What am I missing here?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
I had this exact same issue with my kids' FCPS math teachers. They teach estimation in a really stupid, rigid manner. It's 1000x more correct to say that 854 rounds to 850 and 349 rounds to 350. 850-350 = 500. My kid more or less got this problem wrong, and I got into it with the teacher: Estimate: 3.5 + 4.5. Kid said 8. Teacher said 9. The teacher was completely intractable too. I eventually had to tell my kids exactly what the teacher wanted them to do, but also why it's mathematically stupid. Teachers, this is exactly why parents have no respect at all for your intelligence. |
Anonymous
Yup, the way they’re teaching this concept defies common sense. I was one of the first two posters who responded with the “correct” answer, and the reason I knew what they were looking for was that my child also got it wrong and I had to look back at her other worksheets to figure out what was going on. |
Anonymous
Positive, that's the first thing I checked was the directions. The problem just said "Estimate the difference" |
Anonymous
That one is easy. Your kid is not estimating. And you know it. |
Anonymous
What are you referring to? |
Anonymous
 Anyone with an iota of math sense would understand that to get an accurate estimate for 3.5+4.5, you'd need to round one of them up and one of them down. Anyway, that's beside the point. The entire point of estimating is to get a quick ballpark figure when it would otherwise be more onerous to do the full computation. Asking kids to estimate things that they can instantly solve in their heads is an abuse of the entire concept of estimation. It's also absurd to ask them to completely throw common sense out the window and instead follow rigid rules. It's beyond dumb to say that 3.4 + 3.6 estimates to 7, but 3.5+3.5 estimates to 8, especially since the smart kids would instantly understand that both equal 7.
I know that the teachers don't have much choice in what they teach and how they teach it. The problem is that the FCPS math program of studies really abuses the entire concept of estimation. OP, you'll just have to teach your kids to blindly follow the algorithm that the teacher wants for estimation. |
Anonymous
That's funny. The biggest complaint is that teachers don't have a standard curriculum but just make it all up using bad TPT worksheets. Now they don't have choice in what or how to teach? |
Anonymous
In fact Beast Academy has a similar question: Is 948 - 357 closer to 500 or 600? And obviously the right answer is 600. |
Anonymous
Sadly, in FCPS they seem to do both. The teachers must follow the pacing guide and program of studies, which dictates that estimation needs to be taught at a certain time and following a specific algorithm (that throws any number sense and common sense out the window). But, to teach that unit, they apparently have to do google searches to find crappy worksheets that may or may not perfectly align to the unit. One of my kids' teachers at least was apologetic about some of the nonsense in the math curriculum, and flat out said that she agreed with us and our kid, but had to teach and evaluate things the specific way that FCPS wanted. (3rd grade assessment. Kid was asked which of the following units should be used for the length of a school bus: inches, feet, yards, miles. Kid picked feet. FCPS official answer key said yards. Aside from sewing and football, who the heck uses yards for anything?). Other teachers dig in their heels and double down on FCPS stupidity. I respect the former and not the latter. |
Anonymous
Yes. Beast Academy teaches estimation the way it ought to be taught, rather than teaching it in a rigid way that's contrary to developing number sense. If I remember correctly, they even discussed overestimates and underestimates, and helped kids figure out whether their estimate should be higher or lower than the actual value. FCPS should teach estimation like beast academy, but they sadly won't. |
Anonymous
OP here, that is funny. We use BA at home so that's probably why my kid got the "wrong" answer. |
Anonymous
|
An estimate that varies by approximately 20% from the real answer?
The practicing engineer in me would be screaming at the teacher or the idiot who made the curriculum. |
Anonymous
Agree with all this, except for the "blindly" part. At this point I'm teaching him not to do whatever the teacher says without thinking about it first. So if he doesn't understand or agree with something, I'm encouraging him to ask questions at school, (and if he is still not satisfied, to keep asking us at home until he feels something makes sense). I don't think mimicking the teacher would be a great idea for long term development, as that is big problem in higher levels (middle and high school). Questioning things and asking why is probably the most valuable skill in my opinion. That said, I agree that I don't want him to cause conflict or interrupt just for the sake of doubting his teacher or showing off or whatever, so I told him to sometimes "go with the flow" even though he knows something may not be correct. In any case, I don't have any proof that this was even a teacher issue, since the question came from an automated assessment. I don't think it's even worth bringing it up with the teacher. But it does now pique my curiosity a bit though as to how they're learning in the class; I may have to review some of the math vids to see if things are generally ok. |
Anonymous
As the unit continues, they will estimate using larger numbers. It will be more useful then. |
Anonymous
It probably was a teacher generated test, not a district wide ecart test. You are not giving the teacher proper credit (or blame). |