Key Selling Points/How We’re Different Blended Print & Digital Curriculum

• PowerAlgebra.com & PowerGeometry.com are the gateways for students and teachers to all digital components for Algebra 1, Geometry and Algebra 2.

• My Math Videos are downloadable student-produced videos that engage students in the math concepts and are relevant to their lives.

• The Portable Study Center contains downloadable audio, video and animations to support students’ personal learning.

Visual Instruction • Concepts are presented visually and through different media so that students

understand the importance of mathematical ideas and the context in which they are useful.

Understanding by Design • Big Ideas are the organizing ideas for all of the lessons and help students focus

on the key mathematical concepts they are studying. • Essential Questions help students think about the Big Ideas presented in the

lesson. Problem Solving

• Problem solutions are stepped out to help students develop mathematical thinking and reasoning skills.

• Think-Write Boxes and Know-Need-Plan Boxes guide students’ thinking and reasoning by modeling the problem solving process.

Differentiated Instruction • Lesson Resources provide a detailed blueprint for instruction, assessment, and

remediation that includes prescriptions for all levels of students from intervention to extension.

• The Student Companion is a student worktext with graphic organizers and other tools that provide daily instructional support.

Ongoing Formative Assessment • The Got It? lesson feature allows teachers to evaluate students’ understanding of

concepts and informs instruction. • Lesson Check provides opportunities for students to show what they know and

offers valuable feedback on student understanding. Foundations Series provides comprehensive coverage of content that is accessible to

struggling students. • Readability at 2-3 years below grade level • Shorter lessons and shorter chapters allow for more frequent assessments. • More scaffolding in examples and exercises support students at every step.

Glencoe Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2 ©2010

Hits • Minimal engaging, high interest applications in student editions — Glencoe starts every lesson with a Why? feature. It’s a little unclear what the value of the Why? features are. They are not motivating, they never revisit them in the lesson and they don’t promote interactive learning. Prentice Hall recognizes the value of motivating and engaging students so the Solve It! lesson launch problems, at the beginning of every lesson, relate new math to prior knowledge and allow students to make connections and tie math to every day activities. • Fewer opportunities to foster conceptual understanding — Glencoe requires students to use the online Personal Tutor videos for every example when additional understanding is needed. Prentice Hall provides visual modeling, visual examples with step-by step callouts and concept maps to help students understand mathematical relationships. Additionally, student avatars act as peer coaches in print and online. Understanding and problem-solving skills are taught through principles of Understanding by Design, including probing and scaffolded questions found in the Student and Teacher’s Editions. Stepped-out problems, in both digital and print, along with the Student Companion Worktext provide students with varied problem types and rich scaffolding. • Confusing exercise set layout — Glencoe’s exercise set has a confusing layout and is not teacher or student-friendly. There are four different sections at the end of the set (H.O.T Problems, Test Practice, Spiral Review and Skills Review) that have to be a part of the assignment; the Challenge problem(s) are embedded in the H.O.T. (Higher Order Thinking) problems and the B exercises are not labeled. Prentice Hall provides a comprehensive, easy-to-navigate exercise set with built-in student help that focuses on both skill and problem-solving support. Each section of the exercise set is clearly marked, and student help is clearly labeled. • Weak integration of online tools with their student edition — Glencoe offers online student support, which is no where near the level of support provided with Prentice Hall’s Student Center Digital Path. Glencoe does not provide a daily path through the lesson – beyond the examples from the book. PH organizes all assets (including the student edition with audio, student-generated videos, interactive online activities, online problems, online homework, vocabulary, tutorials and online assessments with remediation), in one place, by lesson and by use – providing ways to enrich, extend, engage and assess.

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• Manageability of Ancillaries — Glencoe has five separate student workbooks that students have to manage and keep up with. Prentice Hall provides comprehensive daily support for every lesson in the Practice and Problem Solving Workbook and the Student Companion Worktext. Blocks • They’ll say, “We have a low-level Algebra 1 and Geometry text, as well.” The Block: Glencoe’s low-level texts do not have the same TOC as their “regular” texts. PH now has textbooks written especially for low-level students, the Foundations Series. These texts deliver the same comprehensive content as our on-level program, giving teachers and adminis-trators access to a corresponding low-level program. • They’ll say, “Our Noteables Interactive Study Notebook with Foldables is a complete note-taking system for every lesson – in a workbook format.” The Block: PH offers note-taking support as well with our Key Concept Boxes in the SEs and our Student Companion Worktext. In addition, the “Foldables” component really has no mathematical value, and is certainly not going to help students master high school mathematics content. • They’ll say, “Our Online Personal Tutor provides students with at-home help on concepts taught in the lesson.” The Block: Our student avatars provide students with the same type of support in print and online. Additionally, MathXL for School provides online practice and tutorial options through the Student Digital Path.

Holt Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2 ©2007

Hits • Weak built-in student support — Holt’s check of prerequisite skills at the beginning of each chapter (called Are You Ready?) does not direct students to previous lessons for help. Those students that “are not ready”, have no guidance on where to go for help. Within the lessons themselves, PH includes more comprehensive support. PH points students to previous lessons, student-generated videos, interactive online activities, and other built-in support to give students an opportunity to review and practice mathematical concepts and skills. • Technology support is cumbersome – includes 11 separate CDs to manage — Although this may initially give the impression of a large technology package, it makes their technology package difficult to use. For instance, their One-Stop Planner and their Chapter Resources are on two different CDs, making it hard to do “one-stop” planning. Prentice Hall’s All-In-One Teaching Resources are organized by chapter on one DVD affixed to the inside of the Teacher’s Edition. Additionally, all of the teacher resources and classroom management tools are accessible through the Teacher Digital Path. • Weak Special Needs support — Holt’s Adapted Resources are not in print – only online or CD. The online remediation is only for Are you Ready and Ready to Go On text features. No other remediation is offered. Prentice Hall delivers comprehensive content that is accessible to struggling students with the Foundations Series. This series is written two to three years below grade level, with shorter lessons and shorter chapters to include more scaffolding in the exercises and examples to support students, while also allowing for more frequent assessments. The Foundations Series also has the student edition on CD-ROM as well as a full array of digital assets online. Blocks • They’ll say, “Our Know-It Notetaking System provides students the support they need in taking notes and understanding the math concepts.”

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The Block: Holt does have a strong note-taking story, with Know-It! Notes in the SEs, a Know-It! Notebook, and Know-It! Notebook Teacher’s Guide with Transparencies. However, Prentice Hall offers the same support with our Key Concept Boxes in the SEs and our Student Companion Worktext and Teacher’s Edition.

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• They’ll say, “Our Author Team is unsurpassed, with a broad range of expertise.” The Block: None of their authors are classroom teachers. Unlike PH authors - Dan Kennedy, Bill Handlin, and Laurie Bass, all currently teach at the high school level; Randy Charles, Basia Hall, Allan Bellman, and Art Johnson all spent significant time teaching. Stuart Murphy and Grant Wiggins have also joined our authorship team. Furthermore, although Holt designates areas of expertise for each author, there are no content experts designated. The lack of content expertise and practicing classroom teachers calls into question the strength of their author team. • They’ll say, “Our “Multi-Step Test Prep” and “Test Tackler” features provide the best support for preparing for high-stakes tests.” The Block: Their Multi Step Test Prep problems are very poor. They aren’t really multi-step problems, just a collection of many problems using a single set of data. Our Assessment and Test Prep features at the lesson- and chapter-level provide comprehensive support for test preparation and far exceeds Holt in helping students succeed on high-states tests. • They’ll say, “Prentice Hall doesn’t have the level of support for special needs learners like we do with our IDEA Works! Special Education CD.” The Block: Holt gets a lot of play with this CD, but it is simply PDFs of modified assessments and practice pages. This is not a piece of software to support special needs learners. Prentice Hall has a comprehensive struggling learners program, the Foundations Series, which uses a blended delivery of print and digital to ensure struggling learners acquire key mathematics concepts.

McDougal Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 ©2007

Hits • Limited opportunities to check student understanding — McDougal includes a check for prerequisite skills in the homework exercises of the previous lesson. The danger here is that students will treat these exercises like any other review exercise and not realize their importance. McDougal’s quick checks are often grouped at the bottom of each page, making it difficult for students to know which question goes with which example. Prentice Hall recognizes the value of checking prerequisite skills, so these are clearly and easily located at the beginning of every chapter. Furthermore, PH provides daily guided and independent practice with opportunities for instant feedback with our Got It?, Lesson Check, and Pull It All Together features.

• Weak Exercise Sets — Exercise sets do not contain adequate numbers of exercises that allow students to apply what they have learned in the lesson or that challenge on-level or above-level students. PH provides more opportunities for daily practice, problem solving, and review of concepts and skill. • Daily test preparation materials are not as extensive or as well labeled as ours — McDougal labels problems throughout their exercise set as Standardized Test Practice. Prentice Hall has comparable exercises including multiple-choice problems within our exercise set. In addition to those we also include a separate section at the end of each chapter for targeted high-stakes test preparation. This additional exposure to the type of questions that students will see on state tests adds more opportunities for students to master both the content and style of questions found on state tests. • Weak vocabulary and general study support — McDougal’s vocabulary support does not extend beyond a short Vocabulary Check at the chapter level, highlighting key terms in each lesson, and some vocabulary exercises in the chapter review. Compare this to Prentice Hall’s Lesson Vocabulary features and Vocabulary Builder feature pages in the Student Companion. PH provides the best support for key mathematical language, as well as high-use academic terms found on high-stakes tests.

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Blocks • They’ll say, “We have a low-level Algebra 1 and Geometry text, and our low-level texts have the same TOC as our regular texts.” The Block: Prentice Hall has a complete low-level program. The Foundations Series delivers comprehensive content that is accessible to struggling students. It is written two to three years below grade level, with shorter lessons and shorter chapters to include more scaffolding in the exercises and examples to support students, while also allowing for more frequent assessments. • They’ll say, “We’ve got worked out solutions to selected problems in the student edition.” The Block: McDougal only provides two worked-out solutions for each lesson. Problem solving strategies are an integral part of the Prentice Hall program and are embedded throughout each lesson. The worked-out problems model effective thinking and reasoning strategies and help to foster students’ mathematical reasoning. • They’ll say, “We’ve got Classzone with @HomeTutor and Animated Algebra, which provide interactive learning experiences for each student.” The Block: McDougal’s Classzone is launched from their digital textbook, but then requires students to search out the assets for a particular lesson. Prentice Hall’s Digital Path integrates all student-generated videos, interactive online activities, digital vocabulary support, tutorials and online assessments at point of use. • They’ll say, “We’ve got a Resources 2 Go flash drive, which provides teachers with the easiest access to all teaching materials.” The Block: We provide the same type of support via DVD and online, which is just as easy to transport and use.