His math homework has been "explain 3+4 = 7 and how did you get to your answer"
After seeing three kids through early elementary and way way *way* tooooo toooo too many "explain how did you get your answer" math problems... this is the conversation that took place at our house last night when my 4th grader asked me to check her math homework.
Her first problem had her calculate the answer to a string of numbers that included addition/subtraction/multiplication etc, then asked them to do the same thing again but with the numbers in a different order. The strings were enclosed in large outlined boxes. DD just wrote the answer in for both strings, didn't show any work.
Me: "You got the right answer, but how did you get it? You didn't show your work."
DD: "What work?"
Me: "How you got the answer... you know... what part of the equation did you calculate first, then what did you add or multiply together..."
DD: "I did that all in my head."
Me: "That's great, and I know you're good at math problems, but doesn't your teacher want you to write down how you did your work?"
DD: "Nope! She said we can do our work in our head as long as we get the right answer."
Me, now flat on the floor, surrounded by kids attempting to revive me with smelling salts after I had passed out from the shock of an elementary school math problem where the student isn't expected to show their work and then write an essay on how they came up with their method of solving the problem.
OK, slight exaggeration on the smelling salts, but wow... totally odd response from a teacher after years of my kids having to write little essays to answer their math problems lol!
polarbear
