Helping Children Master the Basic Facts Essay

The chapter â€Å"Strategies for Multiplication Facts† provides detailed overview of strategies used for mastering and enlarging multiplication facts. It is suggested that basic facts may be improved due to relating existing knowledge to new facts. The author outlines five group strategies stating that the first four are easier and they cover 75% of multiplication facts. Nevertheless, it is noted the offered strategies are simply suggestions, not the rules to follow. Actually, these strategies help students think of various facts easily. The special attention in the chapter is paid to doubles, zeroes and ones, helping facts, division facts and ‘near facts’, etc. It is noted that fact remediation should be used in case when students are unable to master basic facts mentioned above. Such students need new approach to comprehend basic facts. Therefore, fact remediation is of great importance, because it aims at providing hope for students having problems with mathematics. Often students experiencing difficulties with getting facts, start thinking they are unable to learn facts at all. The author recommends to â€Å"let these children know that you will help them and that you will provide some new ideas that will help them as well†. (184) It is admitted in the chapter that students who comprehend the basic multiplication facts doesn’t reason better that student who find it difficult to get the idea of basic facts. The author states that nowadays the goal of mathematics isn’t simply to learn how to count, instead it aims at learning how to reason, how to make the sense of things around. What is more important, mathematics develops the skills of critical thinking and punctuality. Mathematics teaches students to solve problems and, therefore, students experiencing difficulties with mastering basic facts shouldn’t be excluded from mathematical experiences. Summing up, the author claims that all students should be involved in â€Å"exciting and meaningful experiences, they have real motivation to learn facts and real opportunities to develop relationships that can aid in that endeavor†. (185) References Van De Walle, John. (2003). Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally. USA: Allyn & Bacon.