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Tips for Coping with Your Kid's New Math HomeworkHaving trouble helping your kids do their homework? Here are some tips from educators for parents flummoxed by some of the new math curricula:
Attend school meetings or family nights: Some school districts plan family nights to explain the new math curricula to parents. Teachers sometimes even ask parents to try out math problems. "I like to give parents little white boards and socks (as erasers) and see what answers they come up with," says Pat Cooney, math coordinator for six public elementary schools in Ridgefield, Conn.
Sit down and work it out: Even if it's difficult, and even if your kid is as confused as you are, it's worth taking the time to try sorting it out together. "One of the best things parents can do is be willing to sit down and talk it through," says Hank Kepner, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. "It can lead to breakthroughs for both parent and student."
Call for Help: "If you have questions, by all means, call the teacher," says Melissa Hedges, an elementary school teacher in Milwaukee. "It's a two-way street."
Teach your way if you must, but keep teacher in the loop: Parents may feel they want to teach their kids the "old methods," but they should at least discuss it with the teacher. "It's best for there to be an open conversation between parent and teacher," says Kepner. "You don't want the kid to be in the middle."
Sit down and work it out?
How about no.
11 comments:
Give it a few years to go the way of "while language" and "magic writing". Intelligent parents will see this for what it is -- another attempt to "mystify" education and perpetuate the misconception that only "experts" can teach. Parents who really care about their kids education will wisely ignore the trend and quietly teach their children how to actually DO long division, etc. How sad that they'll have to educate their kids against their teacher's wishes.....
The very idea that parents would be called "renegades" is pretty astonishing.
Getting close to Fahrenheit 451 here.
Whole language is back, btw. It's called balanced literacy now.
My district recently hired an "expert" in balanced literacy.
"My district recently hired an "expert" in balanced literacy."
That's too bad. They need to watch my new sight word movie, it's on You Tube now, "Sight Words: Fact vs. Fiction" by IsobelElizabeth (Isobella was my "Spanish" name in spanish class in high school. Everything else I could think of was taken, there are a lot of users on You Tube.)
I've just trained up the 4th grade sister of my current 6th grade student to be a remedial reading tutor. She's probably would get better results! She was making up her own nonsense words, I told her that I would hire her as a nonsense word maker if I ever needed any more.
This "new" way is the way the smart kids used to do math 35 years ago (behind the backs of the teachers, etc.). It is a better way. The parents trying to show their kids the "old" way are the ones who never really understood math and thus relied on the mechanical rote methods. These parents don't realize they are holding their kids back to be no smarter than they are.
Dan, I beg to differ. The "way the smart kids used to do math 35 years ago" makes sense when done mentally, but if you have to write down every single step, as programs like Everyday Math are apt to teach, it is absolutely inefficient. Crazy stuff like the "lattice method" and other Everyday Math-like methods are even more stifling once a student gets beyond the very basics.
In sharp contrast, Singapore Math teaches to mastery AND depends on a student's ability to calculate mentally in a very efficient manner.
This is the only "new math" worth talking about. Just ask the National Math Panel.
"This 'new' way is the way the smart kids used to do math 35 years ago ..."
Guess again.
"These parents don't realize they are holding their kids back to be no smarter than they are."
No. The parents want their kids to be as smart as they are. Of course, many educators have no idea where that is.
The issue with teaching long division at home is that it is only treating a symptom. The problems with the current "new" math are low expectations and a lack of mastery. They can talk all they want about higher-order thinking, but they are in a math land of their own imagination. It has little to do with proper "school math" as defined by the National Math Panel.
"These parents don't realize they are holding their kids back to be no smarter than they are."
Dan-
I'm proud to say I am one of those parents "holding their kid back."
Funny how my rising 5th grade son (not a math brain) is years ahead of the math program presented by the schools. This isn't an outcome I expect would occur if he was being held back.
It is a shame that the school, using constructivist presentations and curricula, gets to take the credit for our hard work at home.
We use Saxon Math and Singapore Challenging word problems, you can't beat these programs for effectiveness.
A lot of these renegade parents are teachers in their day jobs.
I've talked to teachers around here who taught their kids long division at home when the schools stopped teaching it.
Where Dan is right -- speaking from my own experience -- is that most parents' math expertise as far as teaching goes ends at the beginning of 5th grade. (Remember, that's when "Math Dad," who is an experienced math teacher, told me he gets the call from parents who can no longer reteach math at home.)
I've had the experience, more than once, of "teaching" something to C. that I don't grasp well myself even though I know it and can do it.
Often I've asked folks here to help out by explaining the concept to me. I think the ktm explanations have often allowed me to "fake it" in a way that worked better than strict do-this-then-that teaching.
This has been one of the main reasons I wrote the blog: the on-the-fly "professional development" I've gotten from people here who do know what they're doing.
If worst comes to worst, I teach the sequence & just tell C. that's what I'm doing -- I tell him I don't understand the concept or problem or procedure well myself yet.
By middle school (maybe before) he was mature enough to accept that what we were doing was a stop-gap measure.
I should add that C. hasn't had a constructivist curriculum. He's been in a traditional math curriculum that was taught WAY outside his "ZPD."
(zone of proximal development)
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