Button, button, who’s got the button? Investigations, but don’t ask kids to count them

“Find a button. Look carefully at your button. What are some words that describe your button? List as many as you can.”

This was an Investigations assignment in the first grade last week.

We here at the Pelham Math Committee aren’t anti-button. On the contrary, we’re big fans of buttons. But in this use of buttons, we have one fundamental question: Where’s the math? The the Investigations’ button assignment, straight from the book, is pictured at right.

And an assignment using buttons from Singapore math, also for first grade, is the second one shown at right.

Now, which workbook is teaching math?

We’ll say one thing. The Investigations kids are at least ready for the button assignment in first grade, since they do the same exercise with buttons, in kindergarten. Click here to see the Kindergarten unit for Investigations, with buttons listed on page one.

The students in Pelham’s first grade get to write out adjectives in math class. The kids in Scarsdale, Dobbs Ferry and a growing number of districts in the state and around the country get to think about counting buttons and learn some math.

Pelham Math Committee note: After the great calculator debate last week, the central administration said that parents should bring up questions they have about assignments with classroom teachers before discussing issues more broadly, say online. This was a complete u-turn for the district, which has for the past six months said curriculum debates should not be brought into our classrooms. We agree with the administration before its flip-flop. These are not debates for the classroom, and the Pelham Math Committee will not bring them there. Pelham’s outstanding teachers did not write Investigations. It’s the tool they have been given. We want to give them a much better one, one that is world class.

The district’s other claim, “that we don’t follow that” particular bad practice, is now being repeated so often—in fact, whenever an example of bad practice comes up—we wonder why we’re using a curriculum that forces us to abandon so much of what it mandates.

Coming later this week, another Investigations moment: The fourth grade kids are taught in a joint homework assignment with mom and dad why the right way to do subtraction is wrong (and mom and dad are too).

If you want the highest quality math for the children of Pelham, click here to see and sign the petition to replace Investigations. For copy-and-paste fans, here’s the url:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/pelhammath/

Visit us at PelhamMath.com.