Son's teacher needs to go back to school

msb5262

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

Chunking is now used to teach multiplication and division. Although in some schools chunking for multiplication is called gridding or the grid method. One of the major problems primary schools have is parents teaching long division and multiplication at home and the kids then getting very confused.

This explains how multiplication is taught very well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMLf6sQLa40

This explains division using chunking:
http://www.youtube.com/user/annakono#p/a/u/0/eF4h76R99_Q

EDIT: I should probably point out that the methods are different but in some primaries the multiplication method is called chunking. Chunking method can be reversed for multiplication as well I believe.

As for the original OP - point this out to the teacher and see what she says. If this is a one off I wouldn't be majorly concerned.

As far as I know, the expression "chunking" is used only for division.
It is the main method recommended for teaching division although many primary teachers aren't that keen (myself included).

The grid method for multiplication is straightforward and is also a logical step towards more sophisticated ways of multiplying.

HTH

MsB

meritaten

oh the grid method! I remember that from when MY kids were at school! didnt seem to work then - but perhaps a name change will help.

msb5262

The grid method (for multiplication) is fab, don't know why it's alleged to be related to the chunking method (for division) which I think is very complicated and leads to errors as often as not...

thegirlintheattic

msb5262 wrote: »

The grid method (for multiplication) is fab, don't know why it's alleged to be related to the chunking method (for division) which I think is very complicated and leads to errors as often as not...

When I was on primary placement 3 of the teachers used chunking to refer to division and reverse chunking to refer to multiplication. Maybe an anomaly in that school *shrug*

I personally find chunking much easier to use than traditional long division, it is also much easier to explain.

DVardysShadow

halibut2209 wrote: »

Don't get me started. The next homework was using "looking at multiplication using chunking"

Chunking???? What the hell is that?

Just do long muliplication like normal people!!!

Off the top of my head i can think of 3 different methods for multiplication, without chunking or gridding. There is definitely more than one way of skinning the multiplication cat and none of them are wrong.

There is a definite danger of failing to impart comprehension with over rigid adherence to teaching purely the process of classic long multiplication and long division.

DVardysShadow

meritaten wrote: »

Has anyone in adult life had to assign numbers to circles?

Do I detect a closed mind? It is selecting objects according to properties which is only an abstract version of putting shopping away. Some things must be kept upright and some things must be kept in the fridge.

We spend a lot of our lives sorting and selecting according to criteria. Mostly it is straightforward and non challenging, but not always. Anyone writing software will be automating this process sometimes with quite complex rules. So it is no bad thing to study it in an abstract form.

dizziblonde

rachbc wrote: »

tetrahedrons are 3 dimensional shapes- totally different from square, circle etc- tetrahedrons are not complex shapes and I imagine would be in the first group of 3 d shapes learnt along with sphere, cylinders, cubes etc etc - just cos its a big word doesn't mean its a difficult concept for a 4 yo to grasp.

Quite often kids love big impressive sounding words - could be that the teacher's given them the word joking that "you can go home and say you've been learning about these and you'll sound really really clever" - and he has done! (I'd be more impressed if the teacher managed to get a class of 4 year olds all manage to say "sphere" correctly instead of the usual "suuhhh-fia" or "ssssuuuh-pears" you get... which always crack me up!)

duchy

The best worksheet error I came across was when my son was about six or seven and his teacher (at a very highly rated school) sent home a spelling numbers sheet-with a test to follow. Forty was spelt Fourty -I'm not sure what dismayed me more-the original error or the fact that when discussing it with the playground maf ia I was the only parent out of a class of thirty who noticed the error !

(Since when did the word maf-ia become a banned word on here btw ???? Are we anti Italian mob here at MSE )

Aimless

One primary my child went to used to send home spelling sheets with errors, that used to really annoy me, as I know how easy it is to get 'blind spots' with words you just can't spell, mine is separate for example! It didn't seem to bother them at all that the kids would spend days learning a word that isn't right, they seemed to think as long as they didn't lose a mark it was ok. I used to send the sheets back corrected in red pen in the end.

I also had a discussion about maths once, where they were saying that now kids are taught to work from left to right, working out the hundreds/tens before the units. I said well what happens if you have to 'borrow' from the tens, and was told 'they learn to notice if that is going to happen and then do that first. So not working left to right then? Why not just work out the units first? Lol, not sure I explained that very well!

"If we divide 65 by 5 using short division we firstly divide 6 ( tens) by 5 to get 1 remainder 1(ten). We then exchange it for 10 units and add them to the 5 to make 15 units. 15 divided by 5 is 3 and so the answer is 13."

Ah, here it is on that maths link... how does starting with the tens make this sum less complicated?

mrcow

As a parent, i would be either writing a note with a copy of the homework asking for it to be remarked/corrected or having a word (probably the former).

As a teacher, I would be mortified that I'd made such a basic error and then wrongly marked the work.

Children are very sensitive about not being understood, especially when they know they are right. It can be very frustrating and used to happen to my little boy when he was in year 2 quite a lot (the teacher just didn't seem to comprehend that sometimes, there is more than one right answer to a question, or that she didn't know quite as much as she thought she did). Quite simply, it needs to be corrected.