math curriculum 2.0 -- explaining math strategies

[Anonymous]

Is anyone else's elementary student having trouble with the required narrative explanations in math homework -- e.g., explaining the "strategies" used to solve the problem? DC has no problem getting the right answer but is struggling to put the thinking/reasoning into words. I've suggested just writing it out as DC would explain it to me (which has mixed results) but it's an ongoing issue. Any advice? (Fwiw, DC is a good writer in other subjects.)

[Anonymous]

Sometimes I find the topic on Khan Academy and make my kid watch the video through a couple of times. That seems to help shake the confusion out and she's able to put an explanation together.

[Anonymous]

Suggestion from a Ph.D. who earns his living from math: Don't worry about it. Make sure she understands the concept, and is able to solve the problems. You should be able to say if she understood or not without forcing her to write 3 explanatory sentence why 10 x 10 = 100. Otherwise you will just make her hate math. MCPS math curriculum is ridiculously easy. And yet it insists students to write and write and write to "show their understanding" of primitive concepts.

[Anonymous]

2nd grader? We has an issue with this at that time but it got better.

Like PP, I also personally don't understand the point of having to write a long explanation over and over and over for those kids that already understand what they are doing.

[Anonymous]

For someone with a PhD, you're a moron.

Anonymous wrote:Suggestion from a Ph.D. who earns his living from math: Don't worry about it. Make sure she understands the concept, and is able to solve the problems. You should be able to say if she understood or not without forcing her to write 3 explanatory sentence why 10 x 10 = 100. Otherwise you will just make her hate math. MCPS math curriculum is ridiculously easy. And yet it insists students to write and write and write to "show their understanding" of primitive concepts.

[Anonymous]

Is this your best shot? Very classy for you

[Anonymous]

Mcps teacher here. Explanations don't have to be done in words. Students can use pictures or numbers also. Or any combination of pictures, words, numbers. Often students will show how they know by breaking down a problem into steps.

For example, here a student shows the steps for using an array to solve a multiplication problem:

3 x 5

1. Draw 3 rows
0
0
0

2. Draw 5 columns
00000
00000
00000

3. Count to find how many in all

4. 3 x 5 = 15

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Suggestion from a Ph.D. who earns his living from math: Don't worry about it. Make sure she understands the concept, and is able to solve the problems. You should be able to say if she understood or not without forcing her to write 3 explanatory sentence why 10 x 10 = 100. Otherwise you will just make her hate math. MCPS math curriculum is ridiculously easy. And yet it insists students to write and write and write to "show their understanding" of primitive concepts.

Another Ph.D. who earns her living from math here -- disregard this PP. If you can't explain the concept, that means you don't really understand the concept. And, as the MCPS-teacher PP says, you don't have to write "3 explanatory sentences". There are lots of different ways to explain it.

[Anonymous]

Another Ph.D. who earns her living from math here -- disregard this PP. If you can't explain the concept, that means you don't really understand the concept. And, as the MCPS-teacher PP says, you don't have to write "3 explanatory sentences". There are lots of different ways to explain it.

Sorry, we're a two Ph. D household and I agree with the earlier poster. This is bad and a perfect example of why the US ranks so low in math compared to other countries. If you have county level education majors who do not understand math writing the math curriculum, you end up with language curriculum not math. They really do not understand the subject and can only translate it in terms that they can comprehend. Its a mess.

At our school in the 3rd grade, the kids are not given the option to use pictures, formulas, or diagrams to explain the answer. The worksheets and assessments ask the student to explain it and gives them several lines (clearing indicating text and sentences). The kicker is that the teacher corrects the spelling, grammar, and punctuation!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Another Ph.D. who earns her living from math here -- disregard this PP. If you can't explain the concept, that means you don't really understand the concept. And, as the MCPS-teacher PP says, you don't have to write "3 explanatory sentences". There are lots of different ways to explain it.

Sorry, we're a two Ph. D household and I agree with the earlier poster. This is bad and a perfect example of why the US ranks so low in math compared to other countries. If you have county level education majors who do not understand math writing the math curriculum, you end up with language curriculum not math. They really do not understand the subject and can only translate it in terms that they can comprehend. Its a mess.

At our school in the 3rd grade, the kids are not given the option to use pictures, formulas, or diagrams to explain the answer. The worksheets and assessments ask the student to explain it and gives them several lines (clearing indicating text and sentences). The kicker is that the teacher corrects the spelling, grammar, and punctuation!

OK. At our MCPS school (in the US) in 2nd grade, the kids ARE given the option to use pictures, formulas, or diagrams. As the teacher who teaches at MCPS (in the US) says.

Do you disagree with the idea that if you can't explain the concept, you don't understand the concept?

[Anonymous]

OK. At our MCPS school (in the US) in 2nd grade, the kids ARE given the option to use pictures, formulas, or diagrams. As the teacher who teaches at MCPS (in the US) says.

Do you disagree with the idea that if you can't explain the concept, you don't understand the concept?

In 1st and 2nd grade, kids were allowed to draw pictures, or diagrams but were discouraged from using formulas. In 3rd grade, they are specifically asked to write an explanation using language and sentences.

I do disagree with the statement that if you can't explain the concept, you don't understand the concept. This is plays out in many, many fields. A great violinist hears, feels, and understands fully the concepts of pitch, harmony, tones etc. This same violinist may not be able to write an essay explaining in sentences how they play so well. A english major or music history major may be able to write a wonderful essay comparing and contrasting or explaining this but can't play a simple tune. An artist may be able to construct beautiful compositions but again is far less successful in translating this into a writing skill to explain what they already know and have learned. There is no value in forcing everything to conform to a language assignment approach.

Equations, numerical values, and symbols are the "language" of math. Proofs and theorems, as well as simple equations, do explain math. There are many ways to go deeper in math at the elementary school level and to show how math is a serious of related interactions.

MCPS's interpretation that understanding problem solving means that you can write essays or explain in English sentences how math works is just plain wrong. You don't approach or teach math the same way you approach language arts. You don't teach math as if you are afraid of it and want to avoid numbers and equations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I do disagree with the statement that if you can't explain the concept, you don't understand the concept. This is plays out in many, many fields. A great violinist hears, feels, and understands fully the concepts of pitch, harmony, tones etc. This same violinist may not be able to write an essay explaining in sentences how they play so well. A english major or music history major may be able to write a wonderful essay comparing and contrasting or explaining this but can't play a simple tune. An artist may be able to construct beautiful compositions but again is far less successful in translating this into a writing skill to explain what they already know and have learned. There is no value in forcing everything to conform to a language assignment approach.

I don't know about third grade. If MCPS actually does require explanations in third grade and afterward to be written out in words and sentences, that is not useful. Explanations (as you say) need not be in words and sentences. And in my experience of violinists, which is non-negligible, they certainly can explain what they're doing.

[Anonymous]

OP here. DC is in third grade. As 8:32 said, much of the homework has lines at the bottom of the sheet, which implies that the expected response is text, not numbers or pictures. Some homework asks for a visual explanation (e.g., arrays which DC has done ad nauseum since the beginning of the school year). My understanding is that MCPS is requiring these written responses now in anticipation of changes to the statewide testing next year that requires explanations of the answers. I do think that DC understands the underlying concepts and can explain the answers in pictures or equations/formulas. It's the translation of the numeric thinking into essay-type response that is difficult.

Thanks to the PP re Khan Academy. We'll look into that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OK. At our MCPS school (in the US) in 2nd grade, the kids ARE given the option to use pictures, formulas, or diagrams. As the teacher who teaches at MCPS (in the US) says.

Do you disagree with the idea that if you can't explain the concept, you don't understand the concept?

In 1st and 2nd grade, kids were allowed to draw pictures, or diagrams but were discouraged from using formulas. In 3rd grade, they are specifically asked to write an explanation using language and sentences.

I do disagree with the statement that if you can't explain the concept, you don't understand the concept. This is plays out in many, many fields. A great violinist hears, feels, and understands fully the concepts of pitch, harmony, tones etc. This same violinist may not be able to write an essay explaining in sentences how they play so well. A english major or music history major may be able to write a wonderful essay comparing and contrasting or explaining this but can't play a simple tune. An artist may be able to construct beautiful compositions but again is far less successful in translating this into a writing skill to explain what they already know and have learned. There is no value in forcing everything to conform to a language assignment approach.

Equations, numerical values, and symbols are the "language" of math. Proofs and theorems, as well as simple equations, do explain math. There are many ways to go deeper in math at the elementary school level and to show how math is a serious of related interactions.

MCPS's interpretation that understanding problem solving means that you can write essays or explain in English sentences how math works is just plain wrong. You don't approach or teach math the same way you approach language arts. You don't teach math as if you are afraid of it and want to avoid numbers and equations.

Very well said.

[Anonymous]

09:31, this is right on.

On a related note.... DC told me a girl in class got an ES on a math paper for writing a 3 paragraph explanation of why 6x8=48. I kid you not.