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My dd11 just received her first report card from ps, grade 6.  She did really well, but got a B in math which she says she wants to improve.  I'm happy to help her out at home - it sounds like they don't get much targeted help in overcoming and problems they are having.

 

I have the full set of MM books so ideally we could look at the appropriate sections from there, at least to start. 

 

The report notes two areas she could improve on.  One is factors and multiples - I'm not quite sure what is the problem there.  But the other thing is what the teacher calls "showing the relationship within tables of values to solve problems."  Dd seems to think this relates to what she calls input/output problems. 

 

What is it that this is referring to? It doesn't sound like anything I remember, though my recollection of grade 6 is admittedly flimsy.  But my mathy dh isn't sure either.

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It sounds like an introduction to the beginning concept of functions defined in tabular form and that fits her description of input-output problems. 

 

Edit: googling "patterns in a table of values" brought me some links.

 

http://www2.sd35.bc.ca/teachers/dponak/Ponaks_Math/8_Chapter_9_files/9_2_Patterns_in_a_Table_of_Values.pdf

http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/math/support_gr6/patterns.pdf

Edited by kiana
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Your daughter is correct. It is input/output problems that Kiana linked. They are taught in the US too.

 

Basically the input/output table is given and your child try to recognise any pattern she can see. How strong is her math facts? Usually input/output problems require a child to see if its addition, subtraction or multiplication at the grade 6 level. At the higher level, it can be a mix of multiplication/division with addition/subtraction to get from input to output.

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Ah, thanks! 

 

Yes, it might be that she needs to review her math facts, and that would help I think for the factoring as well.  She's never been great at memory work of that kind and in fact before 4t grade we had no luck with math facts at all.

 

But that gives me a place to start.

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THought I would update a bit:

 

Dd brought home her terms marked work last week.  The I thought the input output problems were hard!  But more surprisingly, my chemist husband who does math all day thought they were hard, and only solved them by making guesses and seeing what worked.  It took him a while to figure out some of the problems that she had got wrong.

 

We saw the teacher this week, and she said that most students struggle with that unit, and the teachers all hate it. 

 

So I am thinking it may just be a poorly written text rather than anything else.

Edited by Bluegoat
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