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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 2,513 Likes: 1
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Here is some of the latest math I've seen and sorry to say - I don't get it! Good thing it doesn't ask to "explain" how you got your answers.
It is a "Practice Page" with 4 sections. Each section has the following instructions followed by about 15 simple multiplication problems like 7X8, 9X3, 5X9, 8X3, etc.
1. Pretend to Add with 9 and Count 5, 6, 7, 8
2. Pretend to Add with 9 and Think of 7X7
3. Pretend to Add with 9 and STRETCH
4. Pretend to Add with 9 and see 2 4's
Talk about confusing! I'm not a math genius by any means, but this just looks too complicated and how will kids remember all these tricks anyway (even if they can make sense of it). I think we will just do the problems and call it good! She forgot a step: pretend you're learning math.
What is to give light must endure burning.
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Joined: Feb 2011
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Well, you can't very well pretend THAT.
Nobody's imagination is that good, is it?
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Sep 2013
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I had started another thread on math/writing one's work. Things have been smoother since DS was accelerated another year in math. However, yesterday, I found a note on returned homework next to a word problem that required multipling something like 6x72. "X, you must communicate how you arrived at the answer."
The work, of course, was in his head. Sigh.
On the plus side, most of the work is indeed more challenging and he's less inclined to fuss over coming up with the required text...
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Joined: May 2012
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I had started another thread on math/writing one's work. Things have been smoother since DS was accelerated another year in math. However, yesterday, I found a note on returned homework next to a word problem that required multipling something like 6x72. "X, you must communicate how you arrived at the answer."
The work, of course, was in his head. Sigh.
On the plus side, most of the work is indeed more challenging and he's less inclined to fuss over coming up with the required text... Yes, I get the same notes for the same type of problems, i.e., "DS had trouble explaining in words how he arrived at 5 + 7 =12." (SECOND GRADE mind you!) I get annoyed because I feel like they are trying to say DS really does not understand "5+7" and that drives me bonkers! I get insulted for DS and tend to feel like they are questioning DS ability or building a case that he's 'really not understanding what he is doing.' Last year's teacher sort-of did that last year to me in meeting so I am not entirely a paranoid delusional. However, maybe it is something that is not really as personal as it sometimes feels - they really just do this to everyone? I think I may get the notes less now that they have the achievement math problems score and his formal id as gifted (Oh and maybe also since the last time it was done it turned out the teacher was the one "lacking the deeper understanding.") Not sure we'll see.
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Joined: Feb 2011
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You are giving a presentation on the increasing number of students enrolling in college immediately following high school. You want to visually show your audience a graph depicting the number of students enrolling in college each year from 1960 to 2005. Which type of graph would you choose?
(Answer selections follow) DD said right away..."ooooo-- Mom, number 2 is a badly worded question. Ugh." WOW, wonder if they'll give me credit for any answer I choose, here? Since, you know, it just asks which one I would choose... how can I possibly get that wrong? My CHOICE, I mean. Shouldn't they want to know which one a student SHOULD choose?? 
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Jun 2011
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I was told my ds couldn't explain how he got his answer and it was one reason they didn't want, at first, to subject accelerate him in math. He can learn to explain how he gets his answer in 4th grade math or 3rd grade math...but put him where he needs to be and then teach him that skill.
But I always wonder...are they wanting you to explain how and why you set up your problem or how you actually did the computation or both?
"using the strategy of drawing a diagram, I drew a diagram, labeled the parts and determined that I needed to add all the sides to find out how much fencing I needed. It was a square lawn and all the sides were equal so I used multiplication 6feet times 4sides to find that I needed 24 feet because 6x4=24 and I know that 6 x 4 = 24 because I passed my math minutes for all my times tables and I got an ice cream sundae for doing it. If I hadn't passed my math minutes I might just use the method of skip counting or repeated addition and would still be sitting here waiting on that ice cream sundae reward. Or because this is math class here is the real answer in a more mathematically concise manner that needs no additional explanation and should be considered the true answer by any real mathematician:
P of a square = 4 x s
4 x 6 ft = 24 ft
All of my explain my answers would have an element of snark in them.
...reading is pleasure, not just something teachers make you do in school.~B. Cleary
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... 6x72. "X, you must communicate how you arrived at the answer."
The work, of course, was in his head. Sigh. Hmm. She wrote "communicate" how he got the answer, so he could write, "I did it in my head." Yesterday DD9 had to communicate how she arrived at the answer to something like 88,645/17 and she wrote, "I did long division." We will see how that works out.  But more seriously, I think that many teachers actually believe that this stuff is important. They've probably been taught that students who don't know why 6*12=72 are less likely to get required scores on standardized tests. Or something like that. Remember that many (most?) of them don't really understand mathematics past a very basic level (for examples, see this article or this summary of Liping Ma's book). If your child's teacher is insisting on showing things that seem obvious to you or your child, it may be because these concepts aren't or weren't obvious to the teacher. It may be that this teacher is anxious about teaching math and is following what's prescribed to the letter because s/he lacks knowledge about the subject. I'm only explaining here, not excusing. Teachers are adults and know that the cure for math ignorance is to learn more math. Worse, people have known about this problem for years (decades?) and the school and teacher training systems haven't addressed it.
Last edited by Val; 10/10/13 09:05 AM. Reason: typo
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Joined: Apr 2009
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"using the strategy of drawing a diagram, I drew a diagram, labeled the parts and determined that I needed to add all the sides to find out how much fencing I needed. It was a square lawn and all the sides were equal so I used multiplication 6feet times 4sides to find that I needed 24 feet because 6x4=24 and I know that 6 x 4 = 24 because I passed my math minutes for all my times tables and I got an ice cream sundae for doing it. If I hadn't passed my math minutes I might just use the method of skip counting or repeated addition and would still be sitting here waiting on that ice cream sundae reward. Or because this is math class here is the real answer in a more mathematically concise manner that needs no additional explanation and should be considered the true answer by any real mathematician:
P of a square = 4 x s
4 x 6 ft = 24 ft
All of my explain my answers would have an element of snark in them. I love it! Must show DS, although he's got enough snark already (gets it from his mother). I keep meaning to ask someone, when they want this "show your work" stuff for addition, "how exactly do YOU show your work when you add 7 + 5?" Do they, for example, draw seven apples and then draw 5 apples under them, and number them in order? Or do they simply know that 7+5=12? Ok, so if it's ok for YOU to just know the answer because you know your math facts, why isn't it ok for the kid to know it the same way, and move on?
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Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 848
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... 6x72. "X, you must communicate how you arrived at the answer."
The work, of course, was in his head. Sigh. Hmm. She wrote "communicate" how he got the answer, so he could write, "I did it in my head." Yesterday DD9 had to communicate how she arrive at the answer to something like 88,645/17 and she wrote, "I did long division." We will see how that works out. I did notice that she wrote "communicate" and that gives me hope! At a minimum, he could write it out as a problem. Ex. 6x72=432 (and show where he carried) Or, we can try "did it in my head." She does seem far better at getting where he is at than the last teacher. You bring up a great point about how much individual teachers know/don't know about a subject.
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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 1,478
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They really need to rephrase their prompts; so, that they aren't requiring children to lie to satisfy the requirements of the question:
"How did you arrive at that answer?" --> requires lie
"Show your work" --> requires lie
"Explain how you got this answer" --> requires lie
"Using the rhetorical methodologies repeated day in and day out in class, describe a method to arrive at the same answer you have using buzzwords from page 23-27 of the textbook" --> ding ding
Dear Teacher, if you are going to only teach my child one thing, please don't make it "how to lie."
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