Comments on: Math Strategies: Better Ways to Multiply and Divide

By: becky

becky — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:44:29 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2UG0YzT2UA
this is by far the easiest method to multiply.
At school we call it the z box method because you draw boxes with z's in them

By: sue

sue — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:20:40 +0000

We are teaching multiplication and division this way in the public school where I teach in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. More kids are having greater success and deeper understanding of the math. I'm sold on the method. Parents are having a tough time because they do not understand it and it is different from the algorithm they learned as kids. They think that because it is hard for themselves to get it, it must be more difficult for kids, when the reality is that kids are developing a deeper conceptual understanding than their parents have of what these operations are about. I LOVE it!

By: jeremiah

jeremiah — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:10:13 +0000

thank you i have been strugleing in division

By: Precious Crafts

Precious Crafts — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 03:00:31 +0000

I'm facing some challenges in teaching my kids division. I will give this method a try. Wish me luck! And thanks a lot for sharing!

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:56:49 +0000

One thing to note with partial products multiplication is that the number of rows you should have to add up at the end should match the number of digits on each row multiplied together. For example a 2 digit number times a 2 digit number gives 4 numbers to add up, 2 digit by 3 digits gives 6, 3 by 3 gives 9. I find this a useful way to make sure you don't miss combinations, especially when multiplying larger numbers.

On the division I personally prefer the approximations technique as illustrated by the Argentina reference above. It is not necessarily better, just how I work things out in my head, so good to teach people a technique that matches their natural instinct.

By: Joy

Joy — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:38:21 +0000

For multiplication, I always taught my kids 'my' way first (which is most intuitive anyway I think), and then showed them the traditional method. By that point, the can recognize the idiocy of the traditional multiplication method

As for the division though, if my kids weren't doing the remainders in their head already, I'd probably have gone through long division first since short division is really just skipping written steps. It's not as different from the traditional method as partial products is.

By: Jolyn

Jolyn — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:33:10 +0000

This fascinates me and I wish I'd had these videos five years ago. We are a military family and when we lived in Italy 2004-2007 we sent our now 15yo to Italian schools where they taught short division. I'd seen short division before, or heard of it, rather, and always associated it with "cerebral" people as the one family I knew in my high school who practiced this method were super-smart people. I didn't even know what it was called! I called it "horizontal" division (vs. vertical) and was completely lost in trying to help my son with his homework, not wanting to introduce the method that I knew that would only confuse him more.

Now I am wondering why Singapore math teaches the "inferior" methods versus these? We are getting ready to start Singapore (8yo and 6yo); we're currently using Teaching Textbooks but for many reasons I'm deciding to make the switch, not wanting them to be behind and wanting the "head math" that Singapore encourages. I'd actually like to teach both methods (for Multiplication and Division)… but do you recommend starting with the "better" one and then showing the method SM uses, or showing both methods and letting the child choose which they prefer? (This is our first year homeschooling, can you tell?

By: Denise

Denise — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:08:26 +0000

've really discovered recently how differently people have been taught the basic operations of multiplication and division. I was always taught long division in school, and ended up learning short division on my own. I thought it was a much simpler way of doing things and I really wonder why my school didn't teach it that way at all.

So far I've found very few people who were even familiar with short division, but I have a feeling there are more out there than I thought.

It's too bad more kids aren't exposed to multiple methods of doing math like you were so they can choose the one that works best for them.

By: Pablo U

Pablo U — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 23:21:50 +0000

This method is great if your kid knows the pitagoric table perfectly, here in Argentina, division is teach using approximations, its easier than the way I learn when I was a 8 y/o kid.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/541/divide.png/

I do like the way you teach how to multiply in another video, its cleaner and less prone to errors.

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 01:32:41 +0000

Excellent!