Is it MM or is it common core?

[cholderby]

I posted this by mistake in the gen. Ed. board first:

 

This is our first year with Math Mammoth, which is aligned to the common core. Before we used CLE, which is not aligned to the common core. We're using it for 1st and 3rd. The texts go on and on with different strategies for doing the exact same thing (in the case of 3rd grade mental subtraction, TEN strategies were presented).

 

My kids are so frustrated at having to learn over and over different ways of doing the exact same thing. My son told me that he doesn't want to bother with the other strategies, he just does them how he wants and gets the right answer at the end. In my mind, consistently coming up with the correct answer is really all I want when it comes to arithmetic.

 

I wonder what my kids aren't learning because lesson after lesson goes on with different ways to do the exact same thing.

 

So...is it MM or is this a common core thing?

[boscopup]

I answered in the other thread. :D

[nansk]

No idea if it is a CC thing. I think it is a good idea that MM presents different strategies. Hopefully, at least one will click with each student.

 

The good thing about MM is that you can skip and compact lessons to suit your student's needs. :)

[Farrar]

It's an MM thing.

 

In general, the vast majority of things you see in a curriculum that's CC aligned are attributable to the curriculum, not the CC.

 

But, that said, learning different strategies for basic operations is deepening their understanding of number relationships and will help them understand new concepts later.  It's not an inherent waste of time.  It's not right for some kids - especially kids who get these different strategies once they have the concept down without being explicitly taught them.  However, it is a great way for other kids to really go in depth with the concepts in a very purposeful way.

[maize]

Agree that it is a MM thing, and is one of the strengths of the program. I try to make sure my kids understand the concept or relationship being taught but don't make them do every problem. If they understand the strategy being presented but want to solve the problems a different way I let them do that as well.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Yep, it's an MM thing.  I think with MM, it's important to distinguish between two things that you will see the author doing: one is to present many ways/strategies to solve a problem, which I think are really important to present and discuss.  As pps have said, this deepens a student's understanding of numbers and number sense, which was a huge strength of MM even before the cc revisions.

 

The other thing she does is to break new operations down into tiny. baby. steps.  This, I think you can use your judgement about.  My dd often groks and algorithm quickly and is frustrated by having to think about each little tiny incremental step.  If it's clear she's got how it works and why, I do often skip this incremental teaching bit.

[angelmama1209]

that's the beauty of mm.  presenting every approach imaginable makes sure it hits on at least one that clicks for every student. i also like my kids to have a bunch of strategies in their arsenal in case one doesn't work for a particular problem, they can just draw on another approach instead of getting frustrated. we have the pre-cc version so i don't even know what the new one looks like, but i'm glad to hear she didn't change this wonderful component.