I don't post here often, but I had to put this out there to see what others thoughts on this topic are...

A Math HW worksheet on "Number Sentences" was returned ungraded by DS8's teacher recently. At the top of the page, he was directed to write True, False or ? for problems such as:

20 - 12 = 8 *3
7 = 14 * 2
497 < 500

And so on.

His teacher circled this entire section and wrote "Show your work." I am seriously annoyed. Maybe more annoyed than I should be, but not one of the problems requires any work to be shown, in my not-so-humble opinion! I don't get it - this is mental math. Why would he need to show his work?

When I asked DS about it, he said yes, the teacher asked them to show their work on the HW, but he didn't understand what work there was to be shown!

I wrote the teacher a nice e-mail just now, asking if he doesn't show work will he A) not get a grade for the work, or B) be marked down in grade at some point?

And because I am always concerned about blow back on my son -- who has previously been disenchanted with school (prompting me to pull him out AFTER a grade skip, and homeschool him for a year) -- I tried to frame my email as motherly concern about wanting DS to be aware of consequences if he doesn't show work when appropriate.

This is a new school - we just moved - and so far he is very happy. Not challenged by any means, but right now he is happy with specials, daily recess (which he didn't have before), and a good group of kids.

I don't want to mess that up for him, but I do want to step in where appropriate and make sure he isn't soured on school again because of little things like this. He's had a tough time with school, and though I preserved the grade skip after putting him back in school last year (he's in 4th grade now), I still do a fair amount of after schooling when we can fit it in to keep him challenged and happy.

Did I just completely overreact???

No. Showing work is ridiculous in this case.

No, you didn't overreact.

And his teacher didn't even grade the stupid worksheet -- not any part of it -- which also annoyed me. Not to mention, this isn't 4th grade work. It is way too easy.

Well… I would have written back and asked the teacher to show an example of *HOW* a student is supposed to show their work for 487 < 500? Seriously??????

(OK, on second thought, I wouldn't answer that because I'm sure there would be an answer and it would involve at least 3 different ways to find the silly straightforward answers….)……..

And I would have had to restrain myself from making some offhand remark about why were they still talking about which number is larger in 3rd grade?

I would also purposely have to make sure I didn't personally pick up or drop off my child at school for at least two weeks to make sure I didn't accidentally say something sarcastic or politically incorrect about it.

Soooo… wouldn't have gone over well at my house lol!

polarbear

I'm going to guess that just adding a few intermediate statements
like

20 - 12 = 8 * 3
8 =/= 24

was probably what the teacher was looking for and that nothing was needed for the comparisons like 497 < 500.

I'm mostly with you but on the other hand, being a bit formal and writing intermediate calculations down is a reasonable habit to develop and not terribly cumbersome.

The following says a variant on the same idea:
http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/articles.php?page=mistakes

Haven't run into the situation yet, but I have my parental response queued up as: "Asking my son to 'show his work' when he has no work to show is asking him to lie. That goes against our values. Can you please not teach dishonesty?"

Other argumentation points...
"Number sense is an important skill/talent indicator for future mathematical ability. Automatically knowing answers and fast calculating in one's head all build number sense skills. Slowing down to force non-existent partial steps in to a solution undermine the healthy development of number sense."

"Learning math at one's proximal zone of development would be the best way to generate enough challenge that intermediate steps would materialize. Rather than him 'showing his work' how about you 'doing your work.'"

Curse you currently awesome school that has undermined the need for all my snarky comments!

I've also told DS that breaking problems into smaller steps is a way to explain problems to people who don't understand math the way he does.

I found with my ds when he was 8 I sometimes did not get the full explanation of what was really to be done with home work. Sometimes the teacher gave some verbal that never made it to me.

I have had my ds11 read that very article. He is getting a lot better out of necessity now.

His teacher corrects spelling errors too.

I'd ask the teacher for examples of how to show work. Tell him or her that DS is confused and that you couldn't help.

Your response was definitely reasonable and polite so there shouldn't be any blow-back on your DS.

His teacher should have written "show your work" on the instructions and gave the students actual examples in class rather than just a verbal instruction. I am not debating the appropriateness of showing work in this case, but after having had three children complete elementary math curriculum, I can see immediately what your teacher likely expected:

20-12 = 8*3 would be "False because 8 =/= 24"
7 = 14*2 would be "False because 7 =/= 28"
497 < 500 would be "True because 497 = 500 - 3"

BenjaminL - I've read that AOPS article, and I love it. I am 100% in agreement with being organized. And showing work where it helps to have the steps written down. I am all for it then.

But 20-12 has to be mental math at some point, right? Surely by 4th grade!

Quantum2003 - I had my son tack on the results on both sides of the equation/inequality sign so that when he returns it to school this week, his teacher will see I did reinforce the "showing your work" directive... even though in this case, I think it is absurd, and a waste of time.

mecreature - I agree! I sometimes look at his homework and I am dumbfounded as to what it is that they want him to do. Each week for his "Word Study" for example, he is asked to sort the words (e.g. same prefix), and then he is supposed to write what he learned. Every single week it is a struggle. DS: "But I didn't learn anything. I already knew these words!" So I tell him to write what he "observed" instead.

Zen Scanner - "I've also told DS that breaking problems into smaller steps is a way to explain problems to people who don't understand math the way he does." YES. Going to do this. Thanks!

I don't understand why the teacher wants "showing work for easy calculations". I'd want the teacher to explain the reasons to me, and to break the explanation into small steps. I'd be insisting that the teacher "show their work" by providing detailed explanations and justifications of their teaching practices instead of expecting students and parents to simply accept their pronouncements.

I think the important thing they are trying to get at with the homework is not the mental math, which is done through drills, but understanding how to explain math concepts.

The fact that many people find those extremely difficult suggests that it's necessary to teach it.

I will say that my children do math from three different countries' work books (long story) not including US math and asking them to explain, using words, why 1 + 3 > 1+ 2 is NOT unique to some stupid US math curriculum.

In fact it appears to be integral to the math curricula in the most highly-scoring countries as judged by the PISA, among other things.

So, that's just my 2c on why it might be worth it to have your child think through these easy-peasy problems. I can sing Mary Had a Little Lamb. What note does it start on? What key is it in when it starts in that note?

Math has theory just as music has theory, and it can be beautiful.

Easy? Nope. Fun for all children? Nope. But hey, this is a gifted forum, so who said the kids needed easier work?

binip, I could understand if the problem asked for an explanation. It didn't. He has to answer True, False, or ?. There was hardly any space to "show" that 20-12=8*3 is 8 =/=24.

For other problems on the worksheet, there were lines beneath each problem for students to provide written explanations.

It is absolutely appropriate to require students to understand concepts and be able to articulate them. I don't know that this worksheet is a good example of that--not in 4th grade.

I think being able to explain these answers is appropriate for children who are at that level and have to actually think about the problems. For those who are beyond that it is torturous and mind-numbing. As adults, we wouldn't need to explain how we know 2+2=4 and a kid who is past that shouldn't either. It's already completely obvious without having to put a bit of thought into it. If kids have already shown mastery of the concepts, they shouldn't even be doing those problems, much less explaining or showing work.

I would ask if my kid could test out of it. Of course, we all know how that goes with most teachers.

No. It's just plain busywork of no redeeming value whatsoever.