Teaching the grid method for multiplying
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Re: Teaching the grid method for multiplying
mystery
Difficult to say what teachers do as it is not just a one off, grid method builds on previous work, started in KS1, on place value and partitioning, once this is familiar you can build on it. Most children with difficulties in maths have not grasped building blocks or ( in case of children starting school late) may have missed that bit of the foundations.
Both mistakes were common, some lost their place in the calculations, some forgot the place value of the digits ( which is why going back to the grid method helped for them) others just didn't 'get it' at first.
Tempting to say that we were taught long multiplication earlier on, but then I 'got it' straight away' others didn't and still don't.
I am sure you should be able to find some worthy article to support either point of view, all I know from personal experience , is that the grid method is good for making children think about what is going on in the calculation. As G55 says it also leads on to algebra. Mathematics is about understanding these relationships.
Difficult to say what teachers do as it is not just a one off, grid method builds on previous work, started in KS1, on place value and partitioning, once this is familiar you can build on it. Most children with difficulties in maths have not grasped building blocks or ( in case of children starting school late) may have missed that bit of the foundations.
Both mistakes were common, some lost their place in the calculations, some forgot the place value of the digits ( which is why going back to the grid method helped for them) others just didn't 'get it' at first.
Tempting to say that we were taught long multiplication earlier on, but then I 'got it' straight away' others didn't and still don't.
I am sure you should be able to find some worthy article to support either point of view, all I know from personal experience , is that the grid method is good for making children think about what is going on in the calculation. As G55 says it also leads on to algebra. Mathematics is about understanding these relationships.
Re: Teaching the grid method for multiplying
Ditto again here. I taught DD the traditional long division method for CE as it's so much quicker than the grid method. DD's primary wouldn't allow her to use that method though and made her stick to the way they'd taught her, which was fair enough, I did explain to her that both methods were correct and to use the school method at school. School did helpfully say she would learn the traditional method once she got to secondary thoughSleepyHead wrote:Ditto here, DD now does Long multiplication instead, it took sometime to convince her that it was worth the effort!Jean.Brodie wrote: We then taught her old fashioned long multiplication at home. She was resistant and hesitant for a while. But she kept trying, learned to do it mechanically at first and eventually the penny dropped. She saw for herself that both methods were mathematically the same, with long multiplication having a leaner layout.
Re: Teaching the grid method for multiplying
I don't see why they couldn't move on if they were ready. I would encourage them to use the method they are happiest with. The thing I really liked about the Numeracy Strategy was that it got people to think about how they worked things out, we would talk about how we got to the answer. The grid methods and chunking are very similar to how many people would do it mentally.
Re: Teaching the grid method for multiplying
So how are children taught to arrive at the various calculations in the grid?
E.g. That 56 x 23 is the same as 50 x20 + 50 x3 + 6 x 20 + 6x 3 ?
And what are the biggest calculations that are appropriate for the grid method? 2 digits x 2 digits?
Isn't it quite hard to teach a class on the when each individual is ready method? Aren't there ways of teaching maths where the main body of the class could learn new methods at the same time?
Yes the national numeracy strategy had some useful stuff in it as teaching maths well always involved discussing why the methods work and which one might be the best one in different situations? The national numeracy strategy was built on existing good practice. It might have been archived but it lives on in its own way doesn't it?
E.g. That 56 x 23 is the same as 50 x20 + 50 x3 + 6 x 20 + 6x 3 ?
And what are the biggest calculations that are appropriate for the grid method? 2 digits x 2 digits?
Isn't it quite hard to teach a class on the when each individual is ready method? Aren't there ways of teaching maths where the main body of the class could learn new methods at the same time?
Yes the national numeracy strategy had some useful stuff in it as teaching maths well always involved discussing why the methods work and which one might be the best one in different situations? The national numeracy strategy was built on existing good practice. It might have been archived but it lives on in its own way doesn't it?