Reply to Arghh MCPS Math!

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[quote=Anonymous]MCPS uses lots of Singapore Style Math. The problem occurs when the teachers/curriculum writers make a mistake in adaption and they are not well trained enough to realize that.

But overall I think this approach is superior to the more rote approach.

I always laugh when people say that Asian countries teach math by rote. I can promise you at least for elementary school math, Chinese teachers do a much better job of teaching concept and connections. Chinese kids know their math facts. But they can also solve complicated word problems before Algebra. This article by Liping Ma is outstanding.

http://www.ams.org/notices/201310/fea-ma.pdf

She gives this example

Mrs. Chen made some tarts. She sold 3/5 of them in the morning and 1/4 of the 
remainder in the afternoon. If she sold 200 more tarts in the morning than in the 
afternoon, how many tarts did she make?

This is a 5th grade Singapore Math word problem. The Math savvy people in the US system can do it with algebra, but the Chinese teachers/students can do it arithmetically.

Nothing rote about that.

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