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Home : 2002 : January : 22

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By Dedi

First, Jen, I'd just like to say I like your chant-- yes, as adults, we feel silly doing it, but it makes perfect sense, it uses auditory and kinesthetic memory, and most importantly, it works! I would also suggest using
graph paper to set up the problems (if you don't like graph paper, you can also use lined paper turned on its side)-- the point is having visual separation of the tens and ones. Definitely stress the zeroes-- they are key. You may need to give them problems already set up with the zeroes at first and gradually fade them out. Both of these will help a lot if you any students with special

needs. Instead of writing in the zeroes, you could also shade in the leftover, "stepladder" part underneath.

It also really helps them to understand WHY it makes sense, and not just the process. You can have them circle or draw arrows (perhaps color-coded) to show each multiplication that takes place (ones to ones, oness to tens, tens to ones, tens to tens). It also helps to show it to them split up-- multiply your top number by the ones value. Then multiply by the tens value (this is where the zero comes from) and add together to get your answer.

I have found that this is even harder to write out than it is to explain verbally, but I hope it makes sense. I do know what I meant, so please ask if you need to