I mean, I get it from the teacher's perspective of wanting to be sure the kids understand the concepts properly, but at the elementary school level most math doesn't really need that level of exposition. It'd be preferred if there was a way the kid could demonstrate mastery of the concept and then not be required to continue writing those steps out after that assessment. It feels too one-size-fits-all otherwise and stifles kids joy of learning (or did for me at times). Even in MS math... I remember getting in trouble with my teacher occasionally for writing "trivial" too frequently in my geometry proofs, but that teacher was pretty good about letting me show that I knew it and not making me keep doing it over and over (well past the point where repetition is helpful and instead is harmful).

Do they do subject-type grouping within AAP classrooms so that groups of kids at different levels of math proficiency (or whatever subject area) can move on their own paces?

Eh, grades don't matter in ES so why add to his stress. He will have a different teacher next year and, as the math gets more complicated, he will have to write out steps and equations. Tell the teacher you are confident he understands the concepts and tell your kid that when math gets more complicated n the future showing your work will matter

This is an issue for many kids who are extremely smart in math. My oldest had the same problem.

The answer is not to berate the teachers, but to teach students like this that sometimes the world asks more of you. You can either give it, or face the consequences.

Anonymous wrote:Learning now to do math on paper vs in your head is important. At some point they won’t be able to do it on their heads and will need to know how to write their steps.

This is true, the problem is they're learning it in an unreasonable way. One step questions that many kids can do in their head (i.e mental math calculations) are not great candidates for forcing kids to write things down. It can lead to a dislike of math, as kids associate it with writing. The focus should be on the math, not the writing (save that for writing class). Requiring explanations is reasonable if the questions are interesting, such as a puzzle, informal proof, explaining why something is true, where that something is not obvious.

There are many, many great math problems that kids can try to solve and show work on, they're just not being given the chance to try and solve them. Instead they mostly get a set of calculations, which are often trivial for many of them.

Learning now to do math on paper vs in your head is important. At some point they won’t be able to do it on their heads and will need to know how to write their steps.

As a parent of a very smart kid with ADHD, I can tell you that “show yourself work” is remarkably awful for a kid like him. He can’t break down problems that he instantly completes in his head, and if you ask him to, he loses track of where he was as he tries to go backward and pull it apart for the sake of writing it down. He’s super quick in his head (and also correct). It would take him HOURS to show his work on a simple assignment though. His little sister is the same way. I asked her today to follow an assignment about “mental math” of changing numbers around in your head to make calculations easier and she looked at me like I was insane. She just knows how to figure it out and being forced into a specific “strategy” is stifling, not helpful. Strategies are great to learn if you’re struggling with how to master a concept. But if I already know how to tie my shoes, I don’t need to try to learn special strategies to support shoe-tying. My shoes are already tied, thanks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For simple operations, it's pretty inane to ask kids to show or explain their work. The time spent demanding that in K-3 would be better spent with drilling basic math facts.

+1,000,000 (and will not show my work for how I came up with that number!)

Completely agree. I'm an aerospace engineer, and I hated elementary school math because of teachers turning it into writing class. Helping my 2nd and 4th graders now with math is bringing it all back to me. I can't wait until they are in algebra and there are actually some reasonable steps to show, rather than turning math into a creative writing class.

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.

Honestly OP you sound overly critical of the teacher while your child can do no wrong. It's not a problem if your child can do math in their head. The directions are to show your work. You child is not succeeding in showing his work, so he is not getting full credit because he finds the assignment tedious and not his personal preferred way. That sounds exactly like how grading works - you follow the directions and if instead you just do what you feel like, don't expect full credit. The teacher doesn't want to talk to him to find out his thinking, she is asking specifically to write it out. You expect her to spend five minutes of personal attention to talk to every student about their thinking for every assignment? Or just the ones who don't like the directions? If he could explain it in talking, he should be able to explain it in writing; sounds like a communication issue he could perhaps work on. I'm not trying to be harsh but really OP, consider this.

You don't say what grade level, but I have 3 kids at various grades and therefore levels of math, as well as my own math experiences (engineering degree). Learning to show your work can be important to pursuing higher math. It also helps guard against following the wrong method that sometimes may still yield a correct result. Lastly, when you can explain math, it shows you really have a better understanding than simply computing an answer. So it makes sense to me to be practicing these skills early on, even if the math part is a bit "easy" to work on how to communicate what you did to arrive at your answer. Why is your child repeatedly not able to explain how to do his math assignments? In my opinion you should be encouraging your child to work on these skills rather directing your energy to being mad at the teacher and arguing it.

Just amazing how many people respond and miss the point of the original post and clearly didn't read any of the responses.