Common Core Math Explained

Discussion in 'West Mall' started by Musburger1, Aug 17, 2016.

  1. Musburger1

    Musburger1 2,500+ Posts

     
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  2. Dionysus

    Dionysus Idoit Admin

    Is someone teaching math this way now?
     
  3. TheWalkingHorn

    TheWalkingHorn 500+ Posts

    No. Noooo. No, no, no, no.

    I'm all for teaching my kids different ways and strategies, and sometimes the parents don't quite understand it the first round, but I push students to learn whichever way is easiest and most effective for them. Sometimes counting up does work better for certain types of problems, but this is definitely not one of them.

    That said, Texas does not follow Common Core, we have the TEKS. I have heard that some teachers use Common Core materials, but I haven't seen any at my school, and I've definitely NEVER seen this strategy.
     
  4. Horns11

    Horns11 10,000+ Posts

    She's insinuating that anyone who solves 43-13 is being forced to use her "alternate" version of solvency, and that's not true at the 2nd grade level (the one she's referring to).

    Every classroom teaches the way she stated at the beginning of the video, and then moves on to alternates in order to check your work, solve for more difficult questions, get better at estimating (which seems to have taken a nose dive in critical thinking skills lately), etc.

    The TEKS also address this. Second grade TEKS 4.A-D all address coming up with "mental strategies and algorithms" in order to solve for more difficult addition and subtraction problems. My daughter had issues with subtraction whenever the second digit was lower on the first number than the second number. This strategy that she's bemoaning forces the student to at least TRY to do the whole carry-the-one thing, and if she wasn't being successful, estimating helped. Telling a 7-year-old who isn't handling the "carry-the-one" well that there really isn't any other way to solve it is not an option.

    We see social media posts and YouTube videos like this around every school "milestone" like back-to-school, first tests of the year, etc. They all seem to have a couple things in common: math or science functions and angry parents who think that the only way to solve for something is the path of least resistance.
     
  5. Mr. Deez

    Mr. Deez Beer Prophet

    I'm no Common Core apologist, but when Trump and some conservatives (notice I didn't include Trump as a conservative) talk about it, they sound ignorant and paranoid - a little like when they discuss the Sharia tribunals. Contrary to popular assumptions, Common Core is not a federal mandate and didn't even come from federal officials. It's something that came from the National Governor's Association and that some states (not Texas) have chosen to adopt. It may not be a smart idea, by nobody is forcing it on them.

    Despite this, it has become a full blown tin foil hat issue for Trump and some on the Right. It's sad because there are very real abuses of federal power, and there's no reason to make up fake ones. In fact doing so undermines the legitimate complaints of federal overreach.
     
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  6. Roger

    Roger 1,000+ Posts

    What I have seen with my own kids is the doing away with Rote Memorization is a goal. It started with math and no longer teaching Math Facts (1+1=2, 1+2=3, etc...) to the point where your kid sees 43-13 and knows the ones is zero and the tens is 3 and bam your done.

    Last year our school decided that rote memorization for spelling test wasn't needed as well. Ridiculous. 10 words a week and memorizing how to spell them for a test is they way we all learned to spell. Instead they decided to use some crazy word matching skills. I think the assumption is that if they get close spell check will fix it.

    Math and Spelling, rote memorization is ok for.
     
  7. Crockett

    Crockett 5,000+ Posts

    You know, I remember when E.D. Hirsch wrote the book Cultural Literacy ... basically saying there are some common things everyone in a culture should know ... it was embraced by conservatives. Personally, I still like the ideas espoused in the book. As far as "common core" math ... common core is the expected knowledge. How to teach it is still very much up to each school's teachers and curriculum designers. People learn math differently. I was a pretty good math student dealing simply in abstract terms. But while many of my classmates hated the "word problems" it was through word problems that I finally understood what the heck I was doing. Word problems helped me see that math made sense, made me care and helped me remember how to do things.
     
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  8. NJlonghorn

    NJlonghorn 2,500+ Posts

    My town's school district went hook, line, and sinker for this mentality in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that they were more concerned with kids having positive feelings and being able to express themselves than they were with being able to get the right answer and actually know things.

    I and several like-minded individuals ran for the Board of Education between 2004 and 2008. We won a solid majority of the BOE seats, cleaned house, and brought in new people to restore balance. The results have been awesome, and our schools are now consistently rated right up there with the best in the country.

    There is a lot of merit in the new educational techniques. Kids really do develop a better understanding of things than they did under the old regime. But the new techniques have to be used to supplement traditional pedagogy, not to replace it.
     
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  9. mchammer

    mchammer 10,000+ Posts

    With my kids, rote memory of math tables is back in style. Unfortunately, reading and writing that includes literacy of other things (history, civics, etc) is still out of style. Probably was determined to be discriminatory while in fact the absence of it perpetuates ignorance of society.
     
  10. Crockett

    Crockett 5,000+ Posts

    Maybe the Lewisville ISD is exceptional. My son's history classes (AP and Pre_AP) were stimulating and engaged his mind. I didn't study much history in college beyond the minimum, but I've read a lot and been around for more than 5 decades so a lot of what I know is History. That said I'm astounded about what my son knows and how intelligently he can discuss issues in history or current events.
     

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