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Which thread?
I need it!
(This was the mom who was so ticked off at her child's TERC homework that she wrote nasty stuff all over it, then had to Photoshop the damn thing to give her kid a clean copy to turn in to the teacher.)
Where is it????
got it
my kids home work tonight (which I wrote nasty things on - then scanned it in and use photoshop to remove - to reprint it so my kid can hand it in) entailed ...
drum roll ...
FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS TO WRITE EACH NUMBER.
(ok some comment here - my kid will LITERALLY follow the directions - earnest to do so too)
2. Skip count 87 times by tens.There are 5 ones. The number is _________.
4. Skip count 99 times by tens. There are 9 ones. The number is _______.
I've given my kid 3 pages of Singapore 2b review to do and those are stapled to her original homework with the aforementioned questions crossed off in red permanent marker.
My kid does well with Kumon too and did well with Saxon / Singapore blend over the summer.
Now if only during the school day her time wasn't being wasted (then again, maybe its not - maybe they are doing Addison Wesley in the classroom and sending home the TERC 2).
I would love for a reformist to explain the logic of the above problems given that the other 4 problems were :
Skip count 3 times by hundreds. Skip count 2 times by tens. There is a 9 in the ones place. The Number is ___________.
I've considered going to the Board of Ed and skip counting 87 times by tens, because THATS WHAT FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS means to a child.*
It would make a great YouTube video, because when I was still counting and the timer was up on my public comment allotment I am sure the BOE president would say, could you hurry up or get to the point ...
which would be the point.
* Actually, that's what it means to me, too.
12 comments:
I don't even understand these problems. If you skip count by 10's (from 0 at least) 87 times, don't you get 870? Silly me, I guess.
I'm with you, vickys, it is confusing. I am thinking it means 870 plus 5 ones or 875. What a waste.
My kids are in Singapore Math as I homeschool and here are two of their problems for today:
Water flows out of a tank at 400ml per minute. How long will it take for 7.2 liters of water to flow out of the tank?
Susan and Mary each had 50 carnival tickets at first. After Susan gave Mary some tickets, the number of Susan's tickets was 2/3 of the number of Mary's tickets. How many tickets did Susan give to Mary?
That skip-counting exercise is one of the ways they "enrich" a child's environment mathematically so as to help the child "discover" the deep meaning of place value.
See Constance Kamii's book on Amazon for her silly wild-a** theory that kids can't be taught place value directly.
Yes, teachers who learn about this theory buy it as gospel. It appears to be part of TERC training.
It leads to boring, tedious, repetitive, meaningless tasks that actually lead the kid AWAY from place value.
If you want them to learn place value, then teach it to them, for heaven's sake.
Us parents gotta do it ourselves. Then the teacher says "Voila! It worked."
This is what W. Stephen Wilson, Professor of Mathematics at Johns Hopkins University, says about place value:
"The place value system is the foundation of our numbering system. The efficiency of the arithmetic algorithms are based on it."
He goes on to say that "without an understanding of the place value system and how it can be used there can be no real understanding of the rest of elementary school matematics and all of the higher mathematics that rests on this."
"Place value is a deep concept and understanding it makes all the difference. This puts a heavy burden on the teachers in these early grades and it is important that they be aware of this."
My fourth grader is having a test on rounding tomorrow. He studied it for one week and already there is a test. Last night, again, he had trouble with rounding, but tomorrow he will take a small test and voila...he will have mastered rounding because he was shown how to do it at home.
Thanks to concernedparent for the article Elementary School Mathematics Priorities by Professor Wilson. I would love to print it out and stick it in my principal's box, but I think she wouldn't get it because she is too busy devising ways for the teachers to stay away from all that nasty drill and kill and rote learning.
Both my sons have the Addison Wesley book (one in first grade and one in fourth), but I have yet to see anything coming home to let me know they are using it. I do know that my fourth grader has a SME math computer program. What is SME?
One parent said her second grader came home with a homework packet with math activities so I am assuming this is from TERC investigations. The parents should sign the packet and turn it in at the end of the month. You get to pick any activity and "practice" it by playing games similar to Go Fish.
This sounds fishy to me.
I persist in providing teachers with peer-reviewed articles.
Last year the math chair, looking at me with loathing and disgust (no exaggeration), said, "What's this?" when I handed her articles I'd printed out.
The middle school principal (not looking at me with loathing and disgust) groaned and said, "More reading. We have to read a book for the administration."
I gave three articles to C's math teacher on back to school night. His eyes widened, and he said, "Wow. You really read these things."
And yet, I persist!
Because persisting is good!
Or at least annoying.
I would love to print it out and stick it in my principal's box
I found out the schedule for C's first test.
On Friday they'll take a test on:
* integers (I think this means number problems, but I'm not sure)
* coins (hasn't been taught yet)
* motion (I believe this means distance problems - you know, two trains leave the station, etc.)
Until this year, none of the kids, to my knowledge, had ever seen or done any of these topics.
I'd say he's been teaching these topics for the past....maybe two weeks?
(I'll check.)
Now they'll have a test.
Some of the kids will do fantastically well because they're bulletproof. No matter what you throw at them, they learn it.
Many of the others will do well because their parents or tutors will teach to crammery.
et voila
success
Back in 6th grade we raised a ruckus by refusing to sign things.
heh
The parents should sign the packet and turn it in at the end of the month. You get to pick any activity and "practice" it by playing games similar to Go Fish.
"On Friday they'll take a test on:
...
* coins (hasn't been taught yet)"
Um ... isn't money usually completed by 2nd or 3rd grade? Do I misunderstand the test subject (or is C not in 8th grade like I thought)?
-Mark R.
good question!
maybe I'll send an email to the school and find out!
All I know is, the description of the test said "coins" and C. said they hadn't been taught coins yet.
I assume these are coin problems (is that the name?) -- you know, the "I have nickels, dimes, and quarters etc.
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