This week I had GREAT fun being the owner and president of a chocolate factory!
Ok, so I wasn't really the president of a chocolate factory. But pretending sure made for some fun in 3rd grade!
Ok, so I wasn't really the president of a chocolate factory. But pretending sure made for some fun in 3rd grade!
We have been using the book Lessons for Introducing Multiplication by Marilyn Burns to build a solid foundation of understanding in multiplication. We can teach facts all we want, but facts without number sense and understanding is worthless. This book has some awesome lessons!
One lesson involves an investigation of multiplication arrays. The students have been working with arrays for about a week already, so they have a basic understanding of what an array is, and how arrays relate to multiplication.
I would define this lesson (really a series of lessons) as "problem-based" learning.
The problem was set up like this: I had a (pretend) meeting with the marketing team of my chocolate company. My (pretend) marketing team wanted to know how many different ways we could arrange boxes of 6, 12, and 24 chocolates. Mrs. Root, the co-teacher I work with, told the design team (aka: students) that I needed some help. So, my design team (errr... students) worked with grid paper to figure out different arrays for boxes of 6, 12, and 24 chocolates. Working in pairs, the students drew and cut out various arrays on grid paper. Then, they wrote me a memo describing the different options they found, and what their recommendations were.
One lesson involves an investigation of multiplication arrays. The students have been working with arrays for about a week already, so they have a basic understanding of what an array is, and how arrays relate to multiplication.
I would define this lesson (really a series of lessons) as "problem-based" learning.
The problem was set up like this: I had a (pretend) meeting with the marketing team of my chocolate company. My (pretend) marketing team wanted to know how many different ways we could arrange boxes of 6, 12, and 24 chocolates. Mrs. Root, the co-teacher I work with, told the design team (aka: students) that I needed some help. So, my design team (errr... students) worked with grid paper to figure out different arrays for boxes of 6, 12, and 24 chocolates. Working in pairs, the students drew and cut out various arrays on grid paper. Then, they wrote me a memo describing the different options they found, and what their recommendations were.
I then informed my design team of their NEW challenge. My marketing team decided that we needed to sell chocolates in ANY amount - from 1 chocolate to 36 chocolates. I needed my design team to design boxes for any number of chocolates. The students were sooooooo excited to work on this project for me!
They got back into their small groups, and chose a number (1-36) from a bowl. Then they used manipulatives to design different arrays with that number. Here is one student's work for the number 12:
They got back into their small groups, and chose a number (1-36) from a bowl. Then they used manipulatives to design different arrays with that number. Here is one student's work for the number 12:
They drew and cut out their arrays on graph paper, and taped their findings to our class chart:
After they completed their array task, the students grabbed a clipboard and a lined piece of paper. They sat in front of the class chart and wrote down anything they noticed, and what patterns they saw. I love this pic:
Tomorrow will bring a whole-class discussion of their individual findings and what patterns they noticed. I cannot wait to hear their recommendations for my boxes, as well as the math discussion about arrays, multiplication, prime numbers, even numbers, "square" numbers, and whatever else comes from our discussion!
We have found this series of lessons to be highly effective with our students. All students are engaged, they are discovering ideas about multiplication and arrays, they are using a (pretend) real-world application of multiplication, and all 4 language domains are incorporated. Because the students are doing meaningful work, and finding patterns on their own, I know this understanding will stick with them and really help boost their understanding of muuuuuuuuultiplication!
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