Multiplication / Division

Facilitator:        Doug Allen (Lake Washington), Allison Hintz (Bellevue), Gini Stimpson (ECML) 

Participants:   Seattle Schools:  Ann Ioannides-Bulat

    Lake Washington: Cass Avery, Alyson Hagen, Kelly Kursteiner

    Bellevue: Jan Freitag

Description

The Multiplication/Division group split into two separate groups, but they shared common goals and strategies.  Both groups analyzed the development of multiplication and division skills.  They developed strategies to assess students’ current conceptual understanding of multiplication as a means to guide their instruction.  They also sought to create meaningful contexts for multiplication and division problems.

Allison’s group decided to focus on 2 or 3 struggling students. By analyzing student work, the teachers in Allison's group placed their students along a continuum of conceptual understanding.    They discovered what their students already knew, and talked about how to build from there.  They also delved deeper into the student work to decide where the disconnect occurred. 

 Doug’s group narrowed their focus to look at the context of the problem, and how students react to different contexts.  Doug’s group also analyzed student work, specifically looking at the context of the problem.  Every teacher chose a strategy to implement  from their readings, then brought  back student work to share what worked and what didn’t.

Presentation at the Culminating Event (May12, 2005)

Articles 

Ambrose, R., Baek, J.M., & Carpenter, T.P. (2003). Children’s invention of multidigit multiplication and division algorithms. In A.J. Baroody & A. Dowler (Eds.), The development of arithmetic concepts and skills (pp 305-336). MahwaH, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum.