Remembering Multiplication Facts

et us see some techniques for helping students to “remember” multiplication facts by “repeatedly” referring to and using them.

1. Spend some time in every class, asking students to identify the patterns in the table. Many of the patterns are described in the previous chapter.

2. Give 5 to 10 mental multiplication problems orally at the beginning of the class for which students can find answers by referring to their tables.

3. As students become more proficient, focus on multiplication facts (like 7) which are found difficult to remember.

4. Give blank 10 X 10 array formats to students and ask them to fill as much as possible in 15 minutes in the classroom. The filling up of the blank cells can be given as homework. Do it several times over a period of a month until most of the students are able to complete the format in 15 minutes.

5. Identify students who have persisting difficulty with some of the facts & give them activities which can help them remember. These activities can also be done at home.

Activities to Practice Tables

1. Prepare a set of cards, where the multiplication fact (say 7 X 8 =) is printed on one card and the answer (56) is printed on another card. The cards are mixed up and the student has to look for the question & answer cards and match them (7 X 8 = 56). Each “table” (say of 6 or 7) will have 9 cards and kept together as a set and can easily be given to a student as needed.

2. As a student becomes more proficient sets of several tables can be mixed and given for matching.

3. The cards can also be designed in a slightly different manner, where each card is divided into 2 (left & right) portions. The result of some multiplication fact is written on the left portion. The right portion contains another multiplication say 6 X 8. All the cards are in a set and can be arranged as a matching sequence. One such sequence is shown below.