Well, I guess we can’t go a week of field without having a snow day! It’s funny to think that when I was a student I loved snow days so much and never really thought about how much the teachers would enjoy them too…
This week, much like every other week, was consumed by working in our Everyday Math books. I understand that basic math skills are important to students, but I am beginning to see some major pros and cons with this math curriculum. On a positive note, I like how this series brings information from previous lessons into current chapters. Instead of learning a concept and then moving on and forgetting it, the students keep seeing that concept in their Math Journals. In this sense, repetition is a great technique to ensuring that students know what is being told to them. Working on the same types of exercises provides a secure background that they can build upon. In Everyday Math though, I feel like students are not building upon background knowledge. They form a basic knowledge of a concept and that is it. Some of the lessons to introduce new concepts move so quickly that students do not really comprehend what they are supposed to be learning, so when review problems come around later, they are clueless as to what they are supposed to be doing. Also, some of the concepts taught in the series make simple topics more complicated than they need to be. I found an example of this on YouTube. This is a video that illustrates how the Everyday Math series teaches students to do long division. They try to teach tricks to make math easier, but it just ends up being more confusing. Not only that, but division is division. If children are learning a new way that is “easier”, parents are not going to know the tricks and will not be able to help with homework, thereby frustrating the student even more. Basic math skills are essential in life. If a series wants to offer tricks, that’s fine, but do so after the student has mastered the basic skill.
I don’t mean to say that what is present in this series is detrimental to the education of students, but I feel like this series should be paired with something else to provide a more well-rounded math curriculum.
ahargleroad09 said,
March 2, 2008 at 11:20 pm
I really enjoyed the YouTube video, and I definitely think it is problematic that long division is not taught. I actually didn’t know that until now, and I recall one time last year I was supposed to help a student with division, and they were completely clueless about what I was talking about– because I was trying to explain it using long division. I have only worked with Everyday Math a few times. I agree it has its pros and cons. I think I would rather teach general concepts that will be elaborated on in the future, but this could be because that was how I was taught. I personally think that not enough time is spent on individual concepts which does not allow the student to master the concept.
Have a good week in field! Hopefully no snow days!