{"id":26887,"date":"2015-09-28T22:31:33","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T02:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=26887"},"modified":"2015-09-28T22:34:54","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T02:34:54","slug":"lets-talk-about-common-core-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2015\/09\/lets-talk-about-common-core-math.html","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Talk about Common Core Math"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I recently told my daughter Sally that if we didn\u2019t arrive at an event we were going to in time for a specific activity, we\u2019d have to wait for two hours before it was scheduled\u00a0again. She decided to figure out how many minutes that would be, and quickly realized that she needed to add 60 and 60. Now Sally is only six, and we were in the car without access to pencil and paper, but you know what? She worked out a shortcut and was able to find the answer. She took the zeros off and added 6 and 6\u2014a task well suited to a first grader\u2014and then put the zero back on to arrive at 120.<\/p>\n

At its simplest, this is exactly what Common Core math is designed to teach children how to do. It\u2019s about teaching children concepts rather than formulas, and intuitive relationships between numbers rather than reliance on paper and pencil. And yet, parental tirades against Common Core math have become something of a staple in our society today. This is unfortunate, because if we want our children to\u00a0truly understand math we should support the\u00a0Common Core.<\/p>\n

Over the past two years, Hemant Mehta of the Friendly Atheist has written four blog posts responding to parental complaints and explaining just what Common Core math is and does.\u00a0Hemant has years of experience teaching math to high school students, and I have found his posts wonderfully explanatory and truly helpful. I\u2019m going to link these for posts below. Next time you see someone complaining about Common Core math, I\u2019d recommend sending\u00a0them a link to one of these articles.<\/p>\n

About That \u2018Common Core\u2019 Math Problem Making the Rounds on Facebook\u2026<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The problem with [the traditional subtraction]\u00a0method is that if I ask students to explain\u00a0why<\/em>\u00a0it works, they\u2019d have a\u00a0really<\/em>\u00a0hard time explaining it to me. They might be able to do the computation, but they don\u2019t get the math behind it. For some people, that\u2019s fine. For math teachers, that\u2019s a problem because it means a lot of students won\u2019t be able to grasp other math concepts in the future because they never really developed \u201cnumber sense.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is How You Do \u201cCommon Core\u201d Subtraction<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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I\u2019ll add (ha!) that in my years of teaching math, I ran into many, many students who could do the basic skills on paper. But when I needed them to think more abstractly, they got completely lost. The students who could tackle basic problems in different ways had a much easier time learning algebra than those who couldn\u2019t. And on a broader level, students\u00a0<\/span>should<\/em>\u00a0learn several ways to tackle what looks to be a simple problem, because the math you learn in school isn\u2019t just about finding the right answer; it\u2019s about teaching you how to think.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s Worth Taking a Full Minute to Learn How to Add 9 and 6: A Response to the \u201cCommon Core\u201d Critics<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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They have no idea that the standards suggest students learn a\u00a0variety<\/em>\u00a0of ways to perform basic math skills, not just this one particular method. They don\u2019t understand how students who are taught to \u201cjust add\u201d or \u201cmemorize the answer\u201d struggle with math later in life because\u00a0they don\u2019t know how to manipulate numbers<\/em>\u00a0like the teacher in the video is doing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Dad Who Wrote a Check Using \u201cCommon Core\u201d Math Doesn\u2019t Know What He\u2019s Talking About<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Have you ever seen the show\u00a0Chopped<\/em>\u00a0on Food Network? The competing chefs are handed a basket of random ingredients every round and told to make an appetizer, entr\u00e9e, and dessert. There are no recipes. There are no step-by-step instructions. They just have to make it happen using whatever cooking knowledge is in their heads.<\/p>\n

The best contestants are the ones who see those ingredients and know\u00a0instinctively<\/em>how to use them and combine them.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what great math students learn how to do, too. They see a problem and they just\u00a0know<\/em>\u00a0how to manipulate the information at their disposal. They knew how to step away from the algorithms. They didn\u2019t need a \u201crecipe\u201d because they understood how to mess around with the numbers to get the answer they wanted.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For a lot of people traditional is inherently good and new is inherently frightening. We parents know the old way of teaching math, and as such it is somewhat familiar. For many parents, difference is scary. But difference and change aren\u2019t necessarily bad. Sometimes they\u2019re very very good. I for one am excited that my children may learn to understand math better I did.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll leave you with this video for those interested in learning more:<\/p>\n