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

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[quote=pettifogger]No one is denying that showing work is important when it makes sense to do so. It's the "turning math into writing" that is really frustrating by forcing kids to show work to trivial questions. Teachers should know when a problem requires work to be shown, and when it does not. At the same time, teachers should be able to gauge who is struggling and may need help organizing and writing things down, vs who is really bored and is not being challenged. Forcing a kid who is not challenged to write unnecessary things in math class when they already know exactly how to do a certain calculation 1) wastes their class time, as they should instead be given more challenging problems that they won't be able to do in their head and require them to write things down 2) frustrates them to the point where they are turned off to math because they see it as pointless and boring, and possibly even worse turns them off to learning/school 3) doesn't actually teach them new math, or extends their problem solving skills.

You argument that always showing work on trivial questions in early elementary school will help kids in college calculus and science classes is not compelling at all. Teaching kids how to think, and how to organize their thinking by practicing challenging multi-step questions is what will ultimately help them tackle late high school and college math and science.

Most of the kids who are struggling in college or high school math are NOT struggling because they don't know how to write something down. They are struggling because they don't understand the problem and/or have no idea where to start, or what to do. It's having had a shaky foundation and weak understanding of math concepts, not the writing that prevents them from succeeding. [/quote]

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