Multiplication Meeting

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 It’s not every Monday that starts in an inspiring manner. Today math was inspired. And your children made it happen.

Today fourth and fifth graders had a multiplication meeting. The meeting was highly structured, this allows fifth graders to lead without worrying about what to do. It frees up their thinking to engage more deeply with the subject matter and translating the subject matter, multiplication, to their fourth grade partner.





The first item on the agenda was to discuss a picture of multiplication. This point is still not clear to all fourth graders, and even some fifth graders are still struggling to describe what distinguishes a multiplication picture from an adding picture (and are they ever the same?).

The next item on the agenda was to solve a story problem previously written and solved by the fifth grader. The final item on the agenda was to complete a few practice problems together.




We are working towards true partner work instead of the kind of partner work where one partner bosses the other partner around. Or the kind where one partner speeds ahead and the other  is confused and uncertain what question to ask.

I saw and heard some things that stood out to me as I watched our community:
So tell me what you know already know?


I heard lots of procedural prompting:
So, 5 divided by 2
So, 4 times 20
No! that doesn’t go there.


I even saw some 4th graders helping 5th graders organizational issues; they helped the fifth grader locate a procedural inaccuracy. Isn’t that the best kind of team work? Where everyone learns something?

4th graders also shared that the US algorithm steps can be a bit tricky.

When asked "You learned two numbers by two numbers?" One student said, "I perfected that!"


Another 4th grader shared that she learned about breaking up the number to make easier problems.


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