to draw these conclusions from this event (education related)

[pickledsiblings]

So, DS1's homework is to find the area of shape A (and B and C). These are drawn on a grid. They are irregular shapes with curves, in fact C is a circle. Anyway, he doesn't remember how he is supposed to do it so I ask him what area means, he says 'how many squares it covers' (owtte) so I say, 'count the squares then', which he does. He adds up any half squares to make wholes as he goes along and pairs of bits of squares that he also thinks will add up to whole squares. It is easy for him but he has the feeling that he is doing it wrong...

Thanks if you are still with me .

I saw this piece of work in his folder at open book evening yesterday and nothing on the sheet is marked right. DS1 says that he is cross with me for making him do it wrong! I decide to ask the teacher how it should have been done and it turns out that they were supposed to draw a rectangle around the outside of the shape and work out the area of that . What DS1 did was apparent Yr5 and 6 work (he's in Yr4).

My problem with all of this is how DS1 reacted when I asked him (in front of his teacher) how he found the work - he said that he thought it was DIFFICULT. He did NOT, it was NOT!!

My conclusion is that my child has been institutionalised somehow to think that things are too difficult for him (when they are not) and so he sets his expectations of himself way too low. Can that be right? His confidence seems shockingly low given that he is a bright boy.

Sorry it's so long but I would really appreciate some responses...AIBU?

[SneezingwakestheJesus]

YABU. Maybe he thought the whole overall thing was difficult. I mean, the trying to remember what to do, doing the actual work (while fighting the feeling he was doing it wrong) and then when he found out it was wrong and he felt the time was wasted. That all sounds a bit draining for a child and maybe the word "difficult" covered how he was feeling.

[noblegiraffe]

Maybe he thought it was difficult because he couldn't do it and needed to ask you for help.

A bit that it was marked wrong for giving a better answer than the one expected. That's not wrong!

[diddl]

Well if he couldn't remember what to do-isn't that difficult?

I mean he could easily do it when you told him what to do-but that's not the same, is it?

[DeWe]

Well I think counting the squares makes sense and drawing a rectangle round is a load of rubbish.
I know dd1 (who liked to be accurate) would have absolutely hated that because it would be clearly inaccurate.

And I'd be having a serious word with the teacher about marking something wrong simply because he'd done it at a higher level than she wanted.
If the work had said "by drawing a rectangle round the shape, work out..." the teacher would have a point to make about reading the question.
As it was the point made is "using his own initiative to solve the question more accurately than needed-is wrong".

I'm not surprised he's lacking confidence in himself when he is marked wrong for being too accurate...

[pickledsiblings]

OK, you're probably right sneezing. You are also right that the whole thing was 'draining' for him when it should not have been. He did his HW, did a good job of it and was left feeling 'like a failure'. Is there no problem here?

[pickledsiblings]

giraffe and DeWe, the work wasn't marked wrong (they don't do that at his school), it had a dot at it. I spoke to the teacher and said exactly that about the wording on the worksheet. She said in a slightly sarky way that she would have to take more care with her worksheets in the future. I was perfectly polite when speaking to her btw.

[pickledsiblings]

diddl, I'm not surprised he couldn't remember what to do as there was absolutely no logic in it, not for him anyway - perhaps there would be for those DC that struggle with the concept of area?

[Fakebook]

I'd be angry that correct work was marked wrong. Talk to the teacher about this. This used to happen to me in school. I was taught at home to write answers to division questions using decimal places instead of writing "remainder 2,1 etc". All my work was marked wrong by the teacher because it wasn't the answer she wanted.

I hated maths anyway and this just knocked be back a few notches. There is no wrong or right way when figuring out an answer in maths, I hated it when in school they'd teach you one way is the only way, and any other way is wrong. I hoped things might have changed, but it must still be like that.

[DeWe]

But "Pickled" if the work gets a tick for right and a dot for "not right" then actually it has been marked wrong just as much as if it's a cross.

Children aren't stupid, if the teacher decided to put a tick for wrong and a cross for right they'd soon look at a tick and think "oh dear that's wrong". "A rose by any other name would smell so sweet" and all that.

I would have expected her to have complimented him on finding a more accurate method, and added the way she expected him to do it for your future reference.

I see problems next year when he is expected to use the count squares method and is drawing rectangles round shapes because he's afraid of being worng again.

[Tailtwister]

This sounds really odd. How is drawing a rectangle around it and using that to calculate the area accurate? I would find this confusing.

[pickledsiblings]

Fakebook, 'What DS1 did was apparently Yr5 and 6 work (he's in Yr4).'

This was her response as to why she hadn't marked it right. She was not encouraging in any way but started telling DS he'd get to that in the end.

I have a parents' meeting on Thurs but I'm not sure what I can hope to achieve by talking about it further.

Sorry to hear you hated maths.

[pickledsiblings]

Tailtwister, I guess it is a step along the way to working out an accurate method and as such I don't really have a problem with the methodology. I do have a problem with DS1 feeling bad for doing something a few steps ahead and getting it right.

[pickledsiblings]

The drama queen concerned parent in me is wondering if there is the potential for long term damage if DC are consistently being required to do work 'below' the level at which they are capable.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

[diddl]

I do agree that there should have been some credit given for attempting to find the area.

But I also see that work was set to be done in a particular way & wasn't.

I do think that the teacher should have been more encouraging, though.

Where was the work that he had done in class to refer to-or a textbook for reference?

[pickledsiblings]

I tried to find an example of it amongst his books but couldn't. She offered to photocopy the relevant page from her workbook but I fear she missed the point of why I was concerned.

[WilsonFrickett]

If he's being taught one way and you then showed him another way, I imagine he would find that 'difficult' because he now knows two different ways to do something. That's bound to be confusing. You are taking your knowledge of the 'end point' and projecting that onto your DS. At the moment he only knows the building block (iyswim. Is this analogy even working?) so it's natural he's confused and now thinks finding the area is a hard thing to do.

My uncle used to help me with my maths homework and get me very confused, my DF thought that geography was all about capital cities which got me very frustrated - different methods do confuse children.

But in terms of long-term damage? I think he'll probably be OK.

[diddl]

I think that I would raise the concern of him becoming completely discouraged.

In this case, he couldn't remember & nothing could be found in his books so he did his best.

Was it written on the board & he should have noted it down?

[DeWe]

I wouldn't thought there would be "damage" from being required to do work below the level at which they were capeable.

However I think there could be damage done by being told work is "not right" (if you prefer that term) because it's done at a higher level. Discourages them from thinking for themselves, and from improving on an answer by using their brains.

And I'm sure we did area by counting squares in year 3. Because I remember chalking the playground into metre squares with our teacher.

[diddl]

I would have thought thought that if the shapes involved just about filled the rectangle, then it would be more accurate to have the area of the rectangle and takeaway the areas not filled by the shapes.

Although I would have thought that that was higher level than just counting the squares in the shapes??

[Goldmandra]

It's a shame that the teacher didn't manage to ensure that there was an example or that the wording wasn't clear enough. This was no doubt just a slip up on her part.

She could have given your DS a bit of credit for working out a way to do it even thought he point of the homework would have been to practise a method they had learned in school.

Did he really think it was hard or was he saying what he knew the teacher wanted him to say, perhaps even repeating something she had already told him? My DDs wouldn't have been able to say it was easy if the they knew the teacher would disapprove.

[Callisto]

What an absolutely shite way to teach the concept of area. And how depressing that the stupid teacher couldn't praise your son for working beyond his year. This is what I hate about school.

I disagree that damage wouldn't be caused by constantly working below ability. It is a sure fire way to turn a child completely off learning.

[bachsingingmum]

I doubt if it will cause any damage and it'll be fine when he has a "proper" maths teacher. When my DD1 was about the same age the homework was division, and included a number divided by 0. The answer according to the teacher was 0 . We wrote back in her book, no, it's infinity. Answer "That's too hard an idea for 8 year olds." I took DD through the idea in stages (divide 10 by 5, then divide 10 by 2, then by 1, then by a half etc) and she understood it very well. But, really, if it's too hard for that age group don't teach them the wrong answer, teach them something else!

[pickledsiblings]

Wilson, he has got passed feeling that finding the area is difficult and now thinks it's easy and realises that the teacher's method is completely inaccurate. DD and I have explained to him the importance of working through the steps to ensure a thorough grasp of the subject but I am fairly confident that the pace of moving through the steps is way too slow for him.

[pickledsiblings]

Goldmandra:'My DDs wouldn't have been able to say it was easy if the they knew the teacher would disapprove.'

This is what I find so sad. It is as if my bright son has been 'institutionalised' to use his brain how the teacher sees fit and if he doesn't he is a failure.

Callisto: 'This is what I hate about school.' Me too!

I agree with praising effort vs praising ability but he had made a good effort and just because his effort was linked to his ability it seemed fine (to the teacher) to overlook it.

Thank you all for your responses, you are helping me to get this clear in my head.

I should add that I am a Governor at my son's 'outstanding' primary and we pride ourselves on how we teach maths, lots of dialogue and good use of mathematical vocab. etc. [not sure what emoticon to put in here].