Is this problem too hard for a second grader?

[Anonymous]

OP, it does sound hard/confusing for kids. My second grader would have been able to do it, but would have been annoyed at the request.

It is overkill how they want kids to "understand" problems in so many various ways.

Imagine if you understood something but kept having to show people that you do!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just wait until she has to write a paragraph about how she solved the problem. That started sometime in 2nd grade. That killed math for my DS. He hates writing so now he hates math. Thanks CC!

Yep, thanks for that too, fcps. If the tedious word problem weren't enough, the paragraph about it after was the nail in my son's coffin. Now hates ALL subjects. That's apparently what a world class school system looks like. I guess we're' just not world class people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Standard second grade curriculum.

It's early in the year. They're working on the concepts. It's about understanding what "division" means in real life. So it's more than just a mechanical function. The goal is for kids to experience division -- not just learn the rote rules.

More generally, it's ok that homework is hard sometimes. As a parent, our job is to teach our kids that it's ok to struggle with learning. It's ok to be confused. It's ok to have to think about things in different ways and keep coming back to it until we figure out how to do it. It doesn't mean we're dumb or that the work is too hard. Sometimes learning comes easily and sometimes it take more time. Both are ok. It's how we grow.

I'd worry less about whether she got the "right" answer and focus on encouraging her CURIOUSITY, her PERSISTENCE (not give up when things get hard) and her RESILIENCE (not letting it upset or get to her when things are difficult.) That's learning. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's hard. Either way, her brain is GROWING and getting STRONGER, and that's awesome.

Maybe think of an example in your own life when it took you awhile to learn something. Where you had to put in a lot of time and effort before something clicked for you. For me, it was weekly spelling words (never came easy) and later in law school (certain classes took months to click before they came together for me). But you're proud that you STUCK WITH IT and DIDN'T GIVE UP. That effort and mindset made you even smarter!!!

OP here - Let me be clear - this was NOT homework. This was done in class, with no assistance (30 kids in class), and she did not finish it, so it was sent home for her to finish.

I disagree with you that it is OK to struggle - if a child is asked to do a problem and doesn't have the tools to do it, it only leads to frustration. My DD did not feel good about getting the right answers. She said it was hard, and by hard she meant tedious and boring. She now hates math. So she isn't getting any pride from this at all.

Learning only occurs when a child struggles between current understanding and acquiring new knowledge. It is what Vygitsky called "The zone of proximal development."

It's Vygotsky, and that's not what the zone of proximal development means. It means the area just beyond current understanding - not the area three steps beyond it. That's just frustration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Standard second grade curriculum.

It's early in the year. They're working on the concepts. It's about understanding what "division" means in real life. So it's more than just a mechanical function. The goal is for kids to experience division -- not just learn the rote rules.

More generally, it's ok that homework is hard sometimes. As a parent, our job is to teach our kids that it's ok to struggle with learning. It's ok to be confused. It's ok to have to think about things in different ways and keep coming back to it until we figure out how to do it. It doesn't mean we're dumb or that the work is too hard. Sometimes learning comes easily and sometimes it take more time. Both are ok. It's how we grow.

I'd worry less about whether she got the "right" answer and focus on encouraging her CURIOUSITY, her PERSISTENCE (not give up when things get hard) and her RESILIENCE (not letting it upset or get to her when things are difficult.) That's learning. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's hard. Either way, her brain is GROWING and getting STRONGER, and that's awesome.

Maybe think of an example in your own life when it took you awhile to learn something. Where you had to put in a lot of time and effort before something clicked for you. For me, it was weekly spelling words (never came easy) and later in law school (certain classes took months to click before they came together for me). But you're proud that you STUCK WITH IT and DIDN'T GIVE UP. That effort and mindset made you even smarter!!!

I love this answer. I hope you are a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's good that the kids are given thoughtful word problems.

Except I happen to know that they're not being explained adequately in class... there is a wide chasm between the dumbed down worksheets and these word problems, and somehow the kids are expected to go from one to the other effortlessly.

Another example of poor math teaching.

Yes!!!

Elementary school teachers usually make the WORST math teachers. It is so sad the way it works in this country. Think about your average elementary school teacher: white suburban chick who avoided math in college and went into teaching because she "loves" kids. Most of them majored in a soft social science like psychology. And now we're entrusting her to foster the basic building blocks of math education which you need to be successful in so many fields from finance to engineering? It's really terrible.

Way to generalize, honey.

They're right. I went from college professor to elementary teacher, and elementary teachers are pretty much dumber than most college students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Standard second grade curriculum.

It's early in the year. They're working on the concepts. It's about understanding what "division" means in real life. So it's more than just a mechanical function. The goal is for kids to experience division -- not just learn the rote rules.

More generally, it's ok that homework is hard sometimes. As a parent, our job is to teach our kids that it's ok to struggle with learning. It's ok to be confused. It's ok to have to think about things in different ways and keep coming back to it until we figure out how to do it. It doesn't mean we're dumb or that the work is too hard. Sometimes learning comes easily and sometimes it take more time. Both are ok. It's how we grow.

I'd worry less about whether she got the "right" answer and focus on encouraging her CURIOUSITY, her PERSISTENCE (not give up when things get hard) and her RESILIENCE (not letting it upset or get to her when things are difficult.) That's learning. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's hard. Either way, her brain is GROWING and getting STRONGER, and that's awesome.

Maybe think of an example in your own life when it took you awhile to learn something. Where you had to put in a lot of time and effort before something clicked for you. For me, it was weekly spelling words (never came easy) and later in law school (certain classes took months to click before they came together for me). But you're proud that you STUCK WITH IT and DIDN'T GIVE UP. That effort and mindset made you even smarter!!!

I love this answer. I hope you are a teacher.

Right, because what education today needs is more stuff that sounds great but has no basis in research or reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Standard second grade curriculum.

It's early in the year. They're working on the concepts. It's about understanding what "division" means in real life. So it's more than just a mechanical function. The goal is for kids to experience division -- not just learn the rote rules.

More generally, it's ok that homework is hard sometimes. As a parent, our job is to teach our kids that it's ok to struggle with learning. It's ok to be confused. It's ok to have to think about things in different ways and keep coming back to it until we figure out how to do it. It doesn't mean we're dumb or that the work is too hard. Sometimes learning comes easily and sometimes it take more time. Both are ok. It's how we grow.

I'd worry less about whether she got the "right" answer and focus on encouraging her CURIOUSITY, her PERSISTENCE (not give up when things get hard) and her RESILIENCE (not letting it upset or get to her when things are difficult.) That's learning. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's hard. Either way, her brain is GROWING and getting STRONGER, and that's awesome.

Maybe think of an example in your own life when it took you awhile to learn something. Where you had to put in a lot of time and effort before something clicked for you. For me, it was weekly spelling words (never came easy) and later in law school (certain classes took months to click before they came together for me). But you're proud that you STUCK WITH IT and DIDN'T GIVE UP. That effort and mindset made you even smarter!!!

OP here - Let me be clear - this was NOT homework. This was done in class, with no assistance (30 kids in class), and she did not finish it, so it was sent home for her to finish.

I disagree with you that it is OK to struggle - if a child is asked to do a problem and doesn't have the tools to do it, it only leads to frustration. My DD did not feel good about getting the right answers. She said it was hard, and by hard she meant tedious and boring. She now hates math. So she isn't getting any pride from this at all.

Learning only occurs when a child struggles between current understanding and acquiring new knowledge. It is what Vygitsky called "The zone of proximal development."

+1

OP, you're really missing the point here. Your daughter is 8. Focus on helping her develop a positive attitude about school, classwork and learning more generally.

Learning will not always be easy. Classwork will not always be interesting. She will not always be given the tools she needs. Sometimes she will struggle. Sometimes she will be bored. This is all part of learning.

As a parent, focus less on the right answer and more on the right attitude. Help her to do the same.

As a parent, spend less time blaming the teacher for not teaching properly and spend more time helping your daughter be resourceful.

In our house, "I don't know, but let's figure it out!" is our go-to phrase. No excuses or complaints. We figure it out and get it done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Standard second grade curriculum.

It's early in the year. They're working on the concepts. It's about understanding what "division" means in real life. So it's more than just a mechanical function. The goal is for kids to experience division -- not just learn the rote rules.

More generally, it's ok that homework is hard sometimes. As a parent, our job is to teach our kids that it's ok to struggle with learning. It's ok to be confused. It's ok to have to think about things in different ways and keep coming back to it until we figure out how to do it. It doesn't mean we're dumb or that the work is too hard. Sometimes learning comes easily and sometimes it take more time. Both are ok. It's how we grow.

I'd worry less about whether she got the "right" answer and focus on encouraging her CURIOUSITY, her PERSISTENCE (not give up when things get hard) and her RESILIENCE (not letting it upset or get to her when things are difficult.) That's learning. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's hard. Either way, her brain is GROWING and getting STRONGER, and that's awesome.

Maybe think of an example in your own life when it took you awhile to learn something. Where you had to put in a lot of time and effort before something clicked for you. For me, it was weekly spelling words (never came easy) and later in law school (certain classes took months to click before they came together for me). But you're proud that you STUCK WITH IT and DIDN'T GIVE UP. That effort and mindset made you even smarter!!!

OP here - Let me be clear - this was NOT homework. This was done in class, with no assistance (30 kids in class), and she did not finish it, so it was sent home for her to finish.

I disagree with you that it is OK to struggle - if a child is asked to do a problem and doesn't have the tools to do it, it only leads to frustration. My DD did not feel good about getting the right answers. She said it was hard, and by hard she meant tedious and boring. She now hates math. So she isn't getting any pride from this at all.

Learning only occurs when a child struggles between current understanding and acquiring new knowledge. It is what Vygitsky called "The zone of proximal development."

+1

OP, you're really missing the point here. Your daughter is 8. Focus on helping her develop a positive attitude about school, classwork and learning more generally.

Learning will not always be easy. Classwork will not always be interesting. She will not always be given the tools she needs. Sometimes she will struggle. Sometimes she will be bored. This is all part of learning.

As a parent, focus less on the right answer and more on the right attitude. Help her to do the same.

As a parent, spend less time blaming the teacher for not teaching properly and spend more time helping your daughter be resourceful.

In our house, "I don't know, but let's figure it out!" is our go-to phrase. No excuses or complaints. We figure it out and get it done.

This is BS.

It "only" leads to frustration?

No.

Sometimes it leads to frustration.

Sometimes it leads to creativity.

Sometimes it leads to an incorrect answer and the realization that it's ok to get something wrong. That's how you know to ask for more help.

And by the way, why is frustration such a bad thing?

Don't you think your DD needs to experience frustration in order to learn to cope with it rather than deciding that she hates something?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's good that the kids are given thoughtful word problems.

Except I happen to know that they're not being explained adequately in class... there is a wide chasm between the dumbed down worksheets and these word problems, and somehow the kids are expected to go from one to the other effortlessly.

Another example of poor math teaching.

Yes!!!

Elementary school teachers usually make the WORST math teachers. It is so sad the way it works in this country. Think about your average elementary school teacher: white suburban chick who avoided math in college and went into teaching because she "loves" kids. Most of them majored in a soft social science like psychology. And now we're entrusting her to foster the basic building blocks of math education which you need to be successful in so many fields from finance to engineering? It's really terrible.

Way to generalize, honey.

They're right. I went from college professor to elementary teacher, and elementary teachers are pretty much dumber than most college students.

If you were a college professor, then you should know better than to generalize about an entire profession based on your personal experience.

Unless this is an exercise and you're intentionally trying to prove your point about elementary teachers being dumb. If so, well played.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD has always done well in math, but this year suddenly she's saying she hates it. She brought home some worksheets that they were doing in class, and they seemed very confusing to me. For example, one was a word problem that required division, although it didn't use that word. It said someone had 100 pieces of candy and wanted to give five to each person in the class, and there are 25 people in the class. How many would each person get? Another said someone had 50 apples and wanted to put 2 in each basket, and so on. My DD had meticulously drawn out one hundred pieces of candy and then grouped them into 5's and done the whole thing that way...she actually got the answers right, but complained that it was hard. She has never learned either division or multiplication in school, and last year worked mostly with numbers less than 20, so this seems too difficult to me. Is your child doing work like this in 2nd? Do you think they could do it, if they did have it? This is public.

So what's the problem? She could, in fact, do the problem. It was challenging. So what? What's the problem? You want her to just get easy problems?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with you that it is OK to struggle - if a child is asked to do a problem and doesn't have the tools to do it, it only leads to frustration. My DD did not feel good about getting the right answers. She said it was hard, and by hard she meant tedious and boring. She now hates math. So she isn't getting any pride from this at all.

But she did have the tools to do it. In fact, she did it. If you want to shield her from 'tedious and boring' good luck with that!

+1

Also, this word problem sounds a lot like stuff I was doing in early elementary in the 1980s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just wait until she has to write a paragraph about how she solved the problem. That started sometime in 2nd grade. That killed math for my DS. He hates writing so now he hates math. Thanks CC!

Yep, thanks for that too, fcps. If the tedious word problem weren't enough, the paragraph about it after was the nail in my son's coffin. Now hates ALL subjects. That's apparently what a world class school system looks like. I guess we're' just not world class people.

+2
Oh boy, add me to this list. He solved it in his head. Now he gets I for incomplete on his math work and was crying over this last night. F common core!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just wait until she has to write a paragraph about how she solved the problem. That started sometime in 2nd grade. That killed math for my DS. He hates writing so now he hates math. Thanks CC!

Yep, thanks for that too, fcps. If the tedious word problem weren't enough, the paragraph about it after was the nail in my son's coffin. Now hates ALL subjects. That's apparently what a world class school system looks like. I guess we're' just not world class people.

+2
Oh boy, add me to this list. He solved it in his head. Now he gets I for incomplete on his math work and was crying over this last night. F common core!

I would even be okay with the paragraph if it was included in his WRITING grade. But he would get 100% of the math questions right and still gets Cs on math tests due to the writing.

[Anonymous]

I think this problem is not hard if a child is very familiar with place value. If she arrange the little circles in 10*10 charts, if really only requires a few line to figure out 100 will only go four rounds for 25 people. But if her circles are not nicely arranged, then it could take a long time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Standard second grade curriculum.

It's early in the year. They're working on the concepts. It's about understanding what "division" means in real life. So it's more than just a mechanical function. The goal is for kids to experience division -- not just learn the rote rules.

More generally, it's ok that homework is hard sometimes. As a parent, our job is to teach our kids that it's ok to struggle with learning. It's ok to be confused. It's ok to have to think about things in different ways and keep coming back to it until we figure out how to do it. It doesn't mean we're dumb or that the work is too hard. Sometimes learning comes easily and sometimes it take more time. Both are ok. It's how we grow.

I'd worry less about whether she got the "right" answer and focus on encouraging her CURIOUSITY, her PERSISTENCE (not give up when things get hard) and her RESILIENCE (not letting it upset or get to her when things are difficult.) That's learning. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's hard. Either way, her brain is GROWING and getting STRONGER, and that's awesome.

Maybe think of an example in your own life when it took you awhile to learn something. Where you had to put in a lot of time and effort before something clicked for you. For me, it was weekly spelling words (never came easy) and later in law school (certain classes took months to click before they came together for me). But you're proud that you STUCK WITH IT and DIDN'T GIVE UP. That effort and mindset made you even smarter!!!

OP here - Let me be clear - this was NOT homework. This was done in class, with no assistance (30 kids in class), and she did not finish it, so it was sent home for her to finish.

I disagree with you that it is OK to struggle - if a child is asked to do a problem and doesn't have the tools to do it, it only leads to frustration. My DD did not feel good about getting the right answers. She said it was hard, and by hard she meant tedious and boring. She now hates math. So she isn't getting any pride from this at all.

Learning only occurs when a child struggles between current understanding and acquiring new knowledge. It is what Vygitsky called "The zone of proximal development."

+1

OP, you're really missing the point here. Your daughter is 8. Focus on helping her develop a positive attitude about school, classwork and learning more generally.

Learning will not always be easy. Classwork will not always be interesting. She will not always be given the tools she needs. Sometimes she will struggle. Sometimes she will be bored. This is all part of learning.

As a parent, focus less on the right answer and more on the right attitude. Help her to do the same.

As a parent, spend less time blaming the teacher for not teaching properly and spend more time helping your daughter be resourceful.

In our house, "I don't know, but let's figure it out!" is our go-to phrase. No excuses or complaints. We figure it out and get it done.

OP here. She is not 8, she is 7. She won't turn 8 until the end of March. Unfortunately, there is little I can do to help her. She just doesn't want to work with me at all. I can't teach her anything, and she's always been that way. It's sad, but I can barely even talk to her. She is interested in her friends and that's it, and will throw an absolute fit if I try to read with her or help with homework or anything. My husband can do it, but not me. So I wish I had one of these kids that apparently people can talk to and teach things, but that's not my kid. I have to rely on the school to teach. I checked and division is not taught in 2nd grade at all. Not even multiplication.