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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 206
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 206 |
[quote=ultramarina]I'm curious whether I am the only one whose child is being allowed not to show work. I really do mean that. She can hand in papers with nothing but the answer, even in cases where one pretty inevitably does "work", such as those involving multidigit x multidigit multiplication (DD often will scratch these out on some random scrap of paper that is handy and not pollute her HW with it). Not only that, the teacher will sometimes instruct them to cross out portions of the HW that enforce tedious work-showing.
Our school sounds very much like Quantum2003's. They require constructed responses, on every day assignments and on state assessments. But our kids have learned this way since beginning school, and don't find it problematic at this point. I don't feel they are required to show tedious busy-work, but do have to explain their logic. They also do a fair amount of writing about math. DS just finished an 18-page "portfolio" on the latest unit, where he had to do everything from discussing how various formulae were derived, to creating and then grading some parent problems we had to complete, to talking about which part of the unit he found most interesting and why. It is part of their differentiation; I assume many kids didn't have as much to say, but DS got quite involved. He really thought a lot about how the formulae related to each other. It is interesting to watch his "technical writing" evolve, by the way. in the past I considered him more of a creative writer, but this was very well-written. I am glad to hear that your kids enjoyed this assignment. I just think I would have hated it when I was a child. It seems just like you said it became technical writing and no longer mathematics. It really penalize the mathy but not necessarily verbal kids. I venture to say it may even have the harmful effects of making some kids feel turned off by math.
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 312
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 312 |
This problem has been exacerbated by the implementation of the common core. Our district now routinely requires students to write out in English explanations of simple arithmetic operations. Such as why 2+2=4? They are also very proud of the fact that Kindergarteners may never see a equation. This is beyond the legitimate requirement of showing your work. It really bores everybody except maybe the few truly verbal but not mathy kids. Sadly, a lot of those kids have grown up and are in charge of our curriculum now. This is what we have too. Show how you worked the problem out then in written form explain what you did. It drives DD9 (and me) bonkers!!! Common Core + enVision Math = ARRRGGHHHHHH!!!! Want me to explain that further in writing!?! lol
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 5,181
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 5,181 |
This is where I allow my DD to do things like;
Front-end estimation is a stupid skill. While I agree that ESTIMATION is a useful skill, particularly for estimating line items in budgets and for checking results of longer calculations-- a more useful one for fourth grade would be to teach that there are alternative ways of doing rapid computations to arrive at approximate answers in a hurry. That's not estimation. That's rough calculation. Why would you call estimation anything BUT "rough calculation" anyway? "Front-end" implies that there might be a counter-example of "back-end estimation." What possible purpose would such an asinine concept serve, anyway? 'I have calculated that I shall require $473.89 to pay my bill. Therefore, back-end estimation suggests that I shall require $470, whereas front-end estimates would place this value at $475.' See? Stupid. Why bother? Is this math for people that find adding 301.00 172.89 to be "too hard?"
But I'm a bad parent, and I've encouraged DD's snarky and irreverent side to an unhealthy degree, probably.
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 3,298
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Posts: 3,298 |
So I'm not the only one who thinks that front-end estimation is lame. I've never understood why people need to be taught multiple algorithms for something as trivial as "round the numbers and do the operation." Yet my kids have spent hours of their lives doing worksheet after worksheet of this stuff.
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 3,363
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This is what we have too. Show how you worked the problem out then in written form explain what you did. It drives DD9 (and me) bonkers!!! Just wait until your dd gets to higher-level "math" and has to write about how she "feels" about a problem - I kid you not! And I'll be leaving this post now before I write out how I really feel about talking about how math problems make my dd feel...... polarbear
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 206
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 206 |
So I'm not the only one who thinks that front-end estimation is lame. I've never understood why people need to be taught multiple algorithms for something as trivial as "round the numbers and do the operation." Yet my kids have spent hours of their lives doing worksheet after worksheet of this stuff. I think it is because the some teachers are fundamentally weak in math. They had a hard time using the short cuts to do mental rough calculation themselves. Actually lot of the math education problems are probably due to the facts our teachers are not math persons themselves. The problems with mathematicians embracing Every Day Math and the like is that they were good with math and forgot and did not know what it was to learn math for the time as a child.
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 206
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 206 |
This is what we have too. Show how you worked the problem out then in written form explain what you did. It drives DD9 (and me) bonkers!!! Just wait until your dd gets to higher-level "math" and has to write about how she "feels" about a problem - I kid you not! And I'll be leaving this post now before I write out how I really feel about talking about how math problems make my dd feel...... polarbear This. What is your favorite number and why is that? Anyone thinks that this belongs to math class other than maybe preschool? Let's leave the feelings out of Math.
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Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 1,489
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Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 1,489 |
This. What is your favorite number and why is that? Anyone thinks that this belongs to math class other than maybe preschool? Let's leave the feelings out of Math. e, i & π are really some of my very favorite & most interesting numbers. 
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 206
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 206 |
You got me there. I love pi too.
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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 1,478
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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 1,478 |
i8∑π it made me 
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