When Middle Schoolers Still Don't Know the Multiplication Tables

Sad to say, a number of middle school students admit they don't know the multiplication tables. What I have discovered is that they actually know most of them, but a significant few of the facts are pulling them down. Yesterday, I gave one of my students a blank multiplication chart and asked her to fill in the ones she knew for sure and to leave blank (and later highlight) the ones she didn't know. Filling in the 0's, 1's and 2's was a breeze and she was also able to fill in the 5's and 10's pretty easilly as well. Then came the 3's and 4's only leaving a few of the higher ones blank. Because of the commutative property, many were able to then be completed in another column. I told her that 11's followed a pattern which she readily saw and showed her how she could fiure out the 12's by multiplying the digits. That left just ten multiplication facts among the higher numbers which were selected for special attention. The student then made her own flash cards while I made a list of the facts to focus on in the next few weeks. We chose five for her to study and try to remember this week. And today when I saw her, she consistently answered four out of the five correctly.

I'm hoping that this organized approach will help this student to master the basic multiplication facts, and in turn improve her math scores. I think this was a good approach for her, because first of all, the chart showed her that she knew more than she had previously thought she did, and I was able to convince her that learning what she didn't know was not really that big of a job. We've been playing a game that requires multiplying, and every time one of her facts comes up, I clear my throat and she smiles.

Usually success comes when the huge task is defined, and organized into more manageable portions. Consistently working on these little things can have a big payoff later on.