Back to the Basics

One much needed multiplication session, turned into many, many more.

As a City Year Corps Member, I regularly tutor and mentor kids from the Boston area. One day in an afterschool program, I was helping a student named Angela. As Angela and I finished her math homework, I realized that for a fourth grader in an advanced-work class, Angela's multiplication skills should have been MUCH better. So we started working on the basics such as multiplying single digits by double digits. But after some difficulty, I decided to skip the easy stuff and get right into the tough stuff. So we started on double digit numbers multiplied by other double digit numbers. After a little prodding and explaining the purpose of "adding in the zero" it clicked. Angela, who not half an hour before could only multiply 18 x 7 if she used addition, could now multiply 98 X 54 in a matter of minutes. I was literally dancing around the room. But that's not where the story ends. The next day Angela's best friend Claudette came in to afterschool and was jealous of what Angela had learned, so I proceeded to teach her the same thing, equally as effectively. Then, Angela's brother Melvin, a third grader, wanted to work on his multiplication facts, as did HIS best friend Tyrique. One much needed multiplication session, turned into many, many more.