Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy HW rant, looooooooooooooooong division

Hi everyone,

My not-yet-identified DD10 and I were up to past 10 p.m. last night working on 34 repetitions of long division. (5th grade)

All of the problems had four digit dividends and two digit divisors and all had remainders.

The kids were required to show their pre-problem estimations, their "guessing and checking" to find the answer, and their "checking" of their work by multiplying and adding.

The estimating process was taking her about 5 minutes per problem because she was having some perfectionism issues - if her estimate wasn't spot on she'd get frustrated. Also, she insisted she was supposed to round everything to one significant digit before she estimated (this created several guessing and checking steps afterwards on several of the problems).

By halfway through the page, I told DD just to use the standard long division procedure that she already knew how to do. I'll take responsibility for any fallout - I hope they were just trying to avoid the calculator issue.

Okay, I'm done ranting.

What does math homework look like for other 5th graders out there?

I have a 5th grader, and she rarely cracks a book except for doing math team exercises. I really wish she had more challenging work. However, 34 long division problems with two parts each (estimation and computation) seems like a really long assignment for that age. I'm also a high school math teacher.

Oh my goodness that sounds like way too much homework! Did she have homework in other subjects too?

My 11 year old son would have a really hard time with that many problems, especially with showing his work since he has dysgraphia. If he were not allowed to do his guessing and checking mentally on long division problems so that he could write only as much as necessary to get the correct answer it would take him way too long to do it and he would absolutely hate math. I know from his public schooled friends that if they had 30 problems at the end of a lesson, they were required to do all 30 problems and it didn't matter to the teachers how long it took the kids to do it. It also didn't matter if they had extra-curricular activities like musical theater rehearsals that lasted until 10:00 p.m. They still had to do all of the math homework.

LOL, if this is anything like partial quotients, I'm right there with you. I saw the phrase "guess and check" on another thread and wasn't sure what it was, until shortly after I heard DS use the phrase as he was working through some problems. DS has a hard time with the newer methods, but seems to get the traditional method just fine.

I probably would have done the same thing.

Not 34 multiple-digit division problems....maybe 10 or so, especially if showing work is required.

Waaaay back in the dark ages -- like last year & the year before -- gaining some control over homework load, especially in math, was our first successful advocacy effort.

We didn't have any formal testing to show the teachers that our son was GT -- only his performance in the classroom.

The endless repetition was driving our household positively batty, and the forcing of our son to complete the interminable worksheets when he clearly knew the subject matter was painful at best.

I finally had a heart-to-heart with his teacher (repeated for each subsequent) and explained that our son simply did not need all that repetition and that, if anything, it was counter-productive. I asked that I be allowed to excuse him from any math homework provided he demonstrated mastery of the given topic and that he also showed during class discussion and testing that he "got it."

Each of the teachers was reluctant, but we pressed for the change and were ultimately successful. I'd preview the homework each night, assigning him a portion -- if any -- depending on his understanding. One teacher finally gave me the entire workbook and allowed me to pre-test each section at home and to dole out the worksheets entirely at my discretion.

He got his A's on the tests, which made the teacher happy. He also got to do whatever he wanted during math, which made him happy. And I didn't have to arm wrestle this kid through pages of mindless repetition... which made *me* happy.

Start with baby steps, perhaps by asking that you be allowed to reduce the number of problems each night based on her understanding. Depending on where you are with GT ID (and/or your teacher's attitude toward GT), bring out the articles that discuss the reduced amount of repetition required by GT.

*DISCLAIMER*
I positively detest long division, and always have. I would have sold my siblings or pets to get out of doing it. It is, I believe, the work of the devil. And it also happens to be the #1 gripe with my son. Because of the tedious nature. It's not hard for either of us... it's just so time-consuming.

BUT... we recently had a few nights of Long Division Marathons. He was getting sloppy on decimal division, which was causing all sorts of problems. We worked through 20 - 30 problems a night, including some impressively monstrous problems, until it was much less traumatic for him. Yeah, I know, I'm evil. But he can do it correctly and consistently now without all the drama.