Today I remembered something from fifth grade. It isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things but in my world I was surprised at the timing. Earlier in the day I was reading Modern Library Writer's Workshop A Guide to the Craft of Fiction by Stephen Koch. I read the first part of chapter two, The Writing Life. It is odd that the day I read about remembering and what writers do to remember I had a flashback. Just hours later I had this moment when I was visited by a shadow of my past when I least expected it. Proof a writer should always have a notepad.
I am taking a student for math lessons starting tomorrow. It isn't that they can't do the work. They don't want to do the work. I get it. Math in fourth and fifth grade, although easy as an adult is tedious as a child. I have been researching the why behind the inevitable phrase, "show your work". Long division is, long. It takes time and seems pointless to a 9 or 10 year old kid. I want my students to understand the why we do math and not just the idea that it is all about the right answer.
I came across a lot of good information but one high school teacher put it in such a way that it changed the way I think about the phrase,"show your work". Showing your work to get the right answer is not "showing your work" but proving your answer is right. We make kids do long division because we know it helps them understand the process better and helps with long term memory, etc. Telling kids to show their work is not anything I will say again. Prove your answer is correct might be my new phrase. Show me why your answer is correct, could be silly but is different than "show your work".
My research started Friday and math was on my mind. Today after I read about remembering and taking the time to just remember I had this moment where I was back in fifth grade and my teacher wanted me to show them how I did my subtracting with regrouping. I remember being at the blackboard with chalk, which was a rare occasion in my schooling. I can remember where his desk was and how the tables were set up. He asked me and another student to stay back from art, music or PE some class outside of our normal class time. I was a bus rider so it wasn't after school. I remember it was me, another student or two. He would write a problem on the board and ask me to solve it. I would do it my way, which is not a standard way to do subtraction but a method to get an answer. I remember him in awe of the way I got the right answer every time. I couldn't explain why I did it the way I did but I could show how I got the right answer. I didn't know any different and the method I used always worked for me. He wanted to see me work out problems. He was trying to see what I was thinking.
I am not sure where I learned the method but after some research I did find the method I used. At some point I learned the traditional method to regrouping in subtraction because as a future teacher I had to do the traditional method that was textbook appropriate. I will not say the "right" way because the way I did subtraction was not wrong. Just different. It wan't until I was in my 20's that I started to do subtraction the traditional way. It wasn't until I was in the classroom for a few years before I realized what I had done as a child was an acceptable way to do subtraction just not the traditional way it was thought in class. No one questioned me until fifth grade and he didn't try to make me learn a different way.
Today when I had this memory I was on a mission to find the method I used. I found it and printed it out. I posted the first two methods. Method A is traditional regrouping and Method B is the one I used. The handout I found had six different ways and I learned in other countries they have different methods as their standard. I am not 100 percent surprised by the memory but it did take me by surprise.
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