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Please share your experiences regarding common core, and especially how it differs from how we learnt, and how you cope with that. Opinions welcome but please, no politics. I don't care if Common Core is manna from heaven or devil's spawn; I just want to know how to deal with it.
For example, one thing I noticed is that addition problems like 7+6 are supposed to be done as 7+3+3 because the first 7+3 makes 10. This is different from how I learnt, which was memorization of small sums like this. My opinion is that it is stupid and weird. However, I don't care how Obama is pushing it down our throats or how Republicans should embrace the new math or whatever.
Please share your experiences regarding common core, and especially how it differs from how we learnt, and how you cope with that. Opinions welcome but please, no politics. I don't care if Common Core is manna from heaven or devil's spawn; I just want to know how to deal with it.
For example, one thing I noticed is that addition problems like 7+6 are supposed to be done as 7+3+3 because the first 7+3 makes 10. This is different from how I learnt, which was memorization of small sums like this. My opinion is that it is stupid and weird. However, I don't care how Obama is pushing it down our throats or how Republicans should embrace the new math or whatever.
Although the example you gave has validity, it should come after the memorization of small sums, just as you said. In fact, it is easier to teach if the student has memorized small sums. Looking for tens is a strategy for mental math.
One of the problems with CC is that it doesn't take into the actual problems with education and they want a one-size-fits-all national curriculum. No state actually looked it over in advance and held focus groups to decide whether or not it was appropriate for students. All they see is the hundreds of millions of dollars attached to its adoption.
You are going to have a difficult time keeping this from becoming heated and political. There is a new thread on it just about every week. A lot of you questions could be answered there.
I will avoid the politics of this altogether and speak as a parent. My daughter is in 2nd grade in public school here in PA. She is on the autism spectrum, but extremely high functioning and intelligent. She does best with the kind of math we had as children, with each concept being taught, retaught, worked on various worksheets, and completely mastered before going on to the next. Now the common core comes along, and all these complex concepts are being taught, then a worksheet comes home, and we struggle, so she's not getting it. I get out the 'ol abacus and some pennies and we count together and she gets it. Then the next day this particular curriculum is on to yet another complex concept, and the end result is that these are not sinking in, as the topics go in series. Yes, a concept will be revisited, but maybe in a week or two, who knows?
The end result is that my daughter, who is light-years ahead of most of her peers in the reading and language realm and is constantly reading to me, has now announced that she "hates math" in spite of my efforts to keep the at-home reviewing as stress-free as possible. I don't know how to reframe this common core or its elements in such a way that she will get it and have fun with it. Nothing was wrong with the previous way of teaching math, and I'm sure the students who struggled mightily with the old way are struggling even more now.
I am looking forward to the upcoming parent-teacher conferences to speak about this subject with my daughter's teacher. The teacher herself is outstanding and patient, and I'm quite positive that my daughter's frustrations have nothing to do with the actual teacher/teaching, but rather with the way this is done and presented.
A lot of parents here in California feel the same way, especially since a lot of experts have said that the old California standards were a bit higher than what common core has. The parents' complaints all seem to focus on Math as well.
Is she doing OK with the rest of common core subjects like English?
What I do like about common core: The idea that every 3rd grade class in America is teaching the same subject content and at the same level, so transfers can more easily transition to a new school.
What I don't like about common core: The high stakes testing that accompanies it, and the methods at which the math is being taught. It is, IMPO (P = professional), not appropriate for the levels of cognitive development in the early years. Both personally, and professionally (I'm a teacher), I'm distressed by it. I see my 2nd grade son struggle greatly with the math worksheets sent home due to the methods being used. But once we've covered it - and I can see in his eyes he just doesn't get it - I cover the same material the way it was taught to me in the mid to late 70's, and I watch the lightbulb go off over his head.
Please share your experiences regarding common core, and especially how it differs from how we learnt, and how you cope with that. Opinions welcome but please, no politics. I don't care if Common Core is manna from heaven or devil's spawn; I just want to know how to deal with it.
For example, one thing I noticed is that addition problems like 7+6 are supposed to be done as 7+3+3 because the first 7+3 makes 10. This is different from how I learnt, which was memorization of small sums like this. My opinion is that it is stupid and weird. However, I don't care how Obama is pushing it down our throats or how Republicans should embrace the new math or whatever.
I think one of the problems people (not the OP...I'm speaking in broad, general terms) are having with Common Core (CC) is that it imposes someone else's (the architects of CC) common sense on others.
The OPs example *is* common sense to me but CC gets confusing by using too many charts, diagrams, and long-winded explanations that are completely unnecessary. CC insults one's intelligence by seeming to assume people need over-explanations.
Instead of the "number bonding" diagrams, wouldn't it be easier to say,
"Because it's always easier to add to a number that ends in '0' (10, 20, 30,...), the first step should be to make the first number end in '0' by subtracting from the second number.
In the example, 7+6, how much has to be subtracted from '6' to turn '7' into '10'?
How much does '6' now have?
Add that to '10'."
As for the comment re: "Opinions welcome but please, no politics."
That cat drowned when the OPer said, "I don't care how Obama is pushing it down our throats or how Republicans should embrace the new math or whatever."
Then the next day this particular curriculum is on to yet another complex concept, and the end result is that these are not sinking in, as the topics go in series. .
I sympathize with that experience, but that's not due to the common core, as I understand it. Common core is supposed to be the opposite of the inch deep-mile wide approach. The number of math topics covered is narrowed, and they are supposed to be treated with greater depth and rigor to encourage true understanding of math concepts rather than simply memorization of math facts. In other words, don't sacrifice fluency in math facts (speed and memorization), but also play with the numbers in lots of different way to encourage conceptual understanding.
What I do like about common core: The idea that every 3rd grade class in America is teaching the same subject content and at the same level, so transfers can more easily transition to a new school.
It would be nice if every 3rd grade class in America were teaching the same thing, but that isn't the case either. Or maybe it is just in secondary. When I was trying to write relevant test questions for my students, I found it difficult and started looking at the what other states were doing. Every state was interpreting the standards differently. It was horrible. I did my best, but when it came time for my students to take the end of the semester district test, I saw that test was covering things, even differently, than how other states were interpreting the standards. Luckily, I got an advanced copy and was able to make my students an appropriate study guide as well as teach anything that I had not anticipated.
The test was horribly confusing and written by people who have a great sense of math who don't understand why everyone doesn't and why teachers cannot teach to that confusing level. It was awful and I apologized over and over to my students and explained that I had nothing to do with it nor did I agree with how the test was written.
Quote:
What I don't like about common core: The high stakes testing that accompanies it, and the methods at which the math is being taught. It is, IMPO (P = professional), not appropriate for the levels of cognitive development in the early years. Both personally, and professionally (I'm a teacher), I'm distressed by it. I see my 2nd grade son struggle greatly with the math worksheets sent home due to the methods being used. But once we've covered it - and I can see in his eyes he just doesn't get it - I cover the same material the way it was taught to me in the mid to late 70's, and I watch the lightbulb go off over his head.
I agree.
Truly, if I had young children, I would homeschool. I'm quite upset that CC's proponents blame teachers and parents when we bring legitimate concerns forward. The outrage must come from the community or it will never change.
Back to the OP's original example. Although looking for tens is appropriate and should be taught, the standardized test focuses on test questions that do not test for whether or not the student can add, but rather whether or not they can look for tens. And they do it in a very convoluted confusing manner.
Not every person in the same grade will learn at the same pace. The goal should be what has the student mastered at graduation. The exception would be reading, and that should still be based on the student's ability and NOT expected grade level, but monitored throughout their education providing remediation when necessary.
I say this as a special education teacher for over 20 years. I have seen students who struggled with a content area like math. As a 10th grader, they may have started at the 4th or 5th grade level. Within a certain time (varies with each INDIVIDUAL student) they manage to pick up skills and understand the concepts.
This is a time consuming process and CCSS does NOT allow for INDIVIDUALIZED instruction.
So I am constantly asking what are we to do with these kids? Just dump them off at the nearest shelter? But if many in society have their way, there wouldn't even be programs or services to provide ANY opportunity for these students.
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