How to Teach Multiplication to Struggling Students
Multiplication is one of the most important things for kids to learn in their math journeys. However, multiplication can be intimidating especially if it takes a student longer to memorize or to have the concepts click. This could be that a student does not get as much practice as other students because they do not have practice at home etc. So their self-esteem may be low because they struggle with it, and that does not help them get better. It is our job as teachers to learn how to teach multiplication to struggling students. This will help our students be better and will teach us to be better as well.
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How to Teach Multiplication to Struggling Students # 1 Daily Practice
One of the best things to do when you are working on how to teach multiplication to struggling students is to do daily practice. There are a lot of different ways that kids can get daily practice, but the ones below are some of my favorites.
Multiplication Drills
Multiplication Drills are my favorite type of repetitive multiplication practice. One of my students when he was in the 4th grade. His teacher had the class do five-minute multiplication drills weekly and whoever was able to get through them the fastest got a rubber chicken as a reward. The students that did well on those multiplication drills are still some of the best students in the math classes.
There are many different ways to do math drills some of my favorites are the classic 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5-minute drills. These can be found on places like math drills.com or math aids.com. The 1 minute drills have 20 problems. The three minutes have 60 problems, and the 5 minutes have 100 problems. If students are able to rattle of their multiplication facts off in that time they will really have them down. Even if they can’t do them in that time then they will still get practice and overtime they will get better. With struggling students also you may not time them so they can just practice without the pressure of time.
There are also digital multiplication drills. I made a whole year set for my students because they loved them so much and repetitive practice that doesn’t feel completely repetitive because the clip art and design is always changing. These multiplication drills are available as boom cards so they are self grading and perfect for students to work on as math centers or independent work.
Classroom Competition
Another great way to get daily practice is to have classroom competitions. This could come in the form of building your ice cream cone and when you pass drills you get another scoop on your ice cream cone. Another one which is how my 4th grade teacher did things was the do a boat race. She created a course that the boats would go along, and if we passed our drills for the number that we were on we got to move forward. There is a version of this competition in my ultimate multiplication toolkit to grab it for free click the picture and fill out the form below.
Challenges and competition can help struggling students be motivated; however, they also can crush their self confidence so they are possibly activities that you can differentiate. This may mean giving them more time or less problems to do. The key also is not letting other kids know that these students have things different because that could cause problems too.
How to Teach Multiplication to Struggling Students #2 Math Games
Ultimately one of the best thing to have in your arsenal when you are wondering how to teach multiplication to struggling students is multiplication games. These don’t feel like pressure, and they will give you students tons of fun ways to practice their multiplication. My favorite games are found at multiplication.com. There are so many games on this that help students a lot my favorite is cone crazy.
Some other great games that are perfect for multiplication are dice games and flash cards. Flash cards are definitely what I did the most when I was growing up. My mom always made them a part of car trips as well as family dinners. If we were out at a restaurant and waiting for our food we would practice with flashcards. This helped me so much to memorize my multiplication tables and probably helped my brother memorize them faster because I was older, but he was competing against me.
My student also love dice games and they are one of my greatest tricks for how to teach struggling students multiplication. The dice that you definitely need for this are 12 sided dice. If you don’t have 12 sided or 9 sided normal six sided will work, and they may even be better for struggling students until they master their 1-6 multiplication tables. Students can compete against each other too to see who can solve the problem faster after they have got more confidence.
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How to Teach Multiplication to Struggling Students #3 Boom Cards
Boom cards are another great thing that can help struggling students and that we easy for you as teachers. Boom cards can be completely done by students with little to no guidance from you since they are self graded and give students immediate feedback. You as a teacher will also be able to see what problems that your students are missing.
I have some great boom cards for students who are struggling with multiplication. The first ones are a whole year set of multiplication drills. I love these because students can practice the same type of problems throughout the year since boom card randomizes them also they will not fully just memorize where the answers are and not actually know where the things are. Also since there are several ones for different holidays and there is different clip art for every holiday students are able to see different clip art and find their favorites. It makes it feel not super repetitive.
How to Teach Multiplication to Struggling Students #4 Manipulatives
If you have struggling students the number one thing that you should have in your arsenal when you are wondering how to teach multiplication to struggling students is manipulatives. Manipulatives allow students to have a hands-on connection to math. It also helps them see things visually which can also help struggling students start to see how to do multiplication and the ideas that are behind it. This overall would help them understand the concept of multiplication better than simply memorizing it. Some of my favorites are mini erasers, counting bears, and base ten blocks.
How to Teach Multiplication to Struggling Students #5 Multiplication Strategies
Ultimately struggling students need strategies they need to be able to see the concepts behind multiplication and they cannot just memorize. If they were able to memorize the ideas fast they would not be struggling. So the greatest thing to know how to teach multiplication to struggling students is to teach them multiplication strategies. Some of the best ones are listed below. I cover all of these multiplication strategies in my Multiplication Lesson Plans Bundle.
Repeated Addition
Usually by the time that students are working on multiplication even if they struggle with multiplication they understand and know how to add and use addition. Therefore, repeated addition is a great multiplication strategy. Multiplication is grouping different items into groups. If you add the number of items in each group you get the answer. This is where repeated addition comes in. If students can add over and over they can find the answer to the multiplication problems that they are working with.
Skip Counting
Another great multiplication strategy is skip continuing. It is great for teaching multiplication to struggling students and for introducing multiplication to students. Having students skip count will help them start to see the patterns that come out in multiplication. It also will help them start to see which numbers come next in series which will really help with multiplication.
Arrays and Grouping
Lastly, one of the best multiplication strategies is arrays and grouping. These also are really good and can be modeled with manipulatives. Students can also just draw the arrays or the groups on a piece of paper. This at least will show them how to find the answer if they are struggling and will get them where they need to be. When it comes to multiplication. If students can figure out the answers to multiplication problems and know multiplication strategies that are better than straight memorization.
How to Teach Multiplication to Struggling Students # 6 Multiplication Crash Course
Ultimately if your child is struggling with multiplication and you are not sure how to teach it to your children yourself. Then the Multiplication Crash Course could be for you. In this two-week course, students will be introduced to all the multiplication strategies listed above and will learn more tricks that will help them understand and memorize their multiplication faster. They will also get lots of practice on multiplication and this will help them gain more confidence to tackle their multiplication drills with ease.
How to Teach Multiplication to Struggling Students #7 Encourage them that it’s okay if they don’t get it yet
A growth mindset is an important thing to grow especially in struggling students. If you can encourage students who struggle in multiplication that it is okay if they do not get it yet then they will be more likely to try. They need to try in order to learn and get better. I had an older student in my multiplication crash course that was really discouraged that she did not know her multiplication yet. She was still struggling but I was able to give her some tips and tricks and she improved a lot over a couple of weeks that she was a student with me. She also gained so much confidence over that time. Students often times will gain or lose confidence based on what we as teachers can instill in them. Make sure that you are helping build a growth mindset and confidence in your students.
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