Hello Everyone! I wanted to take a minute to talk about one of the most common math questions that I get from 2nd grade parents: How do I help support students when they are learning about subtraction with regrouping. Subtraction with regrouping (for instance 72-35= or 241-98=) is one of the more difficult types of problems that students in this age group work on. It can be extremely difficult to watch students struggle with this problem type, and it can be very tempting to teach them the stacking way (traditional algorithm) of solving this problem type. The problem is, when you show them the stacking way at a young age, they often struggle to build a conceptual understanding of what is happening when you solve a subtraction with regrouping problem. I want to strongly encourage you to hold off on teaching them the stacking trick for solving subtraction problems, and instead let them solve the problems using their own strategies. This may look like the student using base ten blocks, drawing pictures, or breaking the numbers apart. I completely understand that it can look very inefficient, and it can be difficult for them to get an accurate answer using these methods. Even though it can look cumbersome, the work that they are doing is helping them build a deeper conceptual understanding of what is happening with the numbers in this type of problem. Providing students with base ten blocks is one of the best supports you can offer, as it shows them how to build groups of 10 and also break apart 10’s into ones. They are a great investment to make if your student is working on this problem type. You can also print out these paper versions: I want to offer this chapter from one of Van de Walle’s books, as a helpful resource. He does a much more eloquent job of making the argument against traditional algorithms, and for invented strategies. He also walks you through the different strategies that students will use in place of the traditional algorithms and why these are important. Please give it a read, especially if this is something you are struggling with at home. I am always happy to talk math with any parent, so please just reach out if you are feeling stuck :)
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AuthorWelcome to Robin's Core 2 Blog! Archives
February 2017
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