Common Corruption: Need Help Solving 14 + 4? How-to-Add Guide Is Your Ticket to Mathematics Salvation

Editor’s Note: CORRECTION: The curriculum is not from Common Core but from “Math in Focus,” TheBlaze confirmed via email with Leigh Medley who posted the Twitter photos below. Math in Focus, however, “supports the goals of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.” The story is corrected accordingly. TheBlaze regrets this error. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/05/10/need-help-solving-14-4-common-core-how-to-add-guide-is-your-ticket-to-mathematics-salvation/

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Okay, you’re the parent of a first-grader, and the problem of the day is…14 + 4.

Image source: Twitter via Twitchy

Looks easy enough, right?
Well, not so much for one parent whose kid was tasked with adding single-digit numbers to double-digit numbers.
Medley told TheBlaze that her son’s school district is using Math in Focus. And it may not be surprising — after gandering at the six steps noted below — that Math in Focus ”supports the goals of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.” (It’s also an “authentic Singapore math curriculum — highlighting problem solving as the focus of mathematical learning.”)
All you have to do is “Find a Ten.”
Ready?

Step 1: Find the greatest number.
Step 2: Look at the greatest number.
Step 2, Sub-step 1: How many tens in the number?
Step 2, Sub-step 2: How many ones?
Step 2 Sub-step 3: Write the tens and the ones in a number bond.
Step 3: Check your number bond.

Step 3, Sub-step 1: Is it true?
Step 3, Sub-step 2: Will the two parts make the whole greatest number?

Image source: Twitter via Twitchy

No worries. Only three more steps to go…

Step 4: Join the ones together.
Step 4, Sub-step 1: How many ones are there now?
Step 4, Sub-step 2: Write the equation to add the ones.
Step 5: Write your new equation. 10 + _ = _ .
Step 5, Sub-step 1: The second number will be the ones from step 4 (“part” that is left from the number bond).