I know parents are not thrilled about how we teach math algorithms today. I know they say, "That isn't how I learned it." I sat at the Thanksgiving table this year and heard my brother (who is a PE teacher) say how frustrated he is that he can't help his daughter with her simple addition homework because they do this "crazy thing called partial sums." And yet I know how I was as a student. I could memorize algorithms and solve them with ease. However, I never did understand why you crossed out the 0's in subtraction problems and made some 9 and some 10 in order to subtract from them. I just did what the teacher told me to do. I had no idea why the second line in a 2 digit times 2 digit multiplication problem started with a 0. I just did it because the teacher told me to. It was after teaching these "funky" algorithms that I truly understood how and why those methods work.
So why do we teachers do this (other than to torture parents)? Partial sums, partial differences, partial products, and partial quotients really do require students to understand our place value system and understand the "why" behind how to perform these operations rather than simply memorize an algorithm. There is nothing wrong with teaching tradition methods too, and I do that in my class. Gifted kids can generally handle being taught in two ways. Many of them see the "partial-algorithms" as creative, and they like that. I teach both partial sums and addition with carrying, partial differences and subtracting with trading, partial products and traditional multiplication, and partial quotients and traditional division. Then after practice with both, I give them the option of what works for them. Life isn't about one right way to solve problems. Who knows what job field these kids will enter, but let's assume they will all be problem solving in one way or the other. They'll need to be reflective on what works for each scenario. Might as well get some experience with that now. If you are still lost though, check out these videos from the publisher of our math curriculum. There is a video that will teach you how to do what we do in class and then just maybe you won't be frustrated with those "funky algorithms." http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/algorithms-tutorials/
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Tracey BeanWerner Elementary Archives
May 2018
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