Basic Facts

So I've been thinking about how my 3rd graders struggle with their basic multiplication facts. I'm also a private math tutor for a 3rd grader, from another school, who struggles with addition & subtraction facts but not multiplication. It has me wondering, do teachers really just give these students a list of facts and expect them to memorize them?

During our education courses, we took a course that taught us how to teach number strategies and another course that taught us how to access and correct. There are so many different number strategies or "tricks" we can teach our students; so why don't we?

I'm working to teach these students different relationships and strategies to help them remember their facts. If you can help students understand why, then they have a better chance of remembering.  If we help them understand how to work with the numbers and let them do things with them instead of simply drilling them (which is still important) they'll understand and remember.

I'll leave you with a couple of quotes/sayings that I like:

"Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Let me do and I understand."

 -Confucius

I do, You watch

I do, You help

You do, I help

You do, I watch

~Steph