How important are bar models?

[NicAnn]

I have a 8 year old boy who is a little math wiz. Just really gets it. He does not like bar models, and I've been pretty easy with him til now. He is doing Singapore and will be for many more years. How important is it that he gets bar models down? Would you spend a lot of time on it and drill it?

[Punks in Ontario]

Being able to draw out or picture a problem, can be very helpful.  I have guys who don't tend to need the models, but I do work with them to learn how to draw them out because as the problems get trickier, they will come in useful.  This is the same idea as writing out your work in incremental steps.  You may know how to do a problem mentally today, but tomorrow's problem may be more difficult and you need to know how to write it out.  You want to learn on the easy problems.  I also tell them that doing the steps and the model prevent computation mistakes as the math gets harder.

 

That said, there's more than one way to diagram a problem.  If he has a different way that makes sense, I'd leave it.

 

I had my advanced functions guy drawing out problems today. No, not bar models, but graphing pictures nevertheless.

The bar models are petty trivial in the early years of Singapore.  However, they become vital by about year 4.  There are  a lot of problems that that are almost impossible for a student to solve without them.  More importantly, make sure you understand the bar models, otherwise, there are a lot of problems in the older years that parents are tempted to solve with algebra, which the kids probably won't get.  

 

So, I'd make sure that he gets the bar models now, but if he gets them, I wouldn't go overboard beating a dead horse.

[8filltheheart]

I have a 8 year old boy who is a little math wiz. Just really gets it. He does not like bar models, and I've been pretty easy with him til now. He is doing Singapore and will be for many more years. How important is it that he gets bar models down? Would you spend a lot of time on it and drill it?

Are bar diagrams necessary for mathematical success? Absolutely not. Is it necessary for SM.....that depends. My 6th grader solves all bar diagram problems via equations like she learned via Hands on Equations. However in 4th grade she did use bar diagrams. Bar diagrams are really just one way of setting up equations with given info. Once they hit alg 1, other than the most simple problems, they will be using equations vs. bar diagrams (though there was a time recently when I was working with a student on SAT math prep and I was able to show them how to solve a problem in a fraction of the time via bar diagram vs. equations)

 

Fwiw, none of my older kids ever learned math via bar diagrams. One is a chemical engineer and another is taking a 300 level university math course as a 17 yr old. It obviously didn't hurt them. ;).

 

But, if you are planning on sticking with SM, understanding how to set problems up via diagram is going to be intrinsic in solving problems until knowing how to work with variables, substitutions, distributing multiplication across addition/subtraction, etc.

[HSinNH]

DD 12 worked through SM 3-6 and loved using bar models, but DD10 is in MM5b and bar models totally confuse her. She will sometimes draw a different type of diagram, but mostly just knows how to solve the problem. She says she can "see it in her head." So, I think that one method will not fit for every kid, just like a certain curriculum will not fit every kid.

[Farrar]

We're not doing Singapore, but I tried to teach them to my boys in various ways for awhile, but neither of them ever have taken to them and they're very different math thinkers and use different curricula.  My ds who does MM sort of gets them.  MM asks you to label them sometimes and he can do that, but he doesn't think of them as a problem solving tool at all.  My other ds, who is a little more mathy, has done Beast and Hands on Equations and he finds variables sooooo much more intuitive and will use them whenever possible.  At this point, I've given up on them in any serious way.  *I* don't get them on any deeper level.  The kids don't get them.  They find other ways to solve problems.  So...  I don't think it matters.

 

Of course, it may matter for Singapore.  That I can't say...

[sbgrace]

I had a bar model resistant kid. He's my math oriented child. He didn't see the point. I didn't emphasize it at first, then I started to insist he do it thinking of later, given we were sticking with a Singapore approach. We're in 4th grade now and he's glad he learned how to use them. I'm sure a child could reason through the Singapore problems with different methods, but some of them now are quite complicated and the models really do help think through and solve. I'm glad I insisted he try. But he didn't really dig his heals and refuse. I would have done something different likely. You work with the child you have!