Reasoning About Division

The Old Way

Every week I continue to learn just how much everything has changed since I was a kid in grade school. Growing up, we did math in the standard formats. For me, there was only one way that a problem could be solved. Luckily, that method worked for me and I never questioned it. However, now there are several approaches to take for solving a division problem. The first three that will be talked about are similar. There are only slight changes among them.

Standard Division

This method is what I grew up with. To me, it's common knowledge. Now that I have heard what my teacher has said I can understand why some of my students in the afterschool program I used to work for struggled with this. We teach our students in addition, subtraction, and multiplication to work from the right to left. When it comes to long division, we change direction; we move left to right. Again, this worked for me, and still does. I never questioned with it, and it is a little hard for me to SEE the problems, although I can understand the thought processes behind them.

Greenwood Method

This method seems a little easier to work with. The students do not need to necessarily work the problem out exactly. They make close estimations and work the problems out that way.

Pyramid Model

This is very similar to the previous model, except that the numbers are stacked on top and added together, rather than on the side.

Know, know, know

As is usual, when it comes to teaching, you need to know yourself and your students. Knowing your students is the most important factor in all of this. You need to know how to teach multiple methods of learning because there will be a few students who need a different method. You just have to be comfortable with teaching these methods.