黑料专区

This article appears in the summer 2022 issue of聽The Light, our 黑料专区 magazine.聽

Academic rites of passage are a big part of any and every school year at 黑料专区. While there are far too many of these to fit into a single magazine, let alone a single article, this will focus on an important moment in every third grader鈥檚 educational journey鈥攎ultiplication!

In early April, the BFS third graders started learning their multiplication facts, doing lots of work in school to build a conceptual understanding of multiplication, and they have noticed many interesting rules, relationships, and patterns.

Students focused on building up the bank of multiplication facts, and it is common that everyone learns these facts in different ways:

Some people mainly rely on using some facts they know to figure out the trickier facts (so If I know 8聽脳聽5聽=聽40, then 8聽脳聽6聽=聽48)…

Some people are really helped by seeing visuals鈥攁nd by writing down and seeing the answer many times…

Some people learn best through songs, rhymes, and other auditory strategies…

Everyone needs a lot of repetition before a fact becomes one that they really know well.

We鈥檙e encouraging students to experiment and discover what strategies work best for them.

For weeks, students practice using related facts, singing songs, building physical representations of facts, playing games, and regularly using flash cards. Each week, the students focused on one group of facts, such as multiples of 5.

In the end, all of our third grade students can hold their heads up high knowing that they now hold new tools and skills! While there are more advanced aspects of math to come, learning multiplication is a major step for every student who passes through 黑料专区.

Special thanks to our colleagues, Kate Minear, Sarah Gordon, Andrew Andrade, Megan Glionna, Sophie Dougherty, Caroline Bannan, and James Kotak for their tireless work throughout the year (and their work on largely sculpting this article.)

*Pictured: Third Grade students taking a break from multiplication to smile for the camera.