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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Math: Ten More, Ten Less


I subbed three 1st grade classes at the same school the first week of the new school year. The kids are starting to learn the concept of words problems and number placement in Math.

Their workbook pages were concentrating on organizing number groups of adding and subtraction by 10’s in the form: “What’s 10 more? What’s 10 less? What’s 3 more? What’s 1 less”…etc

Skipping the coloring questions #6 & #8, Take a couple of seconds and answer problems 4, 5 and 7.

(click to enlarge)

 Did you get 24, 14 and 34?

Imagine my confusion when first two kids I asked replied with: 22, 12 and 32. It was then I knew something was wrong.

The kids dutifully followed the first instruction by counting each letter in the picture where I “saw” two rows of 10 with four extra.

Did the publishers intentionally try to make this a trick question or was it a screw up in the art department that depicted the first two rows of NINE letters and one row of four?

You can vote your opinion in the comments section.

5 comments:

Summers School said...

I don't really see an issue. I never thought about seeing lines of 10, I followed the first direction and counted all of the letters.

Anonymous said...

I counted each one, but I've worked in classrooms and I've just learned that the worksheets are crazy and have a deep personal grudge against logical arrangements. It's how they all are from what I've seen.

Anonymous said...

The Bus Driver has left a new comment on your post "Math: Ten More, Ten Less":

Apparently you need help following directions? LOL

I, too, counted all the letters one by one, though when you mentioned lines of 10, i went back and re-counted to be sure i didnt miss any of them.

Anonymous said...

Hi! New reader here, I just started subbing and I'm looking for blogs with advice ;)

I've run into standardized tests where there's an obvious but wrong answer and that's always given as a choice, I like how this question gets students in the habit of checking carefully in case the question doesn't fit their assumptions. So I agree that it's a trick in a sense but it's preparing them for tricky tests later.

Bon said...

I got 22, 12, and 32 also...
But I had to count it twice, because I figured that it was supposed to be rows of 10.