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.

"Group the 10's into boxes representing 100's" -- there.. better for your little mind?

You just corrected what you erroneously wrote. Why do you feel the need to insult the person who verbatim quoted your mistake? You certainly take criticism of the math curriculum very personally, which I think is very odd for a parent.

I don't think the previous poster(s) were complaining about graphic representation, but were not satisfied with the breadth of the example. I too read your example as grouping boxes of 10 x 100. I've also extensively used Singapore math for years for my special needs child and have never found a similar example to represent a large number like a million. This drawing of multiple ones and a hundred boxes is not Singapore Math that I have seen. I've only seen box diagrams where you group 10's and 100's for addition and subtraction. The method you describe is very confusing.

My younger non SN child is currently bored out of his mind with MCPS math and frankly after a hard day at work, topped off with dinner, laundry and combined with the enormous amount of time that a special needs child takes I am too exhausted to teach math every night.

I agree that the MCPS math curriculum is substandard. At the same age range, in a week, I covered more and in more depth at home with my special needs child than I am seeing my younger child do in a month. The math is just too simple, they go over the same concept repeatedly and it is inappropriate for the age range. My non SN son's teacher also uses the sticks and dots nomenclature, which was very confusing. I had a difficult time getting him to understand 100's, 10's and 1's the Singapore math way because he insisted "my teacher does not use those".

Feel free to call me little minded, stupid and talk down to me, I'm too tired to get insulted.

I probably won't be back, I have a kitchen to clean, lunches to pack and laundry to fold before I hopefully get to bed at midnight to be back up at 6:00, so that I can start the same day all over again.

Anonymous wrote:Actually MCPS math for K-2, at least, used boxes and dots, digiblocks, etc. to represent 10 and 1 even before Curriculum 2.0.

Well, there you go 21:42. Your kid was going to ask how many boxes 1mil is even if MCPS was using the previous math curriculum.

Actually MCPS math for K-2, at least, used boxes and dots, digiblocks, etc. to represent 10 and 1 even before Curriculum 2.0.

Anonymous wrote:Singapore math using graphic representation does not lend validity to the time wasting and educationally void example posted previously.

What does Singapore math have to do with the horrid Math Curriculum taught by MCPS?

It does lend validity to the fact that people in the US suck at math compared to people in Singapore, at least on the PISA test. But even American adults suck at math compared to a lot of the world.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/08/230462954/study-u-s-adults-below-average-in-literacy-basic-math
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/magazine/why-do-americans-stink-at-math.html

MCPS math for k-5 at least is following Singapore style math, ie, boxes and dots to represent 10 and 1.

Anonymous wrote:Singapore math using graphic representation does not lend validity to the time wasting and educationally void example posted previously.

What does Singapore math have to do with the horrid Math Curriculum taught by MCPS?

The example you refer to as "time wasting and educationally void" is Singapore Math using graphic representation of place value.

The relationship between the MCPS math curriculum and Singapore Math, in this case, is that both use "dots" and "sticks", aka graphic representations of place value.

Singapore math using graphic representation does not lend validity to the time wasting and educationally void example posted previously.

What does Singapore math have to do with the horrid Math Curriculum taught by MCPS?

Anonymous wrote:

Are you kidding me??? You seriously think this is a worthwhile exercise to do and that any real math is being taught???? This is something an English major would suggest. What an enormous waste of time.

You sound like an MCPS shill go back to writing your crap Curriculum 2.0 worksheet that you will send out to the classrooms tomorrow.

Drawing pictorials like boxes to represent a number (10) is Singapore math. A relative of mine learned Singapore math style in some of the private schools all over the world (father was a foreign service officer). She's got a masters in computer engineering at Carnegie, was never an English major. This style of teaching is highly regarded and taught by "math" teachers from a highly educated country - you guess it, Singapore.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What is "real" math? Math is math. There are different ways to teach it. What is multiplication ... it's adding up that number x number of times. What is our numbering system based on ... 10. You show an 8 yr old those two concepts. That is real math.

And you sound unhinged.

When someone can't make a valid logical argument they stoop to personal attacks. I'm not falling for low brow MCPS tactics and won't stoop to your level.

Physically drawing 100 boxes of groups of 10 to represent a thousand, and continuing with this exercise to represent a million is a giant time suck and of zero teaching value. It's busy work, plain and simple.

But the PP didn't say that you should do that.

Reread the original ridiculous response copied below.

You missed a great teaching point here. You ask the 8 yr old, what does the stick represent? He should answer "10". You then ask, "How many 10's would make a million?" You start small... "how many 10s in 100" then move up from there. Group the 10's into 100 boxes, etc... Then you show how "10" - 100,000 boxes (not that you draw 100K boxes, you just draw a box that represents 100K) make one million, and that is multiplication.

"Group the 10's into boxes representing 100's" -- there.. better for your little mind? I was typing pretty fast back there.

And 21:00 PP is correct. The pictorial representation is how Singapore math is taught. Do I need to tell you that Singapore scored much higher than the US in the PISA math test?

Let me provide you some info on how Singapore math: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_math

quote:
"The term was originally coined in the U.S. to describe an approach, originally developed in Singapore, to teaching students to learn and master fewer mathematical concepts at greater detail as well as having them learn these concepts using a three-step learning process: concrete, pictorial, and abstract"
...
"Students then transition to the second or pictorial step by drawing diagrams called "bar-models" to represent specific quantities of an object. This involves drawing a rectangular bar to represent a specific quantity." In this case, 10 to begin with, then 100K.

I get it. Adults in the US aren't used to doing math this way. It's the old "I learned math the old-fashioned way, and I turned out fine." argument. Well, they teach math a bit differently in Singapore, and those kids are outscoring our's in math. So, draw your own conclusion. Mine is that we aren't teaching our kids math well compared to kids in Singapore.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What is "real" math? Math is math. There are different ways to teach it. What is multiplication ... it's adding up that number x number of times. What is our numbering system based on ... 10. You show an 8 yr old those two concepts. That is real math.

And you sound unhinged.

When someone can't make a valid logical argument they stoop to personal attacks. I'm not falling for low brow MCPS tactics and won't stoop to your level.

Physically drawing 100 boxes of groups of 10 to represent a thousand, and continuing with this exercise to represent a million is a giant time suck and of zero teaching value. It's busy work, plain and simple.

But the PP didn't say that you should do that.

Reread the original ridiculous response copied below.

You missed a great teaching point here. You ask the 8 yr old, what does the stick represent? He should answer "10". You then ask, "How many 10's would make a million?" You start small... "how many 10s in 100" then move up from there. Group the 10's into 100 boxes, etc... Then you show how "10" - 100,000 boxes (not that you draw 100K boxes, you just draw a box that represents 100K) make one million, and that is multiplication.

not that you draw 100K boxes, you just draw a box that represents 100K

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What is "real" math? Math is math. There are different ways to teach it. What is multiplication ... it's adding up that number x number of times. What is our numbering system based on ... 10. You show an 8 yr old those two concepts. That is real math.

And you sound unhinged.

When someone can't make a valid logical argument they stoop to personal attacks. I'm not falling for low brow MCPS tactics and won't stoop to your level.

Physically drawing 100 boxes of groups of 10 to represent a thousand, and continuing with this exercise to represent a million is a giant time suck and of zero teaching value. It's busy work, plain and simple.

But the PP didn't say that you should do that.

Reread the original ridiculous response copied below.

You missed a great teaching point here. You ask the 8 yr old, what does the stick represent? He should answer "10". You then ask, "How many 10's would make a million?" You start small... "how many 10s in 100" then move up from there. Group the 10's into 100 boxes, etc... Then you show how "10" - 100,000 boxes (not that you draw 100K boxes, you just draw a box that represents 100K) make one million, and that is multiplication.

Anonymous wrote:

What is "real" math? Math is math. There are different ways to teach it. What is multiplication ... it's adding up that number x number of times. What is our numbering system based on ... 10. You show an 8 yr old those two concepts. That is real math.

And you sound unhinged.

When someone can't make a valid logical argument they stoop to personal attacks. I'm not falling for low brow MCPS tactics and won't stoop to your level.

Physically drawing 100 boxes of groups of 10 to represent a thousand, and continuing with this exercise to represent a million is a giant time suck and of zero teaching value. It's busy work, plain and simple.

But the PP didn't say that you should do that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Agreed... they have this method of sticks and dots for teaching math. We where having a discussion at home and the dollar amount million came up and my 8 year old asked how many sticks and dots that would be.

I just couldn't believe this is what math is not for primary grades in MoCo. Pathetic

You missed a great teaching point here. You ask the 8 yr old, what does the stick represent? He should answer "10". You then ask, "How many 10's would make a million?" You start small... "how many 10s in 100" then move up from there. Group the 10's into 100 boxes, etc... Then you show how "10" - 100,000 boxes (not that you draw 100K boxes, you just draw a box that represents 100K) make one million, and that is multiplication.

Are you kidding me??? You seriously think this is a worthwhile exercise to do and that any real math is being taught???? This is something an English major would suggest. What an enormous waste of time.

You sound like an MCPS shill go back to writing your crap Curriculum 2.0 worksheet that you will send out to the classrooms tomorrow.

It actually is real math to show graphically that there are ten ones in one ten, and ten tens in one hundred, and ten hundreds in one thousand, and ten thousands in one ten thousand, and ten ten thousands in one hundred thousand, and ten hundred thousands in one million -- so how many ones in one million? and how many tens in one million?

Or, if graphical displays explained by words is too "English major" for you, you can write it 10x1=10, 10x10=100, 10x100=1,000, and 1x?=1,000,000 and 10x?=1,000,000 -- but I wouldn't start out that way, especially since your son's understanding of multiplication may not yet be solid (or may be absent altogether, given that he's talking about "sticks and dots" instead of "tens and ones").

(No, I don't work for MCPS. I have gone through Singapore Math books with my 8-year-old, though, and stuff like this is very Singapore Math (or perhaps Singapore "Math", according to your definition).)