Workshop: Strategies for Multiplication Facts

Demonstrate Four in a Row Game. Select two student volunteers to demonstrate how to play Four in Row. Display the Four in a Row Game Board 1 from the Student Activity Book and give each player a paper clip and some colored game markers. Use the directions outlined on the Four in a Row pages and describe each step and the rules as the players demonstrate playing the game. Once one of the players has won, clarify any questions and direct students to play the game with the same board with a partner. While students are playing, observe strategies students are using to solve the multiplication facts and watch for facts they are avoiding because they have not developed a solution strategy.

Show Fact Strategies. As students finish their game ask them to complete Self-Check: Questions 1–8 in the Student Activity Book. These questions give you and your students an opportunity to document the strategies students are using to solve the multiplication facts. This information will be helpful as students select practice from the Workshop Menu and as students are developing fluent strategies in Units 9–13. Ask students to review their responses to Self-Check: Questions 1–8 and focus their attention on those facts for which they do not yet have a strategy or their strategy is not efficient.

Set Up the Workshop. Display and refer students to the Workshop Menu on the Multiplication Facts Strategies pages in the Student Activity Book. Ask students to use the information from their Self-Check: Questions 1–8 and the Workshop Menu to choose questions that will help them develop multiplication fact strategies. Help students choose appropriate strategies to practice.

1. Students who are “working on it” and need some extra help should circle the problem set marked with a triangle (). These problems provide scaffolded support for developing the essential underlying concepts as well as some opportunities for practice.
2. Students who have “got it” and are ready for a challenge or extension should circle problems marked with a square (). These problems provide some practice and then move into opportunities for extension.
   Check students' choices to see how well they match your own assessment of their progress on the related Expectations. Help students make selections that will provide the kind of practice they need.

Review the organization of the Workshop by skimming Questions 9–22 in the Student Activity Book. These workshop questions are divided into four sections to address the Expectations as shown in Figure 1. (Minis of the Student Activity Book pages not shown here are in the Answer Key.)

Most students should have strategies for explaining how to multiply by one and zero beyond statements like “any number times 0 is zero.“ To help student develop examples or stories that help illustrate the multiplication properties of zero and one, assign Question 9.

Once students have selected questions to complete, match groups of students who have chosen similar sets of problems from the menu. Have students work with their groups to solve the problems they choose. Again, flexibility is important. If problems seem either too easy or difficult for students, they should adjust their choices from the menu.