Schooltastic

When I was in third grade, accuracy wasn’t everything. It was the only thing. I’m sure that the manuals employed by my teachers included aspects devoted to a more comprehensive mathematical understanding, but on classwork, homework, and tests, the only thing that mattered was getting the right answer.

The new model prioritizes understanding. Even when students get the right answer, they are required to prove it’s right. Students need to be able to break a mathematical process down and explain it thoroughly using writing and diagrams. That’s a lot to ask of kids, but I think, ultimately, it will be worth it.

I enrolled in my first math class in college my junior year. It’s embarrassing, but I just couldn’t remember the steps. That’s because all I had ever learned was just that: steps.

Part of becoming a teacher meant learning how division actually works, and attaining that understanding was like learning it for the first time. Knowing what I was doing gave me leeway to devise my own strategy for calculating a solution. That division algorithm I leaned years ago, “Gozinta, multiply, subtract, drop down, repeat,” is really complete baloney and a huge waste of time. Unless that works better for you, in which case, enjoy.

Clearly, I’m a proponent of the “understanding first” movement in math instruction. However, lately I’ve been missing the virtues of the way I learned. Though it left me bereft of understanding, it equipped me to calculate answers efficiently, reliably, and precisely. Understanding is a beautiful thing, but it’s also demanding. A simple series of steps puts the right answer within reach of students who struggle with deeper meaning.

So, when your students comes home and complain that the way in which you’re trying to assist them with their math work doesn’t match the method taught in class (see title), please feel free to teach them the way you were taught. It just might relieve them of a little stress. A simple series of steps can be a comforting thing. Putting computation ahead of understanding won’t, in the long run, hurt them!