Maths teachers, what do you call this in English ?

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My son has just started year 6 (year 7 in the UK).

I want to help him with the topic they have started the year with, but I have no idea what it is called in English and I'm struggling to find anything on the usual sites I go to.

As a rough translation it seems to be called "groups" of the mathmatical kind.

He has to produce equations (?) like these below (if it doesn't format properly please read the brackets as the curly kind)

charactisation
A={a|a is a letter from the word "sink"}

list
A={s;i;n;k}

And then an Eulero-Venn diagram to show A, which I can't do here.

Theroy was by Georg Cantor

Started the above yesterday, today have added improper and proper sub groups, and the use of a sysmbol that looks like a squashed C,( so the arms are longer but it is more squat), and the same symbol crossed out to show a group is not a sub group of another group and the same squashed C with a dash underneath for the improper subgroup that is the orginal group, and a crossed through O to show the improper "empty" group.

He is having a hard time processing all the info, although we more less have the concepts sorted he is a bit fuzzy in places and I'd like to get him some less "dense" (and more example rich) explanations and practice....but it is a bit hard to do when when you don't know what you are looking for title wise (:

Hope I haven't mangled the explanation too much, quite hard to decribe in words.

Really grateful for an info about what the above is called.

thanks love.

CGP got back to me. The IGCE covers set therory, they did say it would be beyond him, but their explanations are very clear so at least it'll smash my language barrier and let see things more clearly.

I'll have to put off teaching him for now so we can get homework down cos there is so much of it, and it is getting more and more complicated so I think it will be a case of me talking him though the creation the formulas as I do them and seeing how much he can to the process the more we do. But as soon as that is done wirh I'll clear the decks and take him through from bottom up and see what I can get to stick.

Seem so daft, setting aside teaching so we can get the sheer volume of work done, but I don't see what else I can do.

Right, will go check out maths mammoth again and see if she has anything useful hidden in her number sub folders.

Check out this wiki entry about New Math, It might be some consolation to know you are not the only one who has struggled with this!

" For example, in some cases pupils were taught axiomatic set theory at an early age. The idea behind this was that if the axiomatic foundations of mathematics were introduced to children, they could easily cope with the theorems of the mathematical system later.
....
Parents and teachers who opposed the New Math in the U.S. complained that the new curriculum was too far outside of students' ordinary experience and was not worth taking time away from more traditional topics, such as arithmetic. The material also put new demands on teachers, many of whom were required to teach material they did not fully understand. Parents were concerned that they did not understand what their children were learning and could not help them with their studies. Many of the parents took time out to try and understand the new math by attending their children's classes. In the end it was concluded that the experiment was not working,"

Please don't worry too much, a lack of understanding of set theory really isn't going to affect his understanding of other mathematical topics.

Well the song cracked my first smile of the week

We'll get there, I came to terms with unions and insterection and disjoint set today, tomorrow is the bit I am putting off, where it looks from a brief glance like they are going to ask me to subtract and add up bubbles with letters and people's names in. But it might just look worse than it is.

By the time I plough through that I might feel less left out at sea and better equipped to teach him the basics at least, then take it from there.

If I get through this year without a brain bleed from thinking too hard about maths that has far too many words/letters and not nearly enough numbers, I might have a go in the future at redoing the maths o level I failed all those years ago.

I'm doing way better than DH at working it all put, and he graduated from science high school, so I've decided I'm obviously A level maths material after all (snicker)

Further Maths A-level

Well only if my brain hasn't exploded by Thursday

This is me this morning

I've ploughed through a ton of past papers for first year middle school INVALSI exams and there is not one hint of set theroy in any of them.

Oddly enough there appears to be no relation at all between the curriculum laid out in the maths textbook and the exam.

So, I have a cunning plan.

I will coninue reading ahead in his maths book and teaching myself. We will do his homework together as a "first dip of the
toe"' but with an eye on getting through it asap if he really has no idea what is going on, so I can save time and use said time to teach him the basics at least.

BUT I will sneak time from somewhere to regularly go over the sort of questions that are in the INVALSI exam, none of which are beyond him, but it wouldn't hurt to get him used to regonising question "types" and to work on lessening the silly mistakes he makes when rushing.

That way if we end up with a low GPA and a respectable score in the INVALSI (typical students score less on the INVALSI than they do at school) this time round it will be somewhat harder for the school to write him off as thick , lazy or blame me for somehow undoing all their good work the second he gets home.

In about 2 hours I am going to notice all the flaws in that plan, but for the time being I am going to bask in a temporary sense of relief.

I know the exam is in Italian, but the maths in it is more numbers than words, it looks like a reasonable degree of difficulty for the age group doesn't it ?

INVALSI