[Senco-forum] Multiplication tables

Sun Mar 4 16:30:40 GMT 2012

I've got a different take on, and approach to, teaching tables values.

First, I'm not sure how rote learning of tables - i.e. chanting them in a
sequence - works, although it was what my generation copped for.  I
understand Amanda's explanation that she sometimes has to go back either to
the beginning of the sequence or an earlier part in order to 'locate' the
answer in the sequence.  I'd argue that this isn't complete learning of
'tables'; complete learning means instant (or pretty quick) recall.

'Rote learning' worked for me *only* because I developed a visual picture
of the three elements of a tables value, so that I could recall the answer
instantly, e.g. 4x7 (in whatever order) = 28, but also the corresponding
division facts, e.g. 28 is divisible by 4 or 7.  Those three numbers float
around in my head as a group.

Chanting doesn't mean learning, because if you're good at mental addition,
you've got enough time during the chanting to do just that - add on another
6, or 7 or 8, or whatever.

So I teach tables using pictorial clues and 'stories'.  I will upload a
sheet to the Dropbox, but it will still need explanation!

So....for 3 x 7, we play 21 / pontoon / blackjack, and I rig a hand so that
the player gets 3 sevens;
For 4 x 7, we talk about February (but not in leap years...) as being the
only month with exactly four weeks.

Some need deeper explanation: 7 x 7...involves a story about 7 as a lucky
number...the California gold rush of 18*49* (and the American Football
team, the San Francisco Forty-Niners) and how incredibly lucky you had to
be to find gold...

For 7 x 8....do you know the Steps song in which, sounding like a line
dance, they sing...'five, six, seven, eight'?  Well 'five-six' is the
answer to 'seven-eights'.

Some of this sounds, I know, very tenuous.  But for lots of learners, it
works.  It's about developing mental links; the use of pictures (and
stories) provides somewhere else to start looking, when by themselves the
things you're trying to remember are just abstract symbols with little
meaning.  Practise recalling the picture or the story that goes with a
tables question, not just the numbers.

Biff

On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 3:11 PM, Philip MacMillan
<P.Macmillan at exeter.ac.uk>wrote:

>   Tables, have the learner recite them on tape/ PC then listen to them,
> and write them out multiple times with a decent gap between practices.
> The exercise of writing to dictation will enhance recall as musculature
> is being used, and, at the end of the day all learning is muscular.
> Tables are also good for division, cover up the two numbers you are dealing
> with and the one left is the answer.   For absolute beginners the entry
> skill is number bonds to 20 in comfort.  You also need to ensure a good
> grasp of place value.  The major problem with math teaching (a very
> sequential subject) in general is that methods are not taught to mastery
> before moving on to the next step.  Too much ground is covered and
> consequently many fall behind because they lack mastery in one or more of
> the methods in the sequence.   Rote learning to mastery, and it has to be
> to mastery, has its place.
>
> Philip EP
>
>  *From:* Maggie Downie <maizie2004 at yahoo.co.uk>
> *Sent:* Sunday, March 04, 2012 1:56 PM
> *To:* Louise Gibbins <lollipop521 at hotmail.com> ; senco-forum new list<senco-forum at lists.education.gov.uk>; Rosie
> Goodband <member at rgoodband.freeserve.co.uk>
>   *Subject:* Re: [Senco-forum] Multiplication tables
>
>     Sorry to be a bit snippy, but how do multiplication games help to
> improve knowledge of multiplication tables?  Is it the constant repetition
> of finding out the product of two numbers which eventually leads to
> automatic recall?  If it is, how do you know that all possible permutations
> have been adequately covered so as to achieve automatic recall for every
> one of them?
>
> I have to confess that I haven't looked at any of the links, perhaps the
> answers to my questions might be obvious if I did.  But I am just curious
> as to how games 'work', to improve a skill, which ask a child to apply
> knowledge that they don't have...
>
> Personally, I'd have him chanting his tables every day.  Promotes
> automatic recall, as most of us poor blighted drilled & killed 1950s -60s
> educated oldies know...
>
> Maggie
>
> --- On *Sun, 4/3/12, Rosie Goodband <member at rgoodband.freeserve.co.uk>*wrote:
>
>
> From: Rosie Goodband <member at rgoodband.freeserve.co.uk>
> Subject: Re: [Senco-forum] Multiplication tables
> To: "Louise Gibbins" <lollipop521 at hotmail.com>, "senco-forum new list" <
> senco-forum at lists.education.gov.uk>
> Date: Sunday, 4 March, 2012, 11:16
>
> www.multiplication.com has many multilpication games.  A lack of
> multiplication skills is a problem for many secondary pupils.  Numbershark
> and Maths Wiz also have multiplication sections on them.  These both have
> to be bought.   Also  tell her to put 'multiplication games' into a search
> engine and there will be many more to choose from.
> Regards, Caroline
>
>
> ========================================
> Message Received: Mar 04 2012, 11:09 AM
> From: "Louise Gibbins"
> To: "senco-forum new list"
> Cc:
> Subject: [Senco-forum] Multiplication tables
>
>
> Hi all.
>
> I've been asked by a friend how she can help her son learn his times
> tables. He'll be taking his gcse's this year and needs to get a c at maths.
> She knows this is an area he just doesn't seem able to grasp.
>
> Anyone know any good websites / apps specifically for this purpose?
>
> Look forward in advance to any responses.
>
> Louise
>
> Sent from my iPhone
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