are 12 books in total.. Pri 1A all the way to Pri 6B. First impressions are that the new books :


1) Deals with some of the fundamental stuff which OnSponge does not cover (as OnSponge is more of a Problem solving book catering to section C)
2) Contain a lot more in-depth explanations for the methods taught.
3) Tips for the parents and educators on how to help their child understand certain difficult concepts.

Just to clarify, i am in no way affiliated with OnSponge or Visible Maths.

Yours

Zhou Shicai

Thanks NickleBee Tutors for sharing your views on Onsponge. Will also check out the new book you mentioned. Tks.

[Tinkerbelle]

Lynn2:

May I ask how is the onsponge math books different from andrew er, A star series and top school past year papers?


Thanks again.

Regards,
Lynn2

Hi Lynn2,

I can't make a fair comparison as I haven't used Andrew Er's books and I haven't seen DD's Onsponge book as her teacher collected it. DD mentioned that the questions are challenging (but manageable) and she enjoys doing them.

Below are some sample pages of the onsponge book 6 you might want to check out. DD claims that these sample pages are only the tip of the iceburg. Actual book has just over 200 pages and questions are more challenging than the ones shown in the samle pages.

http://www.onsponge.com/index.php?option=com_flippingbook&view=book&id=5&tmpl=component