Explain this
Step by Step Multiplication Charts
How the publisher describes it:
“Each set of Step by Step laminated charts provides visual representations of the calculation process, and can be used in whole class, small group or one-to-one sessions. The teachers? guides include photocopiable versions of the charts, ideas for use and lists of common errors.”
Review by Jenny Murray
In brief:
It is good to find material which is so limited in what it is trying to do! This is not a pack claiming to contain everything you need to teach numeracy to a whole primary school, but simply one giving three ways of doing long multiplication. Pupils learn and understand in different ways, and certain numbers are best multiplied in different ways and the pack allows for this.
“I could use this resource in school with some amendments”
Step by Step Multiplication Charts is a set of three large posters and a Teacher’s Guide booklet.
The wall charts are large (35 x 100cm), full colour and on three different ways of doing long multiplication: Area Method (which is also the introduction), Grid Method and Expanded Multiplication. It is suggested that these could be displayed in a public place or a parents’ workshop to provide a stimulus for discussion as well as in the classroom.
The booklet has 12 pages, is photocopiable and contains both notes for teachers and pupil resource sheets. There are brief notes on each method containing Classroom Ideas, Numeracy Links and Differentiation. The pupil resources consist of a page on each poster, and one each on Vocabulary, Common calculation errors and Mental calculation.
I took the materials into a Suffolk primary school and they were tried out by a Year 5/6 teaching head. He commented that the posters were ‘very visual’ but had much to take in and could be ‘confusing especially to less confident staff or parents’. He found the teacher’s guide very useful with plenty of helpful hints such as the step-by-step guide and progression page. The idea of the supplying vocabulary and giving examples was especially good. His final comment: “I feel I could use this resource in school with some amendments.”
It is good to find material which is so limited in what it is trying to do! This is not a pack claiming to contain everything you need to teach numeracy to a whole primary school, but simply one giving three ways of doing long multiplication. Pupils learn and understand in different ways, and certain numbers are best multiplied in different ways and the pack allows for this.
Jenny Murray • Independent Maths Consultant, Suffolk
Step by Step Multiplication Charts
Sara Feilder
Wild Goose
Wild Goose
