Teacher marking things wrong in math if they don't show work

[Anonymous]

I have a kid in ES in AAP math, and he's not doing well because he doesn't show his work enough. He gets the answers right, but he can do most of the problems in his head. He tries to write out his work, but he just can't do it in enough detail for her. He much prefers to do it in his head, and he doesn't do any better when he is forced to write it out. It just makes the whole thing tedious for him. I used to teach in fcps and our main goal for making kids write out their work in math was so that they would get the test questions right. The teacher tries to tell him some nonsense about how she wants to see his thinking, but she doesn't even look at the work that is turned in, and certainly has never given him even five minutes of personal attention to talk about his "thinking." Does anyone else have a kid that suffers from this rule about showing work or getting it marked wrong? I'm not happy about this, obviously.

[Anonymous]

Give an example. Some problems it is useful to write down your work to see the problem was solved and if needed retrace your steps. Others not so much.

[Anonymous]

Yes. This has happened to my son a lot. Last year (3rd grade) he got two grades for tests. A grade based on answers and an effort grade. I was very confused the first time a test came home with a 4 for getting all the answers right but a 1 for effort. I asked the teacher and she said he didn’t show enough work and she couldn’t see his thinking. I asked him and he said he just knew it all in his head and didn’t have to write it out. We just told him to at least write something out anyway for each question. Has been less of an issue this year with DL, but I imagine it will come up again once they’re back in the building.

[Anonymous]

Every kid complains about this. It’s just par for the course. Help teach him how to show his work since he claims for some reason he can’t. That’s the skill he needs to be working on right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid in ES in AAP math, and he's not doing well because he doesn't show his work enough. He gets the answers right, but he can do most of the problems in his head. He tries to write out his work, but he just can't do it in enough detail for her. He much prefers to do it in his head, and he doesn't do any better when he is forced to write it out. It just makes the whole thing tedious for him. I used to teach in fcps and our main goal for making kids write out their work in math was so that they would get the test questions right. The teacher tries to tell him some nonsense about how she wants to see his thinking, but she doesn't even look at the work that is turned in, and certainly has never given him even five minutes of personal attention to talk about his "thinking." Does anyone else have a kid that suffers from this rule about showing work or getting it marked wrong? I'm not happy about this, obviously.

My son has this issue. I’m homeschooling him this year, but plan to put him back in FCPS for 7th grade. We’ve been doing problems about trains traveling at different speeds, leaving at different times, what time do they pass each other....he does it mostly in his head. I’m worried about what will happen next year. When I try to work with him to show his work, he really struggles. His working memory tested in the 99th percentile, so I think he just naturally can process more in his head. Not sure how to handle it with the teacher. Sorry no advice.

[Anonymous]

It happens often in ES. My DD once answered the question “what strategy did you use to solve this problem” with “in my head!” Only worked once its actually important for them to learn to write it down now so they are disciplined when the math gets more advanced in MS.

[Anonymous]

It’s part of math and will be necessary as he advances so definitely best not to fight it but instead support him developing the skill. Whatever you don’t act like getting out of showing work is worthwhile goal or that he is somehow “good at math” because he can do it in his head. Being good at math includes showing work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid in ES in AAP math, and he's not doing well because he doesn't show his work enough. He gets the answers right, but he can do most of the problems in his head. He tries to write out his work, but he just can't do it in enough detail for her. He much prefers to do it in his head, and he doesn't do any better when he is forced to write it out. It just makes the whole thing tedious for him. I used to teach in fcps and our main goal for making kids write out their work in math was so that they would get the test questions right. The teacher tries to tell him some nonsense about how she wants to see his thinking, but she doesn't even look at the work that is turned in, and certainly has never given him even five minutes of personal attention to talk about his "thinking." Does anyone else have a kid that suffers from this rule about showing work or getting it marked wrong? I'm not happy about this, obviously.

My kid had that issue in HS. The teacher says show your work, so show your work.

[Anonymous]

So he's good at math but obviously not at following instructions.

[Anonymous]

Sadly , this is my kid too. In high school now and he gets all the answers right but loses points for never showing the work. And refuses on principle because "its stupid"

[Anonymous]

If the answer includes not just a correct number, but showing the work, show the work. You would expect points directed for not showing sources used for a research paper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s part of math and will be necessary as he advances so definitely best not to fight it but instead support him developing the skill. Whatever you don’t act like getting out of showing work is worthwhile goal or that he is somehow “good at math” because he can do it in his head. Being good at math includes showing work.

Exactly. If the instructions say to show your work, that’s what you need to do. There are good reasons for it and kids don’t necessarily understand the underlying reasons now, but they will when they are older. And they will appreciate the teachers who insisted on following instructions.

[Anonymous]

The thing is, this is practice for the future when the math is too complicated to do in your head. I get where you are, op, but a certain amount of work needs to be shown. I told my ds, Ms. Smith already knows the answer is 12, she needs to know that you know how to get to the answer of 12. He’s still not perfect at it, but he’s improved.

[Anonymous]

Pick a problem and you write down the steps as he is doing it.
Show him how it looks like with only steps and no final answer quite yet. Concentrate on 'writing down steps and explaining it' as the answer to the question.
I really need an example, because right now it looks like it's 5+5, and no wonder he feels like there are no steps. Even here you have:
step 1: pick up 5 stones
step 2: pick up 5 more stones
step 3: put them all in one pile
step 4: count them all in that pile. See, I stopped at saying it's 10. We don't need 10, we need steps since he cannot do steps. He knows 10. We all know 10. Steps are annoying, but it is what it is.

[Anonymous]

This is what is supposed to happen, OP.
If you can't prove you understood, then you did not understand well enough. That is the golden rule of beginner mathematics.

You have a separate problem if the teacher doesn't even read his explanations (but how do you know this?).