<p>My next door neighbor (we are in NJ) is a reading teacher and she works with young elementary school children. She recently mentioned some first graders being given a reading test on computer. The student has to read the test (alone - the teacher can not read it to the student). She was angry about it because she knew that not all first graders can read well enough for this kind of test nor have sufficient computer skills for such a test. </p>
<p>I’m doing my student teaching in fourth grade class and one of my students can’t even distinguish between even and odd numbers, let alone do grade level work. How is she supposed to be test ready in less than 6-7 months?</p>
<p>^ The real question is why she is in fourth grade without some basic math skills.</p>
<p>Who knows. It seems like a good number of them don’t know their multiplication tables. She said her teacher didn’t teach them last year but I’m not buying that.</p>
<p>@beachlover15 and @Erin’s Dad I spent the summer teaching 7th grade math in a summer school, and most of my kids (many who had already repeated grades before) still did not know multiplication tables. In fact, most of them were still counting on their fingers for even basic addition and subtraction. For a lot of these kids, as long as they show up at summer school, they get pushed through to the next grade even if they are still lacking the most basic skills they need. Eventually, they just drop out because there’s no way for them to keep up. It’s a travesty</p>
<p>"She said her teacher didn’t teach them last year but I’m not buying that. "
It’s possible that this is somewhat true. Some teachers expect this to be learned at home, with the parents drilling the kids. They feel they are too busy teaching higher level skills to bother with memorization drills. That actually works fine, <em>if</em> all the families are on board with it. I would guess in many public schools it would leave a lot of kids behind.</p>
<p>I am not sure what has happened with common core, but prior to that, some states had backed away from the traditional requirement that 3rd graders memorize the multiplication tables through x12. </p>
<p>I looked up the common core standard. “By the end of Grade 3, know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers”.</p>
<p>So, the common core is a bit watered down, but at least there are expectations that kids will memorize the tables. Not sure why they feel that today’s 3rd graders can’t memorize the traditional up through x12 tables, or what they’ll do when they are confronted with “dozen”.</p>
<p>I’m 21 and if I could do it, they can.</p>
<p>Find yourself some 5th graders who are ostensibly well instructed and ask “what’s 7 x 9” or “what’s 6 x 3” and you’ll know all you need to know about modern education techniques. If you’re lucky enough to find one who knows, it’ll take a count of four or five, or maybe longer, to get the answer. Its not acceptable. </p>
<p>In my elementary school, we were expected to memorize through x12 in 3rd grade. I remember my parents quizzing me at home. I don’t recall how much time was spent on it at school. But I do know that the kids mastered it pretty well, because we were called up and quizzed orally in front of the entire class. We’re talking about 120 facts here, if we exclude the obvious ones. </p>
<p>Our public schools do make the kids memorize the tables and the tests are timed, so they need to know the answers reasonably quickly.</p>
<p>It’s not uncommon for kids to be required to memorize the state capitals. One can argue about whether that is worthwhile, but I’ve never heard someone say it’s just too hard or just too much to expect, or cannot be accomplished by the end of elementary school. (I personally have never needed to know where the governments of most states are located, but I do mental math every day). </p>
<p>Remember that by the percentages, some of these kids end up in college and can’t do things like figure out that halfway between 40 and 60 on a graph is 50 not 45 :(</p>