Basic facts is still the bane of my inquiry. It's boring to teach, and progress is slow, however small successes must celebrated! So here's a quick anecdote:
Today I listened to one my girls tell me she couldn't solve the problem because she didn't know her 8 times tables, and she only knew her 1-5, 10, and 11's. I quizzed her to see if she was telling the truth, and to her credit she was right. She had her 1-5's down, as well as her 10's and 11's, right up to 11 x 12. For what ever reason though, she found the others tricky and intimidating.
I told her this was FANTASTIC because she would only have a handful left to learn now. She looked at me as if I was lying, and didn't believe me until I showed her on a grid. I reminded her that times tables reverse, so if you know one, you also know the other.
Once she understood this concept, and realised she only needed to learn the higher numbers from each of the time stables, she suddenly became confident and determined. For her it was a confidence issue, more than a memory issue. However the grid rule still works well for learners who know just their 1, 2, 5, an 10's as this still covers a huge number of times tables, and can be quite a confidence boost for the kids when they see it displayed like this.
Today I listened to one my girls tell me she couldn't solve the problem because she didn't know her 8 times tables, and she only knew her 1-5, 10, and 11's. I quizzed her to see if she was telling the truth, and to her credit she was right. She had her 1-5's down, as well as her 10's and 11's, right up to 11 x 12. For what ever reason though, she found the others tricky and intimidating.
I told her this was FANTASTIC because she would only have a handful left to learn now. She looked at me as if I was lying, and didn't believe me until I showed her on a grid. I reminded her that times tables reverse, so if you know one, you also know the other.
4 x 7 = 28 / 7 x 4 = 28
Once she understood this concept, and realised she only needed to learn the higher numbers from each of the time stables, she suddenly became confident and determined. For her it was a confidence issue, more than a memory issue. However the grid rule still works well for learners who know just their 1, 2, 5, an 10's as this still covers a huge number of times tables, and can be quite a confidence boost for the kids when they see it displayed like this.
The grid I showed the student in my class.
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