Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Supplementing Common Core Math with Traditional

I have always loved basic math, and began teaching addition and subtraction to my daughter (now 5) shortly after she turned 2. She loves it too, and we both like to challenge each other with math problems (her WRAT-4 scores place her in the mid 90th percentile for math computation).

My concern is whether the methods I'm teaching my daughter are going to create problems for her when she enters first grade, and starts getting more heavily into the common core way of doing things. Having learned the basics over the course of first & second grade the traditional way, I look at common core examples and find them ludicrous and incomprehensible. I'm saying this as someone who once considered math as a potential college major, but found that it became too weird and abstract once I got past multidimensional calculus. To my mind, it's almost as if they've taken all of the weird & abstract stuff, and brought it down to an elementary school level.

In any event, my understanding is that traditional addition, subtraction, multiplication & division are now postponed until fourth - sixth grades, while students learn the common core theory. I'll reserve judgment on whether this is a good or bad thing until I see how my daughter does with it.

My question in the meantime, is whether I'll be helping or harming my daughter if I continue to teach her math in the traditional way. I can see an argument being made that the methods I've taught her might just confuse her. On the other hand, it might be helpful to her to be able to calculate the answer to a question in advance, before having to deconstruct the problem using the CC methodology.

I would appreciate hearing any thoughts that others might have.

My son expressed an interest in math this year, so I bought him some workbooks to do on his own for fun. Whenever he wants to know how to do something new, I teach it to him. I doubt that this hurts him in second grade common core math. The pace of math is so slow at school. But I feel like if kids are curious about something, we might as well teach them. Besides, now DS8 knows how to log onto Kahn Academy and watch videos anyway!

No, I don't see how it could hurt her.

I would look into your school district specifically for what curriculum they use to teach common core standards, but it was not our experience with "new math" that multiplication and division were pushed off. In fact, I was surprised at the introduction of certain things at 1st and 2nd. They expected most kids wouldn't get those concepts at that age, but they introduced them anyhow.

It probably won't hurt her but it may hurt your relationship with her future teachers. As long as your traditional teaching isn't the rote algorithm method my teachers used it should be good long term though. Even with rote algorithms i ended up with good number sense but i bet most of my classmates didn't.

Thanks everyone. My wife and I actually had a parent-teacher conference this afternoon, and I was quire surprised when the teacher told us that math is the one area where our daughter struggles a bit. She told us that they gave our daughter 7 blue blocks and 3 pink blocks. Our daughter had no problem saying which pile had more blocks, but became confused when asked how many more blocks were in the bigger pile. When we got home, I asked our daughter how much 7 minus 3 equaled. She let out a huge sigh and said "too easy, 4".

The teacher also said that our daughter was also having some difficulty with something called number bonds, and showed us a sheet she had completed in class. A number bond seems to be a number in a box on top with 2 circles below, one of which also contains a number. The student is supposed to fill in the missing number, such that the numbers in the 2 circles equal the number in the box. I printed some out from an internet site and gave one to my daughter when we got home, and immediately saw the problem. She was adding the 2 numbers shown and putting the total in the empty circle. When I showed her how to do it properly, she had no problems at all, even when I added a third number into the bond.

All in all, I think the problem is with common core, and not with my daughter's math ability.

In any event, I asked the same question I posed above to my daughter's teacher, and she said to feel free to teach math to my daughter any way I see fit. The objective of common core, she said, is to teach kids multiple ways to get to the answer, so one more way should help. The teacher also added that she agrees with the CC objectives, but doesn't like the way it's been implemented.

Number bonds? Umm, okay. Decomposing numbers in kindergarten. Umm.

I did a lot of reading about the ideas behind Common Core math (stuff written by the people who wrote the standards), and my understanding about CC addition is that the whole point is that addition means combining things. IMO, "number bonds" don't really...do that. I suspect that they just create confusion and encourage kids to memorize an algorithm.

A huge part of the problem with the CC is that the standard authors just kind of figured that the textbook people would make Wonderful Books and that the teachers would rush out to learn about CC methods. Predictably, neither of these things has happened, and one of the 3 primary people who wrote the math standards has to tutor his daughter in math. I am not making this up.

At the same time, you might want to see if your daughter's confusion about the block problem was trivial or if she really didn't understand that she was being given a subtraction problem. She may understand what subtraction is algorithmically, yet still might not always recognize when she needs to use it. This is common, I think. A principal I know used to talk about typical curricula teaching kids to do an algorithm, but not how to recognize when it was needed.

Give her a similar problem. If she doesn't get it, you might want to do a few exercises with her, and maybe dream up a few more that ask her to apply an algorithm. Personally, when I'm teaching a lesson like this to my kids, I don't give them the answer. I try to get them to think their way through the problem, as moments like this are the ones that honestly challenge a gifted kid who can do straightforward worksheets in her sleep.

If she does get it or eventually figures it out, ask her how she got to the answer. This, IMO, is precisely when a student should be explaining an answer (as opposed to CC worksheets that want kids to explain every little algorithm).

I would not be so quick to dismiss this as a common core issue. It sounds like a teaching issue. There are two ways for teaching young kids to set up subtraction problem. Kids typically get the taking away something problems very easily. The comparison problem is harder for most kids. It sounds like your daughter was not familiar with the comparison set up and the teacher didn't get through to her.

As for number bounds and decomposition, that is exactly how Singapore Math teaches it, SM is hardly common core.

In CC math, this is the type of written response they are looking for from kindergarten students.

First, they should draw pictures of 7 blue squares and then 3 pink blocks, preferably right below the 7 blue squares, all nicely aligned.

Second, they should write a number bond that has 7 as whole and 3 and 4 as parts.

Third, they should write a number sentence. 7 - 3 = 4

Then, they need to explain their answer. It'd go something like: I needed to find the difference between the small and big piles so I subtracted 3 from 7.

IMO, it's a lot for 5/6 year olds but most of them get it and can do it, although the quality of written statements can vary quite a bit but they need to be taught, step-by-step and build up to this throughout the year.

So, I've tried to educate myself.
Read the link supplied by Val (thanks!) and am beginning to understand how common core standards came into being in the first place and are actually somewhat based in singapore maths, which I understand are actually the go-to curriculum for gifted homeschoolers (European parent here, so total outsider, remember?)
Googled a bit and found this to be instructive:
http://www.mes.weakleyschools.com/Singapore%20Math%20pages/L12-11_parent_letter.pdf
Sounds familiar - that's how my kid is being taught maths in elementary. Only they don't teach him by using Latin terminology (decomposing? Are kindergarten teachers really trying to teach kindergartners by telling them to "decompose"?), they teach him by providing sample problems so kids can figure out what they are supposed to do. I always felt that these 5000 different ways of showing that 4 and 3 is 7 would drive me nuts, but I suppose that is very much a gifted kids problem and most kids will really be helped by building number sense. So it is up to elementary teachers to use some common sense as well in how they, um, actually, teach, ie help both kids who struggle and gifted kids to understand what they are supposed to do, and then maybe not make gifted kids who get it do all 5000 ways but give them something more interesting after the first 300 or so...
It can't be that hard. They all have a BEd, right? What did THEY learn?!

I think we've discussed math anxiety in teachers before. Some articles of note:

http://stemwire.org/2013/05/31/math-anxiety-doesnt-just-affect-students/

PNAS article on teacher-transmitted math anxiety:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2836676/

Abstract of Rachel McAnallen dissertation (in gifted ed) cited in first article, regarding teacher experiences with math and math anxiety:

http://gradworks.umi.com/34/64/3464333.html

Personally, I have no more of an issue with CC math than with many other frameworks, but I do think that it generally has been implemented poorly, especially at the level of teacher retraining. The teachers I know who like it and find success with it, anecdotally, have been those who are divergent thinkers themselves, and are not afraid to try new things, to fail, and to play with the curriculum. (Of course, one suspects these teachers would be effective with any curriculum!)