The Next Generation Science Standards are now available. Twenty-six states and their broad-based teams worked together with a 41-member writing team and partners throughout the country to develop the standards.
We are waiting patiently for the final version of the NGSS to be released. Rumor has it that it will be out on March 31, 2013. Not sure what the over/under is on that, but I have a funny feeling that might not be accurate.
I was recently contacted by an elementary educator regarding the research behind why the writers of the CCSS decided to postpone the introduction of the standard algorithm in the elementary standards.
This is what they, the writers of the CCSSM, had to say: "The Standards distinguish strategies from algorithms. For example, students use strategies for addition and subtraction in Grades K-3, but are expected to fluently add and subtract whole numbers using standard algorithms by the end of Grade 4. Use of the standard algorithms can be viewed as the culmination of a long progression of reasoning about quantities, the base-ten system, and the properties of operations." Makes sense to me. When students use the standard algorithm they are focused on individual digits instead of making considerations regarding the whole quantities they are working with. Which is why teachers often see students attempting to borrow and regroup in a problem like: 4000 -3999 If the student had a strong understanding of number sense they would realize right away that the difference is 1. For more information check out Teaching Student-Centered Mathematics Grades K-3. |
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