What is this math homework asking for?

The way that arrow is placed and the different shades of the dots makes this insanely confusing and I’m a data analytics professor with a PhD in quantitative methods. It took me 2 minutes of staring to figure out where the 8+9 even existed in the diagram. Sorry kid/dad.

Howie, great explanation. But for students who already know that 9+8=17, why would making a 10 help them? Can't they just give 17 as the answer? They know it. Now, you are asking them to jump through hoops by figuring out what's in the teacher's head. Bad idea.

It’s taken out of context. The kids would have been familiar with this type of method. The day’s lesson would have been about solving equations by making combinations of ten. It helps a child to develop number sense and reasoning. Not just rote memory

Getting 8+7+2 from this drawing is asking way too much. Go back to classic education please.

This is why we need physical textbooks that come home with the child. Kids don’t pay attention and have no idea what is done in class and parents have no clue what the homework means because it totally lacks context

This would be so much clearer to people if they had added "= 17" after the three blank spaces. I wasn't taught "making a 10" as a strategy and it was just something I picked up. I (and Im a dad too) found the paper presentation very confusing and your explanation very clear!

THIS is the reason I do not send homework with my first and second-grade students. The adult at home all too often discredits the strategies being explored and/or the teacher and ends up causing issues at home. Instead of homework, I send suggestions for math explorations...1of2

My daughter came home with this same homework problem ~2012. To make matters worse, it was a bad photocopy. I wrote "I have a Master's in Math and I don't know what is being asked here". This is purely BS to close the gender + race gaps by making every kid equally bad at math.

It's understandable that, without context, this is confusing. As a parent, ask your kid what "make ten" means. If your kid can't explain or give an example, either the kid or the teacher messed up badly. However, the teacher is ultimately responsible for the kid getting it.

It’s very poor illustrated. Without your explanation I understand Dad’s frustration.

8+2+7 is what it’s looking for. You take 2 from 9 to make the 8 a 10, then add the remaining 7 to it.

"it makes the problem easier for us" who is this 'us'? cause all I've seen on the topic is complaints it makes things harder 🤷‍♂️

1) why yall are taking 2 from 9 off is easier to take 1 from 8 2) why half of you don't do that why doing maths in tour year and think it's something cild to teach

This is how I intuitively do addition of large numbers in my head, it just looks a little silly doing it with single digit numbers. And I get the dad's confusion since anyone over the age of 30 likely didn't get taught this way, so the concept of 'making 10s' is foreign to him.

What is it asking for? For the child to practice one more time the method they had been going over in class. Not realizing that was the parent's mistake.

At the age where this is introduced, students better know the sum without this process. However, the example is using the lesser intuitive method. 9+8=9+1+7=10+7=17, state test maker’s bliss👎

Is it a problem if a mathematician has to explain a 2nd grader's math problem?

My biggest issue with math problems like this is that it's essentially teaching kids to do math by counting on their fingers. Teaching to "make a ten" is fine, but making them draw it out is stupid.

Yes, making 10s is a very important early math strategy however turning ‘10 frames with counters’ into a worksheet is very confusing and silly in my opinion.

And the reason for making a 10 is because our whole counting system is a base 10 system 💝

I don't understand anything from your explanation. If I would answer such question I would say use Heptadecimal system. Base 17. In base 10 the number 9 is the max single digit. With base 17 the max single digit is G which is 16 in base 10. 8+9==17 in base 17 it's 10.

Subtract 2 from 9, and with that new 2, add 2 to the 8 This is how I do math in my head, but forcing people to use any particular head math trick is likely going to fail miserably

No, it’s not easier. You’re just making things take longer, but being oh so fabulous about it.

In one minute, Howie literally cleared up the confusion with the problem's wording... :)

I found the question very confusing. I would have written something like 8 + 9 = (2 * 5) + 7

It's easier to take 1 from the 8 if you add a number to 9 you can just subtract 1 and add 10

Make one of the numbers, be the 10. You do this by either taking one from the eight and adding it to the nine to make the 9 become 10, then you add seven (8-1) for total 17 or you take two from the nine give it to the eight that makes 10 and you add that to the 7 left over when you took away 2 from the nine and that makes 17.

The thought to me makes sense. (How about taking 1 from 8?) However, it's just way too complicated if you know higher level math. If I spent so much energy solving the addition of two integrals that resulted in 8+9, I wouldn't go through this mental gymnastics to get 17.

You can teach the associative property using parantheses. That would be a lot easier to understand than this word salad problem.

What grade level is this student? Seems a bit tedious for younger students unless this is their natural way of doing math.

The english is brutal. Maybe stress a way the associated property may help addition.

What an absolute load of useless codswallop. There's actually important maths to learn, not stupid convoluted ways to do simple addition.

All of Howie videos are confusing (by Design) or it's Math which is a scary subject in itself or its both Howie + Math =

You’re 98+15 example is not the associative property that’s compensation.

They did this in school: You go from 8 to ten with 8 plus 2, then you skip the 2 from the 9 and have 7 to add to the ten. So answer is: 8+9 = 8+2+7 = 17