How?
Read on for everything you need to know for teaching times tables effectively!
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It's essential to have a slot around 20-30 minutes a week to teach the target times table you are working on. I do mine on a Friday morning and all work that takes place in this lesson is completed in a separate maths book.
I always begin the new times table by giving all the children an assessment. The children who score 36/40 or higher will use this 20-30 minute slot mainly for deepening their understanding through worded problems or exploring a rule.
The children who scored between 20 and 36 need to consolidate. They will require more practice of the actual facts and associative division facts.
The children who scored below 20 may need additional interventions as well as greater support in the 15-20 minute slot. They may also require more work to be sent home.
TOP TIP!
I started trailing splitting the class in half for times tables lessons (with the less able/middles in one group and middles/more able in the other).
I then had one half practising the target times table on TT Rockstars for a solid 20 minutes, and the rest of the class having a lesson to meet their needs.
I then found that in this 20 minutes, myself and my TA could work more intensely on that group, and even split them down into 2 smaller groups depending on what they needed.
The 20 - 30 minute slot could include one or more of the following ideas:
- Introducing the times table - I sometimes start by getting the children to rank each fact by difficulty (are they easy, middle or difficult and why)
- Exploring a ‘rule’ for a times table – does it always/sometimes/never work
- Drawing arrays/exploring associative division facts (Fact family)
- Times table chatterboxes
- Derived facts (multiplying and dividing by 10,100)
- More than/less than/equal to
- Scaling, combinations, ratio problems
- Looking into a technique – e.g. 4x = double and double again
- Playing the factors and multiples game
- Playing subitising cards
- The activity 'different ways'
- Times table racetrack/dartboard
- Support sheets
- Worded problems (see below)
- Singing Percy Parker times table songs
Specific questions and support for the times tables can be found here:
You will need to assess children's ability on the specific times table when you see fit (perhaps after a few weeks of embedding the times table) and then can fill in the tracking sheet accordingly.
On the tracking sheet, I mark children off as green if they achieve 36/40 or more in each times table. I need to assess their ability to answer word problems through the actual lessons and book work, or I may set them a test with worded problems.
Below shows the tracking sheet I completed after giving children the 2,5 and 10x test. You can see that the children who got green achieved 40/40. If they didn't achieve 40, I wrote their score in the box. If they achieved less than 36/40, the box is coloured orange.
It also shows where 3 children only completed the multiplication test and not the inverse. Orange shows below 36 and down to 20. If they got below 20, I colour it red. This then shows me clearly who needs intervention. I give interventions to these children twice a week, during independent reading time.
I will then test them on the deep blue (solving problems) when doing book work or I might even devise worded problem tests.
More useful things to do!
Wherever possible when teaching the maths objectives, make links to multiplication and division. You may choose to do a 15 minute starter - for example, in a lesson about perimeter you may like to start with an activity like this. The whole lesson may follow a focus on times tables if appropriate. An example of this is a place value lesson on more than/less than/equal to.
Learning Sequence: children (in KS2) will need a firm grasp on multiplying and dividing by 10 and 100 as well as factors and multiples before delving deeper and completing work on derived facts. In the coverage section I have suggested moving this objective to the place value section, which makes much more sense and then will be taught in autumn term.