Tricks and Algorithms: What Teachers Want You to Avoid, Part 1
I recently asked teachers what parents do that undermines their efforts to teach children math. Two main themes emerged: The damage of shortcutting mathematical practices and the language of negative...
Regrouping is a fundamental mathematics practice. Deep, early understanding of what's happening during regrouping will serve a student well in both math class and in daily life. But how do you...
The number 72 is frequently used to demonstrate deep mathematical structure. Not only does it have factors other than 1 and itself (it is composite, or not prime), it has quite a lot of them, and its...
The area model is one way of organizing our place-value calculations while completing a multi-step multiplication problem. Just like any other multiplication "method" or "algorithm," the area model...
"Show your work." A common theme on math worksheets and tests. Yet, despite the frequent refrain, it's actually quite difficult for teachers to describe what good examples of "showing work" actually...
I'm seeing multiplication tables like this in more and more schools. Each product is made up of the number of squares it represents. When would you use an area model? What does it represent? An...
