[Ellen]

Understanding that grouping symbols can be used to affect the order in which operations are carried out is a reasonable expectation for 3rd graders. I am curious why mention of the  order of operations ended up in a footnote in G3. The footnote is confusing. Please clarify the expectations for 3rd graders regarding parentheses and the order of operations.

With the example that Bill provided above in his response to Steve, the majority of 3rd graders would carry out the operations in the order in which they appear and arrive at the correct answer without knowing the order of operations. Bill, please clarify if 3rd graders are expected to interpret expressions like 5+3×10.

[Ellen]

Are 3rd graders expected to use parentheses when writing equations for two-step word problems?

[Author]

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