Vertical sums or number lines

Optimist · Post by **Optimist** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:42 am

H

I spoke to my Year 2 son's teacher at parents evening yesterday, and the teacher gave some feedback. Any thoughts, please?

Teacher stated that DS1 struggles with 3 digit numbers, and went on to say if he did a sum such as 137-24, that he did not like the fact that DS1 works it out (correctly!) in a vertical sum format. The teacher prefers him to use a number line and count back.

Consequently, DS1 does not struggle with 3 digit numbers, but just chooses to use vertical sums; is there anything wrong with this method?

yoyo123 · Post by **yoyo123** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 10:39 am

schools don;t teach the vertical method until later, the numeracy strategy tries to get them to have a feel for numbers before teaching an algorithm.

trouble is it's difficult to ask a child to unlearn it. I know first hand as having been taught long division in one school I moved somewhere where they did short division first and I was told not to do long division, still can;t get the hang of short division

999 mum · Post by **999 mum** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 12:01 pm

That wasn't chunking be any chance?

yoyo123 · Post by **yoyo123** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 12:27 pm

ah chunking!

actually once you get used to it it does make sense.

999 mum · Post by **999 mum** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 12:34 pm

yoyo123 wrote:still can;t get the hang of short division

So what was it?

(I was looking for a tongue in cheek icon!)

yoyo123 · Post by **yoyo123** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 12:39 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_division

confuses me even now , 45 years later!

Sassie'sDad · Post by **Sassie'sDad** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 3:33 pm

Any maths teacher who is wedded to a specific methodology for teaching maths is quite simply in the wrong job!

Bewildered · Post by **Bewildered** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 3:37 pm

Had the same problem with my boys, at that age.
As long as they are sure of their units, tens and hundreds place values you can teach them to use the vertical method, horizontally as well.
They can learn the school method and then use which ever is easier for them. With maths there can be a few ways to get to the same answer.

Fran17 · Post by **Fran17** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 7:38 pm

We also had a similar problem. I had a quiet word with our son's teacher who very sensibly agreed to allow him to do the sums his way. As long as he got the right answer she was not concerned.

Optimist · Post by **Optimist** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:13 am

Thanks Bewildered and Fran 17. I do feel vindicated now, especially, as the the teacher agreed to accept my son doing vertical sums.