-> SK>Seems to me that, just as students shouldn't leave third grade
-> SK>without knowing how to read, and call in the RR teacher and other
-> SK>intervention methods, kids shouldn't leave second grade without
-> SK>knowing their basic addition and subtraction facts nor third
-> SK>without knowing multiplication. Get intervention for these kids,
-> SK>what... a Math Facts Recovery teacher?...and get them set up for
-> SK>success in math in fourth and fifth grade instead of re-hashing
-> SK>basic material they should have already learned.
-> Many educators in primary education would argue that these children
-> don't know these facts because they are not developmentally ready for
-> such concepts.  If what they say is true, then no amount of tutoring
-> will bring about mastery.  Should a child in third grade know that
-> 9x9=81 and understand numerically what that means (i.e. that 9x9 is
-> the same as 9+9+9+9+9+9+9+9+9=81?  I would think that understanding
-> the concepts behind the facts is equally important.
Of course understanding behind the concepts is equally, if not MORE,
important. I don't think I ever said otherwise.
FWIW, my kids started doing simple multiplication on their own in second
grade. My daughter, who is in the advanced third grade math group, has
already finished memorizing her basic multiplication tables (or at least
she should have) by early Dec. Now, I would think that allowing until
the end of the year for the average to slower kids to learn that info
would be enough time. Clearly the facts should be introduced through
repeated addition and handling of manipulatives. You would NEVER here me
recommend memorization of ANY math concepts over understanding the
concept behind them. That would go VERY MUCH against everything that I
do in my high school classroom.
Are these slower kids not developmentally ready? I certainly am no
childhood educator, but I think that 95% of the kids can handle that
info by the end of third grade. The reasons why they aren't learning the
facts is because they are not getting enough help on the material, and
that includes help in the home from the parents.
For example, my infamous daughter who SHOULD have learned all her
multiplication by early Dec. actually didn't. We are still working on it
at home. She didn't bring notices home informing me exactly what was
going on in the classroom so that I could support her at home with extra
study time. I have since talked to the teacher and let her know that I
was not very happy with the fact that she never contacted me about it
until AFTER the multiplication unit was finished! But, my kid could've
learned the multiplication as well as any other kid IF (that's a very
big IF) she had worked on it at home at all (which she did not). I
suspect that most of the kids who are not "getting it" until fourth
grade and later are simply not spending much, if any, time outside of
the math classroom working on learning these facts. This has nothing to
do with being developmentally ready. This has to do with learning how to
study and memorize (which actually take time and effort).
-> SK>As for going too fast in school...I don't know. Maybe in some
-> SK>things. But seems to me that allowing until the end of second
-> SK>grade to learn addition and subrtraction facts isn't going too
-> SK>fast. There should be plenty of time in there for working with
-> SK>manipulatives and all other things so that the kids can get that
-> SK>down by the end of second grade. I think that to allow the kids
-> SK>longer than that does them a terrible disservice and sets them up
-> SK>to do poorly in subsequent classes.
-> Not having much experience in this area puts me at a disadvantage.  I
-> tend to agree with what you have had to say throughout this post.  I
-> thought 3rd grade was to early to have mastered all multiplication
-> facts but it seems to me that by the end of 4th grade nearly all
-> students should have mastered them.  I know that this is not true in
-> our school however.  Even by the end of 5th grade some don't know
-> their basic facts.  The teachers in 3,4,5 are mostly more traditional
-> in their approaches though not entirely.  I'm not sure what's up.
I thought that in fifth grade the kids should be learning fraction
operations. At least, I thought I recalled learning how to add and
subtract fractions somewhere around fifth grade, myself. OK, maybe not
until sixth. I never went to fifth grade, so I can't really say that I
learned it there.
Sheila
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