To think this Maths target is completely pointless

[NoCryingInEngineering]

DS is in Yr 2 (and finding it boring and repetative). A couple of weeks before half term he and a chunk of his class came out of school clutching Target Met certificates for knowing their 2 times table. Today there was a new maths target stuck in his school diary.... to know the doubles of numbers to 12!!

I am totally WTF??? and this close to writing a That Parent note back to the teacher. Am I missing something or is this the most pointless target ever?

@NoCryingInEngineering

Yes Flipflops he knows that doubling is the same as x2. And although I have no idea what the schools definition of "secure" is on 2x table he can easily get 16/16 on both the find the answer and find the question mode of the times tables game they have been asked to use for homework. Which is sub 4secs/question and feels fairly fast to me.

I'd love to ignore and move on, but if it means more weeks of the level of frustrated grumping we have currently then it becomes difficult. I guess the question should be, how do I get the school to give him some maths that might stretch him a bit more?

Very often children are thrown through levels in order for them to be a certain level at the end of the year. However, many, many children struggle with concepts later on in school. He may understand doubling at fave value, but can be apply it to mastery , real life problems? Does he know what a double is and how to represent it instead of just reciting?

Where is the target written? Maybe it is a target set before he achieved it?

As a teacher, I know that there is often a couple of weeks between writing report type letters and then reaching parents. Also, do know that the targets set will absolutely not be the only thing the children are working on. We have to set a single maths target, but cover different topics all the time.

I got full marks in Maths in tests all the way through school up to A Level. Except for in my KS2 SATs when I dropped a mark because I didn't know that the difference was the same as take away. I still remember almost 30 years later that the exact question was what's the difference between 6 and 12, and I wrote 12 is bigger I was devastated! My point is that even if you're very bright in maths, you still need to understand the different wordings!

My DS is only in reception but has a real knack for maths. His teacher has been doing some extension activities with him and she recommended that we look at a website called NRich which we’ve been doing with him at the weekends. DS really enjoys it as it’s got loads of different maths problems which apply their skills and is much more interesting for them I think - have a look with your DS.

@chomalungma

So yes - it could be that your child knows that 2 x 6 is 12 but do they understand what you get if you double 6?

Some children can happily go through a times table but not understand what ideas like doubling mean.

Or they struggle with 12 divided by 2.

Or putting 12 people into 6 groups

Or if they know that 12 x 2 is 24, what is 13 x 2....

This.

"Very often children are thrown through levels in order for them to be a certain level at the end of the year. However, many, many children struggle with concepts later on in school. He may understand doubling at fave value, but can be apply it to mastery , real life problems? Does he know what a double is and how to represent it instead of just reciting?"

He isn't being asked to apply it to mastery though. He's being asked to know his two times tables memorised as "double of" instead of "two times". The OP (and her DS) would probably be much happier if he were actually given work that tested mastery instead of a slight variation on rote learning he's already done.

Buy him a workbook for the year above and go through it with him a page or two a night.
The Works have a selection. The Carol Vorderman series are good.

What we used to do as an extension activity was set a random number to get to, so after Double 12, for example, 'How about we go up to Double 50/60/100/1000/etc?' or 'What do we double to get to 12? 20? 60? 100? 10,000?', thus introducing an element of 'reverse engineering' (effectively rearranging formulae).

Yup...you’re missing that it is very important to have maths facts such as number bonds, doubles, times tables etc committed to memory. Later on, when complex equations are required for problem solving, these basic facts will free up working memory to work on the more complex stuff. Same as spelling and grammar facts committed to memory wil free up working memory to focus on the important skill of distilling thoughts into writing.

Just get him doing irrational and perfect numbers. He'll enjoy those more.

@bungaloid

If he can double, then see if he can work out double 26.

And if he can do double, why not try multiplying by 3.
Can he see how to multiply any 2 digit number?

Some targets are strange.
Don't be limited by targets.

The concepts are completely different and often this is what kids struggle with the most. Most kids can do the 2X tables fine but ask them to double 5 and it throws them off completely.

You may think this is easy but this concept is building the foundations to learn much more difficult concepts in the future.

what's the difference between 6 and 12, and I wrote 12 is bigger

I love this! 😆 and it’s why I often think tests are unfair as you only have to read the question in a different way to what it is meant and you get the answer wrong!

@BoomBoomsCousin

"Very often children are thrown through levels in order for them to be a certain level at the end of the year. However, many, many children struggle with concepts later on in school. He may understand doubling at fave value, but can be apply it to mastery , real life problems? Does he know what a double is and how to represent it instead of just reciting?"

He isn't being asked to apply it to mastery though. He's being asked to know his two times tables memorised as "double of" instead of "two times". The OP (and her DS) would probably be much happier if he were actually given work that tested mastery instead of a slight variation on rote learning he's already done.

How do you know he won't be applying it though?

@chomalungma

If he can double, then see if he can work out double 26.

And if he can do double, why not try multiplying by 3.
Can he see how to multiply any 2 digit number?

Some targets are strange.
Don't be limited by targets.

The problem is that the school are limiting him by the target. The OP wants him to do other work, but his school work and take home work is limited by what the school set. He may enjoy all the other stuff the OP can do with him but he's still going to be bored with his school work and that can lead to disillusionment with school and dampen his enthusiasm for learning.

Person who knows nothing about maths teaching criticises maths teaching ... well done, OP. Of course, if you WERE a maths teacher, you would know that plenty of children, right up to GCSE, will multiply 36 by 2 (often using the ‘long’ or ‘column’ method) but look at you blankly if you ask them to double 36.

Maths takes a long, long time to learn. Your child may ‘get it’ quickly. Not everyone does. Those links need to be explicitly taught to most people.

Don’t be that parent. Us teachers have had it up to the eye balls this term and last.
If you’ve got spare time to make snarky remarks to teachers why don’t you use it for something productive.

The problem is that the school are limiting him by the target

I would personally ignore that target. Teachers have to find targets just to say they have set a target.

What they are actually doing in class may well be very different.

I looked at DS's targets from years ago - and knew they bore little relation to what he was doing in class.

Are the school limiting him? Or has a knackered teacher just accidentally given the wrong child the wrong target? Or has her ds not shown the teacher he can double? Or was the report written a couple of weeks ago before he could double?

Without asking the teacher, you'll never know.

How do you know what he is doing in class? He many not have shown he can double.

I also don't think one misplaced maths target leads to disillusionment.
Primary teachers have to differentiate so much, I have no idea how they do it. How they cope with such different ability levels is incredible.

@NoCryingInEngineering

Just communicate back to the teacher the issue you have with DS. Teachers aren't mind readers, they won't necessarily know unless you tell them.

I had a parent tell mw this very recently, so I've set harder homework for that one child.

I think BoomBoomsCousin has it spot on.

I'm perfectly happy to set him maths problems at home (he actively enjoys being given an Excel generated sheet of random numbers to 100 to add). But I'm not shore buying him a Yr3 maths book will help in the longer term. He might find it fun to work on at home but it's not going to stop school maths being boring this year & will probably make next year worse.

I'm still not getting how doubling and x2 are different mind

@NoCryingInEngineering I'm still not getting how doubling and x2 are different mind

They're the same thing effectively, but does he know that? If you asked him to double random numbers, and then ask him to multiply those same random numbers by 2, does he come to the same answers?

Why not make it fun, use a pack of cards, and get him to turn them up in 1s and then 2s, and he doubles them?

They aren't mathematically different. But knowing that doubling a number is the same as multiplying the number by 2 is a skill many secondary school students don't have.

Knowing 2x6=12 is great. However you also need to know double six is twelve. That isn't immediately obvious and has to be taught and practised. Students also 'see' doubling as two lots of the bigger number, so double 6 is 6+6, wheras 6x2 is often done by counting 2,4,6,8,10,12.

When numbers get bigger it is more efficient to double the number than count up in 2s. Eg 125x2 is better done as double 125.

The other thing is the inverse - give him a number (eg the number 12) and ask him what it is the double of.