The Secret to. Teacher Handbook. Multiplication Fact Mastery. Created by Shelley Gray

Transcription

1 The Secret to Multiplication Fact Mastery Teacher Handbook Created by Shelley Gray

2 Introduction Hi there! I m Shelley Gray and I am on a mission to help you teach multiplication in the most efficient, effective way possible. My goals for your students are: excitement about math confidence when it comes to learning new concepts the ability to think flexibly about numbers success, even if that looks different than another students success a growth mindset that leads to motivation and perseverance A solid understanding of math facts in early grades will help your students as they progress to later grades. Imagine how simple long division and multi-digit multiplication can be when the basic facts are already mastered? In this guide I am going to go over two aspects of teaching basic multiplication that are going to have a huge impact! Hope you enjoy this guide, Shelley

3 Rationale When we learn mental math strategies we must remember that we have greater goals than simply getting a correct answer. Flexible thinking is one of these goals that can not be underestimated. When we teach math strategies, we teach our students to be flexible thinkers. This means that when they are faced with a math situation that they have not learned yet, they will have the skills to figure it out. As you navigate through the strategies in this handbook, please keep in mind that although a correct answer is our main goal, flexible thinking is another huge goal of mental math strategies. Overview In this guide we will discuss two aspects that will facilitate mastery of the basic multiplication facts. The first is a strategic order of teaching the facts. The second is strategies for every set of facts. Incorporating these two aspects into your classroom can literally transform the way that your students master multiplication.

4 Order of Teaching

5 INTRODUCTION Multiplication facts are one of the biggest struggles for students and teachers alike. Luckily, there are strategies that we can use to help us teach the multiplication facts more effectively so that every student can be successful. One thing that we can do is use mental math strategies that make the calculations easier to understand. Although memorization is still an ultimate goal, we want our students to have effective, efficient strategies to fall back on and to help their understanding. Read more about effective strategies for multiplication HERE. Perhaps the BIGGEST secret to multiplication fact mastery is the order that students learn the facts. Using a strategic order can literally TRANSFORM your students understanding. When I first started teaching multiplication, I taught the facts in regular numerical order the 1 s, then the 2 s, then the 3 s, etc. This is a big mistake! Instead, we want to teach the easiest facts first, and leave the hard ones til last. Why? Simple! Because when we teach like this, we teach students the majority of the basic facts before things even begin to get challenging! This rapid mastery of facts at the beginning is motivating for your students and will keep them motivated even when they get to the harder facts. RECOMMENDED ORDER Here is my recommended order for teaching the facts. Later, I will discuss the rationale for teaching in this order. The 0 s The 1 s The 2 s The 10 s The 5 s The 11 s The 9 s The 4 s The 3 s The 6 s The 7 s The 8 s The 12 s

6 RATIONALE To make this more visual, I ll illustrate it with a multiplication chart. I actually do encourage you to have your students shade in a multiplication chart as they master the facts. If you are using my Multiplication Station to teach basic facts, this has been included for you. Once your students master the 0 s facts, their shaded chart will look like this. We have shaded all of the 0 s facts. Now remember that this includes facts that have 0 as the 2 nd factor. The commutative property of multiplication states that the order of factors does not change the product, so 0x3 is a 0 s fact, but so is 3x0. Now it s on to the 1 s. The 1 s facts are a really easy set of facts to learn, so it won t take long for students to master these ones. Once they have mastered them, they can shade in the chart, and it will look like this! It s really motivating for your students to see how many facts they already know! After the 1 s, we master the 2 s. These are another easy set of facts, because they are just the addition doubles. Now here is our multiplication chart!

7 Once we master the 2 s, we move on to the 10 s, and then the 5 s. Again, these are both generally fairly simple sets of facts to learn. Take a look at our chart now! We ALREADY have mastered SO many facts on our multiplication table! This comes back to the commutative property for example, we know 10x8, which is a 10 s fact, but also an 8 s fact. After the 10 s we work on mastering the 11 s. This is yet another simple set of facts to learn, because it follows an easy pattern. And now look at our chart! We have now mastered the majority of the facts, and we haven t even really gotten into the more difficult facts yet!! Amazing!! This is where we get into the facts that are going to demand a bit more work. The great news is that we really don t have that many facts left to master when it comes right down to it. Next we move on to the 9 s, 4 s, and then the 3 s. For the 9 s, we have a great trick to use my favorite one, actually (read more about that one here). For the 4 s we use the doubles doubles strategy (read more here), and for the 3 s we use the doubles plus one more group strategy (read more about that one here.)

8 This is so motivating for your students to see! We still have to master the 6 s, 7 s, 8 s, and 12 s, but we know most of them already anyways (because of the commutative property)! Once we master the 6, 7, and 8 s facts, we only have one more fact to learn 12x12! As you can see, this suggested order of teaching the multiplication facts is exciting, motivating, and encourages success for your students! Let s make multiplication as easy as possible!

9 Multiplication Strategies: QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE On the following 2 pages I ve included a Multiplication Strategy Quick Reference Guide. This guide will serve as a valuable reference to have on hand as you teach multiplication in your classroom. For the purposes of this guide, the explanations of each strategy are very brief. For detailed information on each multiplication strategy, please see this article:

10 The O s Facts: Anything times 0 is 0. The 1 s Facts: Anything times 1 is itself. The 2 s Facts: The addition doubles Example: For 2x4, think the double of 4. The 10 s Facts: Start with place value understanding increase place values by one place. Once conceptual understanding is established, just add a 0. Example: For 3x10, add a 0 to 3 to make 30. The 5 s Facts: The 10 s fact divided in half (because 5 is half of 10) Example: for 5x3, think 10x3 to make 30 divided in half to make 15. Skip-counting by 5 s can also be effective. The 11 s Facts: The same number twice (for facts to 11x9). Use a known fact for 11x10, 11x11, and 11x12.

11 The 9 s Facts: Start with the 10 s subtract one group to facilitate conceptual understanding. Other trick the digits in the product add to 9. The 4 s Facts: The double of the double Example: for 4x5, think: Double the 5 to make 10, and double the 10 to make 20. The 3 s Facts: The double plus one more group Example: for 3x5, think: Double the 5 to make 10, and add one more group of 5 to make 15. The 6, 7, and 8 s Facts: Use a known fact. Example: For 6x6, we could think, I know that 5x6 is 30, and then one more group of 6 makes 36. The 12 s Facts: Break up the 12 into 10 and 2. Multiply each part and add the products. Example: For 12x3, we could do 10x3=30, and 2x3=6, then add 30+6 to make 36.

12 Let s Connect Are you ready to get really strategic with the way that you teach multiplication? Join me for an upcoming live webinar where we ll discuss strategies and tips for teaching basic multiplication and division in your classroom. You ll leave with loads of ideas, a plan of action, free resources, a PD certificate, and more! Register here: Ready to get serious about individualizing your multiplication instruction? See the self-paced Multiplication Station here: