Halloween sketch by Catherine R., 2 Methods for approaching Multiplication questions, & Rewrites: What are they??

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we are going to spend some time working on multiplication skills.  A link was provided for the JUMP Math approach to learning the tables; you may want to take a look at that and download it.
On the weekend there were questions that involved multiplying 2 or 3 digit numbers by 1 digit numbers.  In class, we looked at 2 approaches:  one offered by me and one offered by Nat.  It served as the basis for a note which was recorded into the Math book:

This was the note.

After, we tried this approach on another question to see if it worked.

It did.  So, the homework assigned from Monday night on page 41 has been given to a few students who did not complete it.  In addition, there was a video I posted on doing division with more than 1x1 digits.  By no means is this THE video that will help you understand everything related to the topic, but think of it as a window into the world of educational videos available on YouTube to support your learning.

The last test was returned to everyone.  As I reported, there were some very happy students and some who were concerned about their grades.  In some cases, when there is a failing mark, I have provided an opportunity to do Rewrites.  Basically, you have the opportunity to redo the question and receive a mark that is worth half of the original total value.  The idea behind this is to give any student who has gotten below 50% an opportunity to improve his or her grade.

Confused?  Well, the idea behind it is that the student will take the time to find out where they went wrong on a particular question or questions, be able to articulate it, and then attempt to do the question again.  Here is a sample from a class I taught back 2002:

Coincidentally, the topic at hand was Order of Operations, something we are doing now.  The student needs to recognize what they did wrong and then solve the question again.  I have since modified this paper by removing the part where the student has to add a "detailed explanation."

The current Rewrite looks like this:

If any students have questions about specific questions, in order to improve their understanding, please see me.  The deadline for Rewrites to be handed in is on Friday.

homework
-Multiplication test on Friday
-check the Homework chart at school to see what you may need to catch up on