Erika: her school life in first grade

[aliki]

Erika is two months into first grade. We have stopped asking: "What did you learn in school today?" because she ends up shrugging and saying "nothing". So now we ask: "What did your teacher go over in class today?" and she'll recite a list of activities she engaged in. In first grade math, they are working on addition and subtraction. In first

Comments

[geminigirl]

We've had a lot of talk about showing your work lately here, since we're working on long division and basic algebra, and I explained to Naomi that showing your work has a few important features-it means that someone else reviewing your paper can see whether you made an arithmetic error like accidentally writing that 7+3=9 or some other kind of mistake, and enable someone to see if you're making the same mistake consistently and have the wrong step stuck in your head or something else. (She and I had just reviewed a math paper where she hadn't shown her work and had made the same error about 4 different times...in her case it was careless rushing through her work, because as soon as I asked her to check the first problem that was wrong she realized it, and I said there were three or four others that were the same and she fixed them.) We talk about skills like that as buildings-we don't always need the skill now, but it helps us to know how to do it when we do need it so we're not trying to learn something new and change a behavior

[aliki]

Ah, thanks for the helpful tips. I'm going to try with Erika too.

[psychokitten76]

My eldest is in fourth grade and because he finds some of the work very easy, he tends to rush through it and make mistakes. So we've also been reminding him how important it is to take his time and double check! His teacher says he is easily the smartest kid in his class, but his grades don't reflect it because during his assessments he gives correct answers but doesn't elaborate, and the process is apparently just as important as the end result. Kind of like writing the conclusion to an essay without the body, I guess?

I think it's partly laziness for him. He puts in the least effort he can get away with!

My daughter is in her last term of Prep (kindergarten) and she's the opposite. Math and literacy haven't come easily to her like they have to my son, but she tries really hard and keeps trying, even though she doesn't always get things right.

I think they could both learn a lot from each other - if only they could speak to each other without squabbling ;o)

[aliki]

Yes, agree 100% How do you teach them to slow down, show their work, not rush..?

[belenen]

Yeah I remember as a kid being super annoyed by "show your work" it seemed an obvious way of saying "prove you didn't cheat" which I found inherently offensive. If your brain doesn't work that way, it's a hindrance to have to "show your work." I'm glad that Erika has the extra-curriculars to inspire real thought, but I feel sad that so much time has to be devoted to uselessness. I remember feeling so irritated in school at how much time was wasted.

[aliki]

That's how Erika feels, I think. It's a insinuation that she didn't arrive at the answer fair and square. :/