I. Hate. Homework.
November 8, 2012(sample page in Henry's Math Investigations workbook, not even a little bit edited by me! I SWEAR)
1. 48 divided by 8 = ? Show your work.
2. Let's say you have 48 cookies and you must divide them equally among eight people. How many would you give them? Show your work some more.
3. Now what if you had 48 gum balls, smart brains? And 8 ponies? How many gum balls would each pony get? Show your work. But a different way this time.
4. Okay NOW we're going to imagine you have 48 headaches and only 8 skulls! DIFFERENT THINGS! How many headaches does each skull get? SYW. (That's short for Show Your Work. Really mix it up this time, would you? We get bored.)
5. This one's new, promise. 48 candy corns, 8 socks. Put an equal number of candy corns in each sock. See? Candy corn + socks = fun! (You better show your work AGAIN but this time in an equally FUN way.)
6. How were the above questions different? Explain.
7. Explain more. Draw stuff for us about how you're explaining. Really show us your work.
8. Are you yelling at your mom about how you don't want to do your homework? How much?
9. Hey, what are you thinking right now?
10. We're desperately unhappy people. This is probably because there are 48 of us, and only 8 desks. How many people should sit at each desk? Show your work.
11. Seriously, show us. We should mention that Tad is hogging one desk all to himself, and Linda and Jason are making out at another one, and one desk is infested with spiders; two others are in an alternate dimension and if you try to use them you're torn in half; three desks are in this one corner of the office where the lights stopped working and we can hear someone or something in there growling and snapping. Wait, that's all the desks. But where .... where are we?
12. Show our work. Oh, God, show our work!
Reader Comments (42)
I learned all of my multiplication tables by rote, in 3rd grade. I was in SIXTH grade before it dawned on me that multiplication was just a fast way to do addition. Maybe the teacher said it in 3rd grade and I was too busy hiding my library book behind my math book to listen.
So maybe a little "show how you got that besides memorization" would have helped. a LITTLE of that. Not eleventy questions worth.
Just started back at school so I can totally relate to this post. I forgot just how much work it is!
www.inspirationlush.com
Is your kid in fourth grade? Because MY kids are in fourth grade, and I HATE fourth grade. (I didn't like it much the first time around... watching my daughter deal with her completely mediocre teacher is KILLING ME.) (perspective before y'all get mad at me for teacher-bashing: I *am* a teacher, and my son's teacher is like an angel from heaven. I am trying to maintain a professional relationship with DD's teacher until June, which means that my husband is writing most of the emails because I can't stand it.) Bleah.
I think you should declare all Math Investigations CLOSED.
I have nightmares about putting my fourth grader in school only to spend our evenings on homework that takes as much time as homeschooling did, because everything is "frustrational" to her, especially in the evenings when she's tired.
Christie: Yep, fourth grade. Holy cripes.
"...everything is "frustrational" to her, especially in the evenings when she's tired."
Yep, that's a big thing, right there. My son's teacher sends homework home almost every night, and while it's always pretty simple, the boy is exhausted by the time he gets home, and his brain is ready to shut the hell down. It's like pulling teeth to get it done and I hate it. He's only in kindergarten right now, but I can already see a smoldering hell at the end of the homework tunnel, especially when it comes to math. I have always sucked at math, and so has my husband. This whole "show 300 different ways to get to this same answer" thing is going to suck the life out of me, I just know it. So, we will have a very short window in which we'll be able to help him, and then what??
Frustrational is now my very favorite word.
Not sure anyone mentioned this... Teachers practice the "show your work" because EVERY MATH QUESTION on the state test requires it. Not the multiple choice ones, but any 'long answer' form would. There is no reason to practice this more than once or twice a day, IMO.
Confession : I was at a teacher at a district that "taught to the test" years ago. So happy to be out of that environment. Sad to see that many poor practices haven't changed.
Great writing, Alice. Glad to hear that you made it through the storms OK.
Even more brutal, in Ontario (anyways) the part after show your work is "how do you know you are right?" UGH!!!
I recently came across the Khan Academy videos on youtube. Have you heard of them? http://www.khanacademy.org/. I wish this had been around when I was trying to help my kids with homework.
I trust you're taught your son how to grab his crotch while announcing "I got your 'work' right here."
Sorry everyone, but Grade 5 is no better. I swear all the time at my son's "dumbass math text."
Then after I have been chewed up and spit out by that one, I get to move on to the Grade 8 algebra text.
I HATE HOMEWORK!
Some of the comments here are hilarious! Showing work can turn out so creative and inspiring sometimes (only something. Ok almost never. Promise not to enjoy this too much - I never had to show MY work...). I need to ask the kids I work with to show their work on everything!
oh momma - my mother was a high school math teacher, and every session at the kitchen table was like the second math class of the day. except i was the only student and had to handle every answer.
needless to say i studied history in college.
This makes me vehemently hate school all over again. Haaaaate.
Six and eight went on a date. Six and eight is forty-eight.
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