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Common Core?


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http://news.yahoo.com/bizarro-common-core-kindergarten-math-homework-stumps-dad-190206078.html

 

 

What do you guys know about the common core that is being taught in the schools now?  I'm hearing some stuff, but it seems one sided and I don't want to overreact.  I really am curious and don't know much about it.  I'm looking for some unbiased information regarding it and some biased opinions about it from AW detectives.

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They are doing it here and I have to say at first it was really confusing for us.  Once we talked to the teacher about it, she explained it and it made a lot of sense.

 

Basically, instead of teaching math the way we have been taught, looking at things as addition, or subtraction, etc, they try to teach it more how a kids brain works.

 

For example they will have a question like "John has six apple, Jane has 13 apples, how many more apples does Jane have?"  We were taught to do 13-6=7 but common core determines that kids have an easier time counting up from the smaller number, so they will do 6+7=13.

 

Until we had a teacher explain it I thought my daughter was just doing the homework wrong by not doing subtraction.

 

Anyway my take on it is, there are people much smarter than I coming up with these things so I trust them.  I know a lot of parents are up in arms about it because it isn't how they were taught.

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I wish this format gave me the ability to fix my own thread titles so I could hide my own inability to spell "common".  Good grief.

 

Hit edit, then click the button that says use full editor.

Edited by nate
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Back to the subject, doesn't this eliminate the parents from the kids' schoolwork?

 

How so?

 

I know for us we still review her homework when it is finished.  Kindergarten is different from first grade, she mostly does her homework on her own, getting help from us when she is stuck and also for us reviewing when she is finished.  Also a lot of the math homework she brings home is interactive.  It will have her ask us a question, or involve us in some way.  I can't think of any examples right now, but usually it is like "ask a family member how many X." or something like that.

 

In kindergarten it was a total team effort.

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See, this is always my initial reaction to these kind of things.  The whole "people smarter than me" argument doesn't fly.  That argument is used for all kinds of ridiculousness.

 

People smarter than me came up with the ACA.

 

It was developed independently by educators, it was just adopted by our government.  I understand your point.  So far I don't have an issue with it.  I do know they are more advanced with what they are teaching now than what they were five years ago which is good because the US is far behind in math and science compared to other first world countries.

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If you don't know how the math is supposed to be done, how do you review it?  I have friends who have a daughter in 7th grade, he was a straight A student in math, went all the way through calculus.  He doesn't get a lick of what she is doing, when she is struggling, he can't help her at all.

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My wife teaches special ed. Her kids' homework is pretty awesome. I grade it all the time. 

 

Helping Michelle grade homework. Math. Word problems. 

1.) "There are 2 ants on a flower and 3 more on the ground. How many ants are there total?"

Answer - "5+4 = 8"

Werd!
1512Like Â·  Â· Prom
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If you don't know how the math is supposed to be done, how do you review it?  I have friends who have a daughter in 7th grade, he was a straight A student in math, went all the way through calculus.  He doesn't get a lick of what she is doing, when she is struggling, he can't help her at all.

 

Why doesn't he ask the teacher?  Also, the math is still the same, it is just how they do the word questions that is different.  Also how they have them show their work.  They usually have them do all the math plus explain what they did with a short sentence or two.

 

All we did was email the teacher when we were confused by it and she told us to come by after school one day and she explained it to us, made perfect sense.

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My wife teaches special ed. Her kids' homework is pretty awesome. I grade it all the time. 

 

Helping Michelle grade homework. Math. Word problems. 

1.) "There are 2 ants on a flower and 3 more on the ground. How many ants are there total?"

Answer - "5+4 = 8"

Werd!

1512Like Â·  Â· Prom

 

 

Most of her kids do well for their own level, but they're still beholden to the standards test and have to do homework in prep for the test. Above is the result. It sucks for the kids. I don't see how they can force these kids with moderate to severe learning disabilities to take the standards exams. I feel so awful for them. My wife tells me how badly it impacts the self-worth when they're testing. It's like trying to read aramaic for them

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They have asked the teachers, repeatedly.  They are told this is how they are doing it now.  Same by the pricipal.  For the most part, they don't even give the kids homework. 

 

Sounds like the bigger problem is the school then.  I don't think anywhere in common core it details how to eliminate the parents from the equation.

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I highly doubt it.  Sounds more to me like pissed off parents who don't want to accept change.

 

Anyway all I can speak to is my experience and while it was confusing, they did try to educate us on it before school started, and any time we had questions the teacher has answered them.

 

Also, like I said, many times the homework involves the family in some way.

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Most of her kids do well for their own level, but they're still beholden to the standards test and have to do homework in prep for the test. Above is the result. It sucks for the kids. I don't see how they can force these kids with moderate to severe learning disabilities to take the standards exams. I feel so awful for them. My wife tells me how badly it impacts the self-worth when they're testing. It's like trying to read aramaic for them

 

As long as we keep treating kids like assembly line products in school, we will fail them. 

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Don't know anything about this common core stuff, but math in the K-12 system is a sore subject for me.

 

There's this obsession about doing math THEIR way or else -- even though multiple ways exist to solve the same problem -- none of which are wrong.  In hindsight, that really bothers me because most of the teachers do not have math degrees.  And then there's the nonsense legalism practiced by almost all K-12 math teachers  Oh, you used PEN on your homework?  You get an F.  Oh, you didn't show your work properly?  Your answers are correct but you get a C-minus.

 

A funny thing happened when I got to college and ended up taking 8 math classes.  Homework was assigned but not graded or collected in ANY of them.  You did the math problems you needed to do and asked questions at the next class.  In all but one or two classes, it was encouraged to solve the problems whatever way you like.  I went from a B and C average in math in junior high/ high school to straight A's in college. 

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Should we really be teaching kids that there is only one way of doing things when there is clearly more than that?  Should we be limiting options for them?

This is one of my big problems with how school is done here.  If the answer is correct and they didn't cheat or copy someone else's answer, why does it matter?

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Should we really be teaching kids that there is only one way of doing things when there is clearly more than that?  Should we be limiting options for them?

This is one of my big problems with how school is done here.  If the answer is correct and they didn't cheat or copy someone else's answer, why does it matter?

 

Efficiency. If my 200 friends have $5 how much money do they have? Sure you can add up $5 200 times or they can be taught that it is proper to multiply in that situation and save themselves a bunch of time. 

 

Not to say a student should be marked down on a test for this, but it's good to teach kids the best way to do things.

Edited by eaterfan
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See, this is always my initial reaction to these kind of things.  The whole "people smarter than me" argument doesn't fly.  That argument is used for all kinds of ridiculousness.

 

People smarter than me came up with the ACA.

 

An appeal to authority isn't a valid response, but at some point we all have to trust experts who have spent more time and researched certain areas. I don't get out and inspect blue prints to every bridge I cross to check the structural integrity of them. 

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