Maths Assessment Books

[NickleBee Tutors]

Review of the \"thinkingMath @ Onsponge\" Series (Ammiel Wan, Chris Rogers & Corine Quek; 2008)

By Zhou Shicai (NickleBee Tutors) first written Jan 2011


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T1Ag7jyoqi0/UJxjP3cUphI/AAAAAAAAARI/A4yCiSl40xc/s1600/onsponge+books.jpg\">

Mr Ammiel Wan first developed the cognitive conceptual approach and published it in a book \"Challenging Math Problems Made Easy\" way back in 2006. If I am not wrong, he was the HOD of curriculum in Catholic High back then.

Anyway, from what i understand, Onsponge then partnered with Mr Ammiel Wan in 2008 to use and develop his mathematics teaching concepts into the Onsponge series of assessment books as sold today.

The Onsponge books are an awesome resource (if a bit dated) for students wanting to learn the various conceptual knowledge required to ace Problem Sums in the Math Paper 2. Personally, while I admire the way Mr Ammiel Wan has revolutionized the approach to teaching students mathematics as it gels in very well with my own teaching methodology, I personally feel that the some of the procedural knowledge (methods) as taught in the Onsponge Books are quite cumbersome and rather lacking in fineness as they seem geared towards higher ability students who already have a working knowledge of problem solving and are just looking for a boost to fine tune the nuances of their problem solving capability. For other students who are still in the process of improving their problem solving skills, the way the books are structured has an unfortunate and unintended side-effect (if not taught correctly) of encouraging rote learning and blind application of methods (based on how the child thinks the question should be categorized) without understanding that problem solving is a process where the means is very much as important as the ends.

While I do use the Onsponge books for my students because the questions are excellent (on par with top schools math exam questions), I do not use the methods as taught in the examples as I feel that once the child has read to understand the questions and can apply the same conceptual knowledge to questions with different contexts, the child should then be allowed to apply his innate reasoning and analytical skills to present whichever methods he so chooses in a clear and concise manner under my personal guidance. Of course I fine tune and tweak each child's methods to make them clearer and more presentable and after which, I would then show a couple of alternative methods to my students to expose them to different though processes to deriving the answer and in so doing strengthen their grasp of the concepts. I also have a habit of making my students present their though processes (all the way from reading the question to getting the final answer) to the rest of the class as I find that it helps the student's metacognition (thinking about their own thought process) and allow me to spot any inadequacies in the child's mathematical thought process or errors in their conceptual knowledge which can be improved further.

Anyway, Mr Ammiel Wan left the teaching service sometime last year (his last appointment was vice-principle of Rosyth Primary) and has started \"Visible Math\" (http://www.visiblemath.com.sg) with Mr Steward Teng (former HOD) and other HODs and Teachers. He has also recognized that the Onsponge books are heavily geared towards Paper 2 Maths and has published a series of workbooks in 2011 called \"Visible Thinking in Mathematics\" available in Popular which are aimed at helping weaker students improve their basic mathematical concepts through the use of the Cognitive Conceptual Approach and while the answer sheets contain quite a number of glaringly obvious errors at least in the Pri 5 books that I use for my students (it is the 1st edition after all), I feel that the books are a must have for any student wanting to use them as a spring board to improving their basic math concepts before proceeding onto acing their problem solving questions.

Yours
Zhou Shicai
NickleBee Tutors
91884710
http://www.nicklebeetutors.com

Update : Mr Ammiel Wan has recently released the GetMeThinking Math Books which are currently on sale at his Education Centre \"Visible Maths\"

[speedmaths.012624com]

KSP:

any good maths assessment on pattern?

Hi,

You may look at \"Go For A* - Vol 2\".
You can browse through the book at any Popular Book store.

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The first 6 chapters deal with patterns, and skills that will help you solve patterns questions.

Hope this helps.


speedmaths.com


.

[sean wife]

Between Fabien Ng’s Problem Solving Skills (PSP) and Andrew Ng’s Challenging Problem Sums, which is considered the more challenging book? I am looking at P2 level.


Thanks.

[mwchua]

[quote=\"NickleBee Tutors\"]Review of the GetMeThinking Math Books (Ammiel Wan & Steward Tang; Visible Math, 2013)

by Zhou Shicai (NickleBee Tutors)
January 2013

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ai2uCiohNlA/UPOfOn4s4iI/AAAAAAAAAYI/-LpbXHsYNKw/s320/getmethinking+book.JPG\">

Any idea where we can buy these books? Don't think they are available at Popular yet. Thanks.

[SAHM_TAN]

mwchua:

NickleBee Tutors:

Review of the GetMeThinking Math Books (Ammiel Wan & Steward Tang; Visible Math, 2013)

by Zhou Shicai (NickleBee Tutors)
January 2013

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ai2uCiohNlA/UPOfOn4s4iI/AAAAAAAAAYI/-LpbXHsYNKw/s320/getmethinking+book.JPG\">

Any idea where we can buy these books? Don't think they are available at Popular yet. Thanks.

The books are sold at Visible Maths. The add and contacts can be found here.
http://visiblemath.com.sg/ourlocations.html

[lovebearseverything]

Hi all,


Anyone here ever purchase assessment book from Onsponge? I bought some books via their website since 17 April, according to their website, I should be able to receive my purchase within 3 working days via courier. However, I have yet to receive my books till this day.

I can’t find any contact number in their website, sent messages thru their website contact page and also thru their facebook, no one seems to response until I threatened to write in to CASE, then a guy called can told me that he will sort out the issue within 24 hour. But, he didn’t get back to me. I am not able to contact him as his contact no. is a confidential number.

Anybody had such similar encounter with Onsponge?

Regards.

[plum-cake]

you can purchase the books either from Sin Ming or

Goldhill.
Goldhill centre : 201B Goldhill centre, Thomson Road, S(307 637), Tel: 6252
5138
Sin Ming centre : 6 Sin Ming Road, #01-10 Sin Ming Plaza Tower 2, S(575
585), Tel: 6456 7212

The opening hours of the two centres are as follow:
Goldhill Centre’s –> Mon to Fri: 3 pm to 8 pm
(Closed on Wed)
Sat: 9 am to 6 pm
Sun: 12 nn to 5 pm

Sin Ming Plaza’s –> Tue: 4 pm to 9 pm
Wed: 4 pm to 7 pm
Fri: 3 pm to 8 pm
Sat: 12 nn to 6 pm
Sun: 12 nn to 6 pm

each book is about 15$

explenations and examples are much better than onsponge. I bought the p4 one. both are goodones

[winterman05]

Can someone please tell me where can I get on sponge books for P3?

If your school sell, please let me know also. You may PM me.

Thanks a lot.
Cheers.

[winterman05]

Can someone please tell me where can I get on sponge books for P3?

If your school sell, please let me know also. You may PM me.

Thanks a lot.
Cheers.

[CMF]

winterman05:

Can someone please tell me where can I get on sponge books for P3?

If your school sell, please let me know also. You may PM me.

Thanks a lot.
Cheers.

You can buy it online and arrange for delivery by post or self-collect : http://www.onsponge.com/shop/thinkingmathshop.html