Explain this
Turn Tables
How the publisher describes it:
“As a secondary maths teacher and tutor of students with specific learning difficulties, I have helped hundreds of people to overcome their times tables issues. I invented the Turn Tables cards in 2006 and have now decided to share the idea, because they have been so successful.”
Review by Matthew Reames
In brief:
The Turn Tables card game uses a combined visual, verbal and auditory approach to learning and mastering times tables. This is a good activity to use in a one-to-one or small group situation.
“A times tables card game with a multi-sensory approach.”
Turn Tables is a card game that aims to help children master their times tables by seeing, saying, hearing and touching the multiplication fact on each card. By removing or adding certain cards from the set, the game can be made easier or more difficult, depending on the needs of the specific child.
Each Turn Tables card has a multiplication fact on the front (for example, 4 x 6) as well as a visual representation of the fact (in this case, an array of squares, six rows and four columns). The back of each card has the answer. A full set of Turn Tables cards has facts up to 10 x 10. Though the game can be played either individually or with a small group, the general idea is the same. The cards to be used are laid out on a table with the pictures face up. The child looks at and touches a particular card and says the multiplication out loud (continuing the example above, 'four lots of six' or 'four times six' or similar). Then the child works out the answer and says it out loud before turning over the card. If the spoken answer is the different from the answer on the back of the card, the card is turned back over and that turn is over. If the answer was correct however, the child then finds another card that has the same answer (possibly 6 x 4 or 3 x 8) and repeats the touching, seeing and saying before turning over the card to confirm the answer. If the answers on both cards are the same, the child keeps the pair of cards and it is the next player's turn (or, if playing individually, the child starts again with a new card).
When playing Turn Tables with a small group of year 3 children, I quickly understood why the touching, seeing and saying are important, as is the saying of the answer before turning over the card. The children had no trouble realising that 7 x 9 would have the same answer as 9 x 7 but they did not necessarily know that the answer was 63. (Though a keen opponent might be paying close attention and choose that pair on his or her next turn!).
Turn Tables would probably be most effective when used in a one-to-one situation or possibly with no more than three or four children. The ability to remove unneeded cards from the set allows the game to be tailored to focus on specific areas of difficulty or areas of targeted improvement. My set of Turn Tables cards came with a Support Booklet that includes a diagnostic test as well as a guide on where to start and how to chart progress. The cards would also be a useful support activity for older children who are still struggling with certain times tables.
I could also imagine that Turn Tables would be a good game for parents to play with their children. In fact, it might even make an excellent activity for a family maths event where families are taught the rules and have an opportunity to play the game together before taking the set of cards home.
Matthew Reames • Former Head of Mathematics, St Edmund's Junior School, Canterbury, now PhD student in mathematics education at the University of Virginia
£11.99
From: www.multisensorymatters.com
Teachers will need 8 sets to use in a typical class of about 30. This means students play in teams of 4.
