Fractions

Last week my nine year old brought home a math test that needed to be corrected for a grade improvement. There was a note at the top of the test that had been sloppily written regarding the instructions from the teacher for how to make the corrections. My husband and my son sat down and made the corrections, but did not show their work. My son returned to school with the corrected test and turned it in to his teacher.Yesterday when I went through my sons folder, I found the test with a note from the teacher. The note said that Kyle had not followed the directions and therefore would not receive a passing grade for his math test.This I might add, was a big unit test and now my son has a C in third grade math.

I confronted my husband and asked him why they didn't show their work. According to my husband, "Kyle said that he didn't have to show the work".

Now in the whole scope of this big, wonderful world, a C in third grade math is not a big deal. I know this. I also know that my son will pass third grade and go on to live out a happy life in spite of not following directions. There is something that is truly bothering me about this episode though. I feel as if there is a break down in the communication between his teacher and us. All he had to do was show his work (and he did in fact do the work) and his grade would have been a A. Now instead, he got an F on his third grade fractions test. Are you kidding me? I guess this is a lesson in following directions and not in fractions after all.

I am looking forward to the next conference night!