I remember first grade, NSW primary school. We learned subtraction. Learned about addition in kindergarten. Multiplication was learned in 2nd but really got into maths in 3rd class with a great teacher.

Don't think I learned about turquiose back then. Actually I still don't know what turquiose is.

I remember having to spell Celery in year 1. i spelled it Selery and got really bummed when the teacher went crook. WTF.
I s'pose that's why i burnt the school down [}:)]

You may need to explain to the principal that turquoise is not a colour, it is a hard shelled reptile.
He is your son, so that makes him male (obviously); it is a well known fact that males only see in 24 colours, just like windows default mode!

Panda mine is in Y2

He is doing multiplication this year but I think they touched on it briefly at the end of last year.

Turquoise is pretty full on. Even if they are doing phonics and the class is doing really well figuring out how to pronounce things they may bring in the "qu" sounds and "oi" sound and also silent "e".... MAY.
But asking them to spell it - bloody hell. To get them to read the word and figure out how to pronounce it - maybe Y2. Not spelling it in Y1

Caveat: I am not a teacher.

evlPanda said...

Does anyone remember first grade? My son is currently in first grade (state) and they are learning simple multiplication, like 4 x 4, and one of the words he had to learn to spell this week is "turquoise".

I don't recall first grade being so hard.

Won't his IPad auto-correct the spelling?

Mobydisc said...

Chris6791 said...

Won't his IPad auto-correct the spelling?

Sad but true.

If infant school kids are not using the latest iPad there is something wrong with both the teachers and the school. They have to be seen as getting out of the 19th century and up to the 21st with gadgets from big companies.

I can't tell if you advocate using them or not?

I think it should be like calculator usage was when I was at school. They wouldn't let you have them until you had already learnt how to multiply and divide.

Imagine all the autocorrect problems with a US English dictionary.

FormulaNova said...

I can't tell if you advocate using them or not?

I think it should be like calculator usage was when I was at school. They wouldn't let you have them until you had already learnt how to multiply and divide.

Imagine all the autocorrect problems with a US English dictionary.

I'm not an advocate or critic of iPads in schools. iPads and the like have their uses in education. However often technology in education is used as a baby sitter resulting in little learning and a more harmonious class room, ie kids doing their own thing rather than getting on the teacher's nerves.


The analogy to calculators may be appropriate. Its no longer necessary to learn basic arithmatic to succeed in the world, we have calculators all around us. The ability to make correct decisions based on figures and being able to apply those decisions are the skills needed. However knowing your times tables is still handy.

Perhaps in the future it won't be necessary to spell as a machine does it for us. It may not be necessary to learn a foreign language if you want to converse in that language as a machine will translate on the fly for us. However those people who do take the time to learn the language will still have an edge over those who don't.

The problem though is not the system. It is society and its demands on workers and then the subsequent time they have for their kids. All kids want is time. They don't need a flash boat, they'd be just as happy at the park making a paperbark boat with you.

What I mean is, schools in Australia have NEVER had a more under-parented generation of students attend than there is now. Even twenty years ago when I went to school, Mum was mostly there to help me. More and more often, parents work and their kids are left. Kids are falling behind and having social problems because of the under-parenting.

I'm a parent of one (soon to be two) kids. I will be trying to spend time with my kids, rather than working too hard. If we could go back to older style parenting, where kids can play and build cubby houses, then they will improve.

PaddlePig said...
I am telling you straight up now, route learnt procedures does not work. Instead, they need the hands on materials. If you are going to fundamentally shift a person's way of thinking (example: any is spelt a n y, not e n y) then you need to do a lot more than throw a text book at them.

I totally agree with everything except that. Language is rote learned. It's the only way. I learnt (a little of) another language a few years back and was disappointed to discover the only way to do it was repetition. There's some logic to it, masculine and feminine nouns affect the verbs accordingly for example, but then the only way to learn which is masculine and feminine is repetition. I did IT at uni and that was building knowledge on top of prior knowledge and it was all very logical. You didn't have to know the details, you just had to know the patterns. Kinda. With English you'll never understand why turqoise is spelled that way, or why we have *so many* exceptions; I see, I saw/I run, I ran/I think, I thought ...goes on forever. the only way to remember that **** is repetition.

Other subjects are the opposite. Unless you understand maths you'll never get it. You won't understand a formula or a rule or whatever unless you rediscover that formula yourself, and then realise it matches what you were taught. Rote learning and maths don't mix, except for times tables and ditties like that.

(Which is why Kumon and the eastern methods are good for readin', but just awful for 'rithmatic)

Agree that it does seem too much too soon. I'll post some pages from a year one workbook up later. While we'll all get 100%, I hope, you'll be surprised by the overwhelming for a year one student variety of questions. I guarantee you'll read a few questions more than once to understand. And this is year one.