My Daughter's First Grade Homework.

[Quackers]

This is the math problem:

Bella had 15 valentines to give to the class. She gave 7 of the valentines to the girls in the class. The rest she gave to the boys in the class. How many valentines did Bella give to the boys? SOLVE THE PROBLEM. SHOW YOUR WORK.

So I helped her with this problem and this is how we answered and showed her work.

15-7=8

The teacher graded it and marked this answer as wrong. The teacher said if the answer isn't shown in "circles", it doesn't count. WTF? The paper said nothing about drawing circles but this is what is expected? I'm a little upset about this.

Btw, this is the official answer according to the teacher:
⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️

[avebury]

1. If it were me, I would be having a chat with that teacher. nt

[demmiblue]

2. Perhaps that is the way it was taught in class...

and the teacher told them verbally to use this method on their homework assignment. No big deal, imho.

(Not to mention the fact that this way helps enable the students to achieve number sense before using actual equations)

Perhaps you should contact the teacher to clarify the situation, if it makes you feel better.

[Fred Sanders]

15. The teacher did not say the answer was wrong, but there was no "proof" provided.

[Fawke Em]

36. So long-established basic math is no longer proof?

Wow.

(And my second grader also has to show proof. The week or two they were doing the circles crap was the worst. Not even my son, who is in high school, learned math that way. Ugh)

[Fred Sanders]

38. Wow. Yes, just wow.

[olddots]

3. I think everyrhing has to be googled

Now for the accepted profit driven answer .

[Vattel]

4. I feel your pain. My daughter is 10. She usually quickly gets the answer

but often we then spend a lot of time trying to make sure she shows her work in the way required.

[elleng]

5. We're all a little upset about this, I suspect,

and if I were you I would take it up directly with the teacher (politely, of course.)

Best of luck, and for you and your daughter.

[Johonny]

6. Isn't the problem giving a first grader homework to begin with?

On what planet does a first grader need homework. As the one poster said maybe that's what they were told to do in class. That's a fine answer except what teacher would expect a child to remember verbal instructions like that to a first grader. More to the point the child showed an actually higher concept of learning by answering the way she did. Once again what is wrong with this country and the insane amount of homework they give kids these days? I don't get it.

[pnwmom]

10. +1. n/t

[bigwillq]

7. Happy I never had to "show" the work. (nt)

[Lex]

8. Something like this?

[pnwmom]

9. Obviously the teachers is wrong. Valentines are HEARTS.

Good luck on the years ahead. My daughter suffered through many years of dumb math classes, and teachers who didn't like math, but she didn't lose confidence and ended up with a PHD in engineering. It can be done.

[Wellstone ruled]

11. Good example of Arnie Duncan's

Core program.

[MineralMan]

12. First graders do not know how to subtract

Using your method. They are learning subtraction using concrete representations. It's part of a process. By helping, using your method, you skipped the actual concrete lesson. You answer did not show the work a first grader would have to do to get the correct answer. Your answer used a rote memory method, which the child does not know.

The teacher was correct. The student's work was not shown. What was shown was that a parent did the homework.

[Warren Stupidity]

18. Once again the OUTRAGE THEY ARENT DOING IT MY WAY is on display here.

Perhaps the parent could have asked his child how she was taught to do these sorts of problems? Take the trouble to learn what his daughter was being taught? Consider that perhaps there was a reason for using methods unfamiliar to the parent?

Nope. Never happens. "Not the way I learned. Not Right!" repeat every few weeks. On a progressive liberal message board.

[LisaL]

21. They don't?

Could have fooled me. I figured out how to subtract without any circles.

[Cleita]

30. Me too. I would have been very confused with the graphics

and I learned accounting and earned a living in bookkeeping.

[uppityperson]

34. Different people learn addition/subtraction/multiplication/division in different ways

I learned the numbers. My child could not do it by numbers but closed his eyes and pictured dice (we played yahtzee a lot).

I got in trouble for not showing my work like the teacher wanted me to, but how it made sense to me. Now we both are math whizzes.

[Warpy]

13. I guess they're introducing first graders to the visual concepts first

but the instructions were too vague to be particularly useful to a child with no background in arithmetic. If the teacher wanted circles, or exes or squares or anything else, she should have said so. I have no problem with the concept, only the shitty instructions.

Seems a bit late in the year to be using this stuff, though. They should have been on to using numbers by now. Maybe schools have been dumbed down farther than I thought.

Then again, I was the kid in the back of the room reading library books. If they wanted me to participate in Fun with Dick and Jane or counting marbles instead of using numbers, I raised hell.

[raven mad]

14. Your daughter is great.

The teacher isn't. Sesame Street math doesn't quite hack it in my book!

[hobbit709]

16. I always thought that simple arithmetic involved the digits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0.

What's this circles crap?

[Lex]

17. You teach that numbers represent things. One circle = 1.

It's not a new concept.

[hobbit709]

19. I learned math by using numerals not little circles. Of course that was back in the early 50's.

[Nevernose]

22. What do you think the numeral 1 represents?

It represents the three letter combination of symbols that represent the word one, which in turn indicates an abstract mathematical concept.

[Lex]

24. You learned that 1 = one of some thing

whether it was apples or whatever (circles, stars, hearts). They didn't just spring the number on you without telling you that it represents one of something.

[Art_from_Ark]

35. By the mid-'60s, "New Math" and number lines were the rage

At least in 1st and maybe 2nd grade.

[LisaL]

20. If the teacher wanted an answer in cirlces, then the problem should have said so.

I find the whole concept of circles ridiculous to say the least. Certainly when I was in school, nobody made me to count in circles.

[Nevernose]

23. That's an excellent way to teach basic concepts of math

And a lot of the kids growing up now, beginning with math taught with the most advanced methods, are going to be far luckier than many of us when they grow up. Often (not always, but often) teaching methods change for a very good reason.

Your kid's teacher, however, sounds like a real jackass. A right answer is a right answer, if it's in words or digits or circles or pictures of pink poodles. Just lazy.

(Then again, I have a love/hate relationship with elementary school teachers and teaching)

[TreasonousBastard]

25. "This is how we answered"...

Pretty obvious the girl did not do her own homework. She might have come up with the right answer, but did not understand the lesson.

[roody]

26. I teach first.

My homework is similar but it says:

Numbers and equations are optional, but a picture is required.

I would expect 15 things with seven crossed out.

[MrMickeysMom]

31. That's what I think, too.

True, my education degree isn't geared k-12, but voc-ed. However, when teaching this level math to this age group, I'd expect visual representation of the total valentines, and "taking away" from the total THAT way, and not 15-7 = 8.

[Takket]

27. i've seen this circle thing before and it makes no sense to me...

people don't compute like that in real life. we may as well teach kids to abandon paper/pencil/calculators and count with our fingers and toes.

I understand she wants your child to use the method discussed in class to solve the problem. that's why she marked your wrong. However it is the method that is illogical. I'd want to know how that got into the curriculum.

[roody]

39. Fingers and toes are very appropriate ways

for first graders to count and compute. A good first grade teacher does not stress correct or incorrect. She uses the kids' work to show the class the understanding that some kids showed. They are much more interested in their peers' work than in the teacher's example.

[ND-Dem]

28. The circles show how to get the answer graphically. Your version doesn't. That's what "show your

work" means in first grade.

[Klukie]

29. They are taught to solve it using circles

This teaching approach is tied to the common core standard. I have no problem with the way they require them to show work. I do wonder about the use of word problems with first graders who are still learning to read. What about developmental readiness? Could your daughter read the problem on her own and did she understand that she needed to subtract to solve?

[Omaha Steve]

32. I didn't get a Valentine

ALL I got was a rock.

[countingbluecars]

33. The teacher is teaching

your daughter to think about what numbers and math mean.

[tblue37]

37. This is what comes of fetishizing form over substance.

Last edited Sat Feb 7, 2015, 03:56 PM - Edit history (1)

I have no problem with using visual representations, but that should have been specified in the statement of the problem, and since it wasn't, the answer should not have been marked "wrong."

A kid that young isn't going to understand that the answer wasn't really "wrong," but only "wrong" in a limited, context-specific way, because it was presented in a form not preferred in that situation. This response will confuse the child about what "wrong" means in math. Kids that young typically take things literally, so it is never a good idea to confuse them about the meanings of basic words like "correct" ("right&quot and "incorrect" (wrong&quot .

[whistler162]

40. Well the teacher is wrong....

it should have been done in hearts!

[msanthrope]

41. One of the things I like about Common Core is that it requires that you show your work from the get-

go. You can't do it in your head.

Children are taught that the work to get to the answer is just as important as the answer.

Wait 'til you get to "lattice" method.