After being a building substitute for a building of 4th and 5th grade students, I have realized one thing: hardly any of them know how to properly multiply and divide numbers. Most of their problems comes from carrying over or regrouping in errors of addition or subtraction. Some of the problem is because they simply just don't care. After assisting classroom teachers in the 4th and 5th grade teams, I had come to wonder what could be done in order to make their students more successful with multiplication and division.
Their biggest issue seems to be that they simply do not know their multiplication facts. As a student teacher, I witnessed my mentor teacher using her students love of competition in order to help them remember their facts. She would start by giving each student the 2's facts. The students would then look over them and study them. When they felt they were ready, the students could then go through the facts with the teacher. If the student got them all correct (without using a chart, fingers or tricks), the teacher would then give that student their 3's facts. Once the student had completed that set of facts, they would receive a sticker to put on the chart with all of their names and their facts listed up until 12. They would continue to complete each set of multiplication facts in the same manner until all the sets were complete. As students reached certain milestones (reaching the 5's facts, 10's, 12's), there would be rewards for the students who achieved those milestones.
The students that I witnessed going through these steps and learning their multiplication facts were more interested in learning them because there was a point/purpose to learning them other than just for the sake of knowing them. It's sad to say, but most students need some form of concrete motivation in order for them to feel like doing something to help them learn is necessary. Children nowadays are more worried about the apps on their phones and tablets, who is dating whom, and what current social event is going on at that particular moment.
Once students have that basic knowledge of their multiplication facts, it makes it much easier for them to complete division, as well as dealing with fractions (adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing).
