FAN: I Protest

Still A Stroke is in 5th grade. Every day they do 4 math problems on a math maintenance test which gives them 20 questions for the week and then it's graded. The math maintenance tests then become a quarter of their trimester math grade. It's a good way to keep using things you've learned in the past. Full disclosure, I was half a math major.

I took exception when I saw her results for last week's test. She missed two questions in a section where you are supposed to select THE BEST way to solve a problem. The choices were Mental Math, Estimation, Paper & Pencil and Calculator.

My daughter has always struggled with estimation and her school pushes the concept hard. When they want you to estimate they always say "About how much is 4312 + 2698". She is like me - black or white, not a lot of gray. She frequently puts the exact answer for estimation problems which leads to the teacher correctly marking them wrong. She's young. Her feelings are "but why get close when I know how to solve the problem?" It's a hard concept to explain.

Anyway, I get the idea of mental math. She got that question right because it was something like 200 * 20. However, the next question was something more like the first example I used: 4312 + 2698. The teacher wanted "estimation" for the answer. I've trained my daughter to look for the words "close" or "about" when doing estimation problems. When those words don't exist and you ask a 5th grader what's the BEST way to solve it, I'm not sure "estimation" is the correct answer. She said "calculator". I asked her the thought process she used. She said that she thought they wanted to know the best way to get the exact answer and even though she could do it with paper & pencil, why wouldn't you use a calculator if you had one. That makes sense to me the way the question was worded.

I don't even need to explain the other one she missed because again she used "calculator" and the correct answer was pencil & paper. If you think like a kid (which I do) and you're thinking "ok, I have paper & pencil, a calculator and two methods in my head" and you're presented with something and asked which is the BEST way to solve it, it's very subjective. Math is not subjective. Words like "Best" you have to be careful with. You can get your point across without "Best" being included and without "calculator" included in the list. Maybe have a matching of 1, 2, 3 with A, B and C. Then you see the kid knows that 500 + 400 is mental math, 6710 - 688 is estimation and so on.

I did send the teacher an email because I need it explained to me when pencil & paper is better than a calculator if you have both with you. The only reasonable answer I see is if you want to draw a picture of a doggy or a horsey.

I "get" these concepts and I like that they are being taught. I just want the problems worded a little more carefully for those kids that might think too much. When you add a calculator to the mix and then ask for the BEST way to solve.......that's an email.