Posted on 09/04/2014 2:09:32 PM PDT by walford
A simple addition problem seems to become a little more complicated under Common Core. That is made very clear in a new Homework Helper segment that recently aired on WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, New York.
In the new educational segments, local teachers attempt to help confused parents better understand their childrens Common Core homework. In the introductory segment, a math teacher takes nearly an entire minute explaining why 9 plus 6 equals 15.
Our young learners might not be all together comfortable thinking about what 9 plus 6 is. They are quite comfortable thinking about their friend 10, the teacher says in the video. 10 is emphasized in our young grades as we are working in a base-10 system. So if we can partner 9 to a number and anchor 10, we can help our students see what 9 plus 6 is.
She continues: So, we are going to decompose our 6 and we know 6 is made up of parts. One of its parts is a 1 and the other part is a 5. We are now going to anchor our 9 to a 1, allowing our students to anchor to that 10. Now our students are seeing that we have 10 plus 5. Having them now more comfort seeing that 10 plus 5 is 15. That is much more comfortable than looking at 9 plus 6, an isolated math fact.
Got all that?
Essentially, the Common Core way of solving the simple math problems has students decipher that 5 plus 1 equals 6 and 10 minus 1 equals 9 before they even solve the actual problem. One has to wonder why kids cant simply be taught that 9 plus 6 equals 15.
I DO have a brain wired for math and the teacher's explanation is full of holes and ASSumptions about prior knowledge the student has.
CC WAY over complicates math. The best route is to have the kids memorize their addition and multiplication facts.
With those in hand (or rather head) they can figure about anything out in seconds.
Especially when they realize that they can just reverse the addition to subtract and the multiplication to divide.
With the fact memorized, you don't need to worry about procedures and techniques and having a pen or pencil and a ream of paper on hand to calculate things out long hand.
That’s a really good point.
I think this is their method:
1. find the difference between the first addend and 10
2. subtract that difference from the second addend
3. add that difference to 10
An example
9 + 6 = 15
10 - 9 = 1 (find the difference between the first addend and 10)
6 - 1 = 5 (subtract that difference from the second addend)
10 + 5 = 15 (add that difference to 10)
Applying that method to another example
8 + 7 = 15
10 - 8 = 2
7 - 2 = 5
10 + 5 = 15
It’s incredibly inefficient. One addition operation is replaced with two subtraction and one addition operation. What will they do when they get to three digit numbers, or eight digit numbers, etc?
Common Core is sinister.
That’s the undeniable fact!
Maybe it's because the teacher is just as bad at math as her students.
She probably teaches them that the base ten numbering system is made of the digits 1-10.
My childhood buddy tricked me once...”What’s the square root of 121?”
Up come the two middle fingers. Got me.
So they tried spiral math - a stupid idea of "touching on" various parts of math over the year but not reinforcing with additional work. They would show one example of division, then not go back to it for weeks. You don't learn math that way - repetition is the key to learning math.
Eventually, when all the various ways to get an answer still didn't yield the results, they had to dumb down the entire program to what we now have...kids who aren't being taught math facts, which is the easiest way to do simple math.
To my old school thinking, it (114) is recognized by determining the difference between 9,886 and 10,000, which we called subtraction.
One of my kids was struggling with h.s. physics, and asked me for help. She told me how the teacher told them how to solve, which confused me. I showed her my old school way (creating and reducing equivalencies to solve for the unknown) and got the correct answer quickly. She did several more my way and got the correct answer. Then she said "That's too easy!
Our education industry is just that, and is creating puffery to require and create more of itself.
Once a person understands math basics (a process that seems to have escaped CC), performing certain calculations in one’s head become second nature. Take for example 347 + 122 (I just grabbed the first numbers that came into my head). Once a person understands the basics of adding and subtracting and the relationship between the decimal sets, the answer to this equation is easily solved without pencil, paper, or calculator:
347 + 3 = 350
122 - 3 = 119
350 + 100 = 450 + 10 = 460 + 9 = 469
I was able to do this in my head in three seconds.
2 + 7 + 9
4 + 2 = 6
3 + 1 = 4
Answer is 469.
You made it way too complicated.
I get the impression that's a requirement now, due in part to NCLB. CC seems to make it worse.
From my perspective, you made it way too complicated. LOL!!!
Add the ones. Carry if necessary.
Add the tens. Carry if necessary.
Add the hundreds.
Done.
I worked at a McD’s to put myself through college back in the 70’s, in the days before computerized everything. So we had to add the orders together by hand.
I never thought I was good at math. I found out later that I really was, it was just that I had crappy teachers.
Anyway, I did learn to add mentally very quickly, just in the way that I did in the previous post.
The thing that makes kids good with math, is practice.
LOTS of it.
With the intention of brainwashing into believing loan payments=”ownership”
Using that method, you can easily add even longer numbers together, such as 17,493,735 + 14,388,923.
By memorizing the addition, subtraction and multiplication of all combinations of single digits (a second grade activity), you can do any basic mathematical function on a piece of paper without having to "decompose" numbers and "anchor" them to 10s.
The bottom line is that even while each use a different way to get the same result, we both understand the fundementals.
Speaking of fundamentals.... cursive writing appears to be disappearing from the educational landscape as well.
Yes. But, it’s too old school, apparently.
The above alternatives introduce subtraction into simple addition problems.
How is that an improvement?
I'm curious chulaivn66: What do you mean by "Second Reality?" The term has a precise meaning for a student of philosophy. But what does it mean to you (and your wife)? And if you "like being there," is it for the reason that it is "God-forsaken?"
I'm just very puzzled by your statement. Why would anybody like anything that is "God-forsaken?"
"Damned" good question Betty...
I submit...
Demands other questions like; Forsaken by WHICH God?...
There be designer Gods aplenty.. besides the regular ones..
Even atheists have made themselves Gods.. to inhabit the vacuum..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.