Reply to No doing well with Common Core, but we'll with Singapore math

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
You are selectively quoting from the beginning first semester teachers guide. Counting on and doubles are only used to help kids memorize facts up to 10. By the middle of first grade kids are supposed to have memorized these facts because they are NOT used when adding over 10. Here is the next sentence in the teachers manual that you didn't include.

Students will probably be able to count on 1, 2, or 3 quickly without using fingers. Fingers can be used if needed to begin with. Note that counting on as a strategy is used only for adding 1, 2, or 3 in this curriculum. The goal is quick computation, and with adding on greater numbers, it becomes harder to keep track of how many are added on and to know where to stop without fingers or number lines.[b] Also, adding numbers where the sum is greater than 10 will be taught in the context of the base-10 concept.[/b]

So 6 +7 is never taught as a double +/- 1 in Singapore Math. [/quote]

Well, first of all I was just pointing out that Singapore does indeed have the terminology "doubles" and "Doubles +1" etc.   It's a great way to help young children learn how to add two numbers without just plain counting on their fingers.   Someone asked "whatever happened to memorization" -- here's the thing.   Some kids honestly don't know how to memorize their facts.   You can show them flashcards and make them repeat over and over again but it just doesn't sink in.   The kids for whom pure repetition of facts works quickly, are likely those who are using these techniques spontaneously.   Kind of like how some kids just seem to pick up decoding without needing much explicit instruction.

As for not using the "doubles +1" strategy to teach 6+7 ... yes, that is absolutely true.  Singapore Math curriculum isn't some crazy curriculum that someone threw together, it is based on principals that are the most efficient way to teach and learn.   That's why kids are taught to decompose numbers quickly (break down into parts) and also they spend a lot of time making number bonds to ten (1+9, 2+8 etc).  To learn how to add 6+7 kids take the larger number 7, think about what number they need to add to it to make 10 (a 3) and then they break the other added in 3+ 3.

So 7+6 becomes 7 + 3 + 3 which kids can quickly see is 10 + 3 = 13.

It seems complicated when you write it all out like that, but kids do it very quickly.

This is the kind of mental math and these are the kids of strategies that work very well in Singapore Math.   However, people here in the US seem to only halfway understand the concepts and they are applying them inappropriately in the curricula and worksheets they are designing.    I'm not wild about activities that have kids coloring the problem based on whether it is a doubles fact or a doubles plus one fact.   That's silly.   If you have taught the children well, they should be able to just solve the problems using the technique you taught them. They don't need to know the label for the type of problem it is.[/quote]

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