DS has to re-do Math homework......

[MELSMICE]

Here, a 70% is a D

A 93-100
B 85-92
C 77-84
D 70-76
F <69%

70 is a C in our neck of the woods.

 

[Magic Mom]

Strange. Maybe elementary school is different? See my link above to Wikipedia. I'm also currently in college and 70% is a C.

Nope, my university also grades on that scale and so do the local high schools. The schools in the last area we lived in before the Army moved us also graded on that scale.

 

[hentob]

I think the point is that the child did not follow instructions. And it's not only following instructions, it's LISTENING to the instructions, and taking responsibility for writing down instructions if you cannot remember them. It's all part of the whole learning thing.

True. But a wonderful thing has been discovered because of this The student can work ahead. So why not give him the next assignment in the book

How unproductive to make him repeat the same assignment (if he got everything correct).

 

[hentob]

70 is a C in our neck of the woods.

Wow. I am assuming that a 90 is still an A then

That would be nice. 92 starts the dreaded B here.

 

[Magic Mom]

Wow. I am assuming that a 90 is still an A then

That would be nice. 92 starts the dreaded B here.

I wish they would change it back here too.

 

[RitaZ.]

Nothing like holding a child back

No wonder we are ranked so low in math as a country. We should be encouraging our children to work to their FULLEST potential. If he can do the entire packet, GO FOR IT!

The teacher should be pushing him forward and not holding him back.

I totally agree with you. It's beyond silly.

 

[bethbuchall]

Ok, so I was completely wrong about my children's high school grading system.

We never see letter grades here, only the number 0-98. The quality points are not on a 4.0 scale either, so I don't know what exactly gets reported to colleges.

For "regular" courses, a 100-95 is 9 quality points, 94-90 is 8 quality points, 89-85 is 7, 84-80 is 6, 79-75 is 5, 74-70 is 4, 69-65 is 3, and anything lower is 0. The "honors" courses are the same except each range is two quality points higher, and the AP courses are 2 points higher than the honors courses. Quality points are used for class ranking. The GPA is reported as the average of all courses except PE (0-100).

And I definitely agree that this child should be allowed to go ahead in math.

 

[palavra]

Most schools in the USA have 70% as a D. I don't know what else to tell you.

Believe me, I am pro teacher. Check out my past posts. But it kills me when certain colleagues pull the God Complex. It happens. I am strict. But I am also a human that makes mistakes. A 30% point drop for a mistake

I would NEVER punish a student who can work ahead with ease. I would recognize the gift and start molding my clay It might be more work for me as a teacher, but that is my job.

Push them, teachers!! Give the OP's son the next assignment. He is ready to move ahead.

no, many schools have the following scale 90-100=A
80-89=B, 70-79=C, 60-69=D

 

[onelilspark]

It's not the end of the world. When I was in 4th grade my teacher gave us a workbook (I don't remember what the subject was) and told us the first day of school that our homework was to complete the whole thing. I did. So did one of my friends. The rest of the class didn't. It didn't kill me. And I always worked ahead in my math classes throughout school (I was good at math, when I got bored in class, I worked ahead.) I did have to re-do some problems, not a big deal.

 

[ols386]

True. But a wonderful thing has been discovered because of this The student can work ahead. So why not give him the next assignment in the book

How unproductive to make him repeat the same assignment (if he got everything correct).

The instructions were to do the first 5 on each page, not all of them. The child did not follow instructions.

It's not non-productive, because next time, he will either remember the instructions or write the instructions down.

 

[palavra]

I think the ones who are talking about working ahead are missing the point. The student's mother said that she made him do all the problems because he couldn't remember what the assignment was. He didn't just whiz through them because he wanted to work ahead. Many math teachers only assign a few problems on a page, especially if it is a review page at the beginning of the year. It is actually counter productive to assign too many problems.

I'm a teacher, and I think more information is needed here. Perhaps the teacher made a point of telling the students NOT to do all the problems. She might have even told them that they would have to redo the assignment if it wasn't done properly in the first place. Many teachers work on listening skills and following directions at the beginning of the school year.

 

[powellrj]

The instructions were to do the first 5 on each page, not all of them. The child did not follow instructions.

It's not non-productive, because next time, he will either remember the instructions or write the instructions down.

I agree, it has nothing to do with weather or not he can do the work, its because he didn't follow the instructions.

 

[TN Hockey Mom]

OP here. Sorry I haven't responded before now. We had to do some Math homework, eat dinner, go to baseball & hockey practice and finish a Math project. This is the first time I've sat down since getting home from work.

I would love to respond to everyone individually but there are way too many replies. I'm just gonna touch on a couple of things I remember from my reading.

I agree, DS should have remembered and/or written down the assignment. I emphasized it was the 2nd week of school because the teachers are signing all agendas everyday until they feel like the students have had enough time to realize what is expected of them. I think before she signed his agenda on Friday she should have realized he hadn't written down the assignment. She obviously just signed it to be signing it, which in my opinion doesn't prepare him for anything. She should have pointed out to HIM that HE hadn't written it down and made HIM write it down before she signed it.

This is my second DS to go thru 4th grade. I've been here with my now 7th grade DS as well. I know what is to be expected-eventually.

For those who think I'm making excuses for him and disregarding the teacher-you're wrong! I thought I was punishing him by making him do all of the problems. He did have 1-5 written on the 1st page of the packet but couldn't remember if he was suppose to only do 1-5 on the first page or on all 4 pages. Therefore, I told him since he couldn't remember and didn't write it down then he had to complete the entire packet (for the record he did get all of them correct and it took him less than 30 minutes to complete all of them and it's an Honors Math class). Also, for the record, he wasn't the only one in the class who completed the entire packet and had to re-do it. That tells me the teacher probably didn't make the assignment perfectly clear.

To the op who asked about parents being able to see assignments on the internet, yes that is a service our school district, and many districts, offer. Not only can we see assignments but we can also see grades and news and announcements. It's a great service-if the teachers update it regularly like they're suppose to. Like you, I too would have been in trouble if this was offered when I was in school.

My DS wasn't happy about having to re-do the assignment but he did it anyway. I've had some time to cool off since first being told about him having to re-do it, therefore, the note I'll be sending to her won't be nasty. I'm going to nicely tell her that I thought I was doing the right thing by making him do more than what was obviously required, as apparently so did other parents.

Thanks to everyone for your opinions. It really helps sometimes to see things thru others eyes.

 

[MushyMushy]

I can still remember one of the most effective tools one of my teachers used to teach us to follow all instructions. I believe it was one of my middle school math teachers.

Basically, it was a test with a list of problems. At the top of the problems, it said something like, "Follow all instructions carefully" and then the first problem said, "Read every problem before beginning." The very last problem said, "Do not complete any problems. Write your name on the top of the paper and turn it in."

It was great! A couple of us, and I was one of them, followed the instructions and did as we were told. The rest of the students worked the whole period on that thing. My friends and I still laugh about that.

 

[TN Hockey Mom]

just have him do the sheets. why bring the whole world into such a petty situation. makes you look bad.

I'm sorry you feel this way.

 

[TN Hockey Mom]

no, many schools have the following scale 90-100=A
80-89=B, 70-79=C, 60-69=D

Our grading scale is as follows:

93-100=A, 85-92=B, 75-84=C, 70-74=D, 0-69=F

 

[JLTraveling]

Too bad. And I am a teacher

Push the students. Why on earth do we hold certain students back so everything can be uniform? The direction thing aside, this child can work ahead. Allow him to do that. Be proud that your classroom houses a student that is working ahead.

Why oh why are we holding students back

Thank you for this! As a student that graduated three years ahead and was still bored, I can tell you that the handful of teachers I had with your attitude were what kept me from giving up on school altogether. You have more of a positive impact than you know.

I don't get the whole "following directions" argument. Sure, that's important to some extent. But what about creativity, innovation and thinking outside the box? Unless you're planning your kid's future as an assembly line worker, getting ahead in the real world is not exactly all about following directions.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Strange. Maybe elementary school is different? See my link above to Wikipedia. I'm also currently in college and 70% is a C.

10 schools, 13 if you include colleges and universities...

70 was ALWAYS a D.

There were differences in what the parameters
were for other letter grades (93-100 being an A, vs 90-100).

But I have heard of places doing the full 10 point scale making all 90s an A, all 80s a B, 70s a C....

But it is incorrect to say the border grades are always any letter grade as even in my educational career there were differences.



Now on this holding kids back nonsense... I haven't seen the assingments to know I'd the kid will learn "oh crap--I better follow instructions" or "why bother?"

Let us translate this to a writing assigment.

What if he is limited to a 50 word writing assingments but b
he writes 100 words instead. More doesn't always mean better especially if the extra stuff is superfluous repetition that has no value added. There is value in redoing an assingments when instructions are not followed.

And mom has the right to inquire why the teacher required him to redo the assigment.

But I'm not sure I agree that this exercise was am exercise of discouragement. There are many moments in school and in life where more (or extra) does
not always equate to better. The writing assignment is but one example.

 

[declansdad]

Also, for the record, he wasn't the only one in the class who completed the entire packet and had to re-do it. That tells me the teacher probably didn't make the assignment perfectly clear.

Or you have some students that simply didn't follow directions. Happens all the time, even when you repeat those directions many times.

 

[punkin]

Yes, your son learned a valuable lesson. Next time he can't remember the assignment, he just shouldn't do it because he might have to do it all over again anyway.

That's the lesson I would have learned as well.