Multiplication Subitizing Cards

I’ve asked myself the following questions:

• When do students practice multiplication that’s not written as AxB? (for the purpose of automaticity) 
• When/how is multiplicative reasoning fostered?
• When do multiplication strategies become automatized?
• When do number strategies become number knowledge?

My answer to all 4 questions….I use multiplication subitizing cards with my daughter whose in 2nd grade so I figured I’d videotape and share.

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My takeaways:

• • It’s easy to identify which facts she’s comfortable with and has automatized.
  • At 1:15– she demonstrates how she used multiplicative thinking for 6×6.
  • At 2:00- she could use her understanding of the commutative property for multiplication to build fluency.  She was quickly is able to recognize that 7×5=35 at 1 minute, but it took some time to figure out 5×7.  She owns this strategy for addition so I’m waiting for it to click with multiplication….no rush:-)
  • At 2:20– I missed a fact when she was wrong (doh!)
  • At 2:48 and 3:55 she explains her multiplicative reasoning.

Five minutes spent purposefully building fluency and I gained so much information about my daughter. The great thing is that it works for every 8 year old…even the ones in your school.