multiplication facts

How old/grade are they?

Laurie

I suggest the “Keep It Simple” approach as a basis.

Work on multi-sensory teaching : see the pattern, make the pattern, count the pattern, write the fact, say the fact. Use repetition of all of the above to make connected memory. Use problems every day to apply the fact to real life.

To make and see the pattern, first the most useful tool is a simple abacus with ten rows of ten beads (available at most toy stores). To do 6 X 5, make six rows of five beads each, then count them. You can count one-by-one or, after you get tired of that, by fives (good to do both to see interrelationships.)
To make and see the pattern again quickly and simply, make six rows of five dots on paper.
To keep the pattern for review, make each separate number fact on a sheet of stiff paper with large dots (eg trace a pill-bottle cap and colour in) and write the fact very clearly beneath, then post these on a wall.
To see related facts, do 6 x 5 and 5 x 6 and notice that one becomes the other when turned sideways.
To memorize, say ALL the fact (never, never just the answer) and say the table in order while pointing to the pattern on the table or wall, or moving beads on the abacus: six times one is six, six times two is twelve, six times three is eighteen, six times four is twenty-four, …, six times nine is fifty-four.

DO say times, never “and” (“and” is addition or nothing; don’t raise yet another kid who can’t tell multiplication from addition}
DO repeat the tables once a day — it can become a ritual morning or night or both.
DO repeat all the table, first piece by piece and then building up over time; in order (out of order questions come *after* the pattern is learned, not before.)
DO repeat in a steady rhythm; a hand can be used as a metronome and the chanted rhythm helps.
DO practice with the abacus for real “feel” and with dots for visual sense.
DO get a good old-fashioned book with pages of applied problems, not sheets of meaningless drill, and solve these with the abacus or dots until the facts start to come from memory. (This is both practice for real life and motivation to get those facts into memory)

DON’T introduce cutesie distractors such as animal pictures or songs — keep it simple, just nice plain dots.
DON’T try to do it all at once; one or two new facts per day, practice one table row per day, the whole table only after months of preparation.
DON’T worry about the elevens and twelves — you do those properly by place value. If the school insists, for testing purposes you can do them much later (or just do them by place value in the margin for written tests.)
DON’T try to do two-digit work until most of the one-digit facts are pretty solid.
DON’T do decimals right away; yes, the can be done mechanically by memorizing rules, if you goal is to teach your child that math is memorizing meaningless and crazy rules … wait until fractions are fairly understood before presenting tenths.

“Math Facts the Fun Way” is the best thing I have found for a child with problems. Go to citycreek.com for a catolog and explanation. This is advice I received last summer from Mary MN (give credit where credit is due) regarding my NLD stepdaughter who couldn’t learn her facts. The pictures in this system create a mneumonic in her head that stays there. It also seemed more like fun than “drill” to her and she was more open to learning.

We used this for multiplication/division facts but are also considering back tracking and purchasing the addition/subtraction set since she is having problems with long division (and multi-digit multiplication) errors that are caused by addition/subtraction errors.

I totally agree with Beverly. I have used this program for a number of years when I taught elementary sped. It takes away from trying to remember numbers which can be dreadful for some children and places the facts in a fun and comical setting. As Beverly has stated, the mnemonics that this program provides is terrific! What I did with my students was read each story to them and then had them draw a picture of the story. I have some students who created elaborate pictures and some that were very simple, but they all remembered the multiplication fact better than any other strategy I used up until then. Hope this helps!

Laurie

Some kids hone in on those facts with the visual stories (especially kids who have good visual memories and not as good auditory ones) — but it would be even better to make the visual thing they remember something that is connected to the math concepts. I’ve got a great workbook that uses rows & columns (I forget whether it’s squares or dots… I *don’t* have a visual memory :)) for the visual anchor —

xx xx xx xx
xx xx xx xx
xx xx xx xx

would be the mental picture to make for 4 x 3 (and it is easier to see that it’s the same as 3 x 4).

There ar some other ideas on my site in the “math ” section at www.resourceroom.net

I have been using Victoria’s method with great success for my auditory learner. We recite the times tables on the way to the pool, in the car, before dinner etc.

To make sure he understands the concepts I use the cuisenaire rods recommended by UK mom. These were great for him. We stacked the sizes in a row and I asked him if the smallest one equaled four and the one twice that size equaled 8 what would the rod 3 times the size of the smallest one be equal. He got it right away. It worked better than manipulatives like pennies or eeven dots on a page.