Math Practices

While teaching multiplication I really think that the math practice we focus on the most is MP 8 (look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning). The whole time we're teaching kids how to multiple we teach the foundations of why and how but then immediately afterwards talk about shortcuts and patterns that they need to find in order to memorize and fully comprehend their multiplication tables. My favorite part is always asking how they got the answer to the multiplication problem because it's exciting to hear what works best for each individual student.

 I also think I've got MP 4 (model with mathematics) down! This week we introduced the harder factors, 6,7 and 8's, and kids really needed to show that they knew how to multiple because patterns are a tad harder to come by for those factors. I had students drawing, looking at their multiplication table, figuring out tricks on their hands. It was awesome to see them all come together to figure out how to get these facts down.

I think next week I'm going to focus on MP 3 (construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others). Now that students are understanding the basic skills for multiplication, they need to move onto explaining their thinking aloud to peers and questioning others thoughts.

I didn't do much else this week, I decided to take a step backwards with multiplication. I graded their topic 5 post tests and their grades were shockingly low and their pretest for topic 6 wasn't as high as I had assumed they would be considering it's more multiplication. So I went back to reteach basic skills with multiplication to those students to make sure they had them down first!