Posted by Myrtle on 18:38 Jan 16
In Reply to: Another question about accelerated math - when you reach algebra posted by Cleo Qc
My son wasn't totally clear on how to show all his work either and I took some time out to teach him how to do that on word problems that he already knew how to solve using the mathematical equivalent of sentence fragments.
That was my fault.
Now that I know what it means to "show your work" I'm stressing it with my next child so that I d on't have to take that time out the second time around, but it really didn't end up being that much time. It wtas just a few weeks, maybe a month at the most.
What I did was have him begin by declaring the variable: "let x be the number of apples Zhen Liu has" and then he'd write the "number sentence" with x in it. Since it was arithmetic the x was always isolated on the right hand side of the equation. The equation was written horizontally.
Then I gave him two and three step problems to work with.
Any algebra program worth its salt will ease the student into "showing his work" by beginning with one step problems. If you are using a rigorous algebra program then the whole point of the program is to specifically teach your son the mathematical justification or the "why" ,...no more 'cuz it just seems right' reasons ,for why each step that happens to x . In a way, the goal of algebra is to teach formally and rigorously what the kid already knew intuitively about arithmetic. I wouldn't expect a kid to know it before he knows it.
My sixth grader is making nice progress through algebra. He's not going quite as quickly as I had hoped for but here we are at the end of January and he's exactly halfway done with the book. I'm pretty sure he won't be able to finish it by the end of May, but with another 8 weeks beyond that I think he could.
I would say that being able to write down a mathematical argument, which is in fact what you do when you show your work or steps isn't a matter of maturity at all but rather training. If he's mature enough to come up with the answer to begin with he's certainly mature enough to write down the steps, he just needs to be taught how to do it step-by-step.