How do you help do homework when the teacher uses a different method than the book?

MrsRoach

MrsRoach

Legacy Member
My daughter that is in high school has trouble in math. Even if I don't remember how to work the problem completely, I can usually look at the text book and work the method out. When she came home and said that the teacher marked it wrong even though the outcome was right, I called her so she could explain. She taught them a different way to work the problem that was not in the district approved text book. Therefore, the method was wrong so the answer was wrong. How am I supposed to help her and who do I complain to that will get this issue corrected?
 
You can speak to the schools Headteacher and ask to see a copy of the calculation policy, it will explain the format of Mathematical calculation they should be using.

For multiplication Cambridge have produced a good help page here:
http://nrich.maths.org/5612
 
You can speak with the teacher in the head department or talk to the principle about the issue. There are a few teachers don't follow the textbook because they have their own way of teaching the course. However, if the method is different and the result is way off, I would talk to the subject teacher for that matter. Every student has their own way of learning, and not always have to follow tthe teacher's own set of method.
 
at the end of the day, I was always taught that there is more than one way to skin a cat. This means that while there might be a couple of different ways to come to the answer, if both methods work reliably, then I don't see why the teacher would count the problem as wrong. I get the point that he or she wants to teach things a certain way, but if the student has found a way that works for her, then she should be able to use it. I would talk to someone in authority about this.
 
Raise the issue up right away to the Headteacher. I think it's not good that the teacher is creating a confusion like that. It may be good to introduce some other ways to solve a problem but if that's correct, it should be able to arrive at the same answer. The fact that the answer is also wrong means that there is something wrong with the methodology.

The Head teacher should be able to address and clarify this situation and identify which methodology is actually correct.
 
I seem to have caused some confusion. Both methods produced the same answer. The teacher counted it as wrong because we did not use her preferred method. The book that the students are assigned is what is the chosen core curriculum approved by the state that we live in. The teacher chose the method that she was comfortable with. We haven't had good luck with the administration at the school. We are looking at other options for the next school year.
 
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