No More 'Borrowing' In Math
By Dr. Marciene Mattleman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Remember when you learned how to borrow in arithmetic? It was tricky! Well, things have changed!
Borrowing has become the "B-word," explains David Szybalski, a second grade teacher in Silver Spring, Maryland. Instead of borrowing, there's "regrouping."
As part of making math instruction become more rigorous, more precise terms are being used, words closer to their mathematical meanings and better able to translate into higher math. "Trading, regrouping or ungrouping," are now used instead of "borrowing,"a term mathematicians have been trying to abolish for decades, explains Michael Alison Chandler in The Washington Post.
Fractions can be "decomposed" or broken down and number sentences are now "equations."
Forty-five states and D.C. as well have adopted national math standards with more technical and specific terms teaching place value and number sense, although many teachers are not yet comfortable with the shift in terminology.
Parents, if you want to help your kids with homework, you might need a math-English dictionary!
