Our Strategy

The Excel Math curriculum uses a proven approach, with powerful features and advantages, including:

To understand how it all fits together, let’s look at the overall Excel Math strategy.

Excel Math Strategy

Enhanced editions available in Grades 1 through 6 by January 2007

The school year

The first 4-6 weeks of Excel Math lessons review the previous grade concepts. This strategy allows you to evaluate how well your class grasps basic math concepts. Students should feel confident before tackling new ideas. This is a powerful feature of all Excel Math grades and Lesson Sheets. The majority of the school year is devoted to introduction and reinforcement of math concepts, using a spiraling approach. We regularly add new math concepts to meet state guidelines. Each week we introduce several new concepts. Students practice familiar concepts and prepare for assessment a week later. They are not tested immediately after learning. They have ample time to explore what they have learned ­ in class and at home; in calculation and word problems.

Each week

Each class “week” has 6 pages ­ 5 lessons, and a test followed by a story problem that encourages Critical Thinking or hands-on work. These new elements add variety to the math instruction and encourage student creativity. By the end of the year, students write story endings and develop problems from their own experiences. You will probably find there is more material each week than you can use, especially if you have assemblies, field trips or holidays. Use your own judgment to work through the lessons consecutively, or move quickly through a few days if your class is comfortable with the concepts. Although we show the days here labeled as Monday through Friday, days do not appear on the Lesson Sheets. You can take one day or two on some lessons as required by your school or the needs of your students. You may choose to do the fifth lesson during an entire class period, and do the test and “Story Problems” on a day by themselves.

Testing

Weekly, Quarterly and End-of-Year Tests are all cumulative. The Quarterly Test format helps your class learn how to do “bubble-in” answer sheets.

The End-of-Year tests are provided so you can assess the students’ grasp of the entire year’s content. Students who need special attention can attend summer school, using material keyed to the results of their tests.

The End of the Year

The final 4-6 weeks of lessons each year summarize what has been learned, and introduce a few concepts that will be taught at the next grade level. Many classes (or individual students) do not complete all the lessons in the curriculum, but they will still be exposed to all the year’s concepts by lesson 125 or so.

We supply dynamic Activities in a separate section at the back of the Teacher’s Edition. These can be used on special days, or at the end of the regular school year if your class finishes early.

Summer School

We offer summer school editions for all grade levels. These 6-week products are ideal for InterSession work as well. You can select a lower grade for remediation, or a higher grade to provide challenges for advanced students. Contact us for more details.

Better All Around

We believe our curriculum retains all the features of past Excel Math editions, and adds new concepts, teaching tools and resources. Students can exercise both creativity and literacy. We didn’t stop with improving just the content ­ you will also find a new look, a cleaner style, better graphics, and easier readability. Excel Math will do an even better job this year as you encourage your students to develop thinking skills, build proficiency, and gain confidence!