Making multiplication tables easy
Sheela Iyer
One thing that all parents and teachers are in universal agreement with is that children should memorize the multiplication tables. But we also know that memorizing the tables is something that all children hate.
Following the ideas of the math educationist, late P K Srinivasan, I tried out some ideas to help my class three children realize that learning the tables could actually be fun. Srinivasan had said, “Do not force children to memorize but help them remember by repeated practice”.
I felt instead of getting children to memorize the tables, they could be taught to “construct” the tables and use them repeatedly. This could be an interesting exercise, which would also help them remember most of the multiplication facts.
I had already taught my children the meaning of 2 X 3, 3 X 4 by grouping tokens and by using plastic tongue cleaners. I had also shown them how these multiplication facts could be put in a table.
The author is a Mathematics teacher at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Vidyamandir, Reliance Township, Jamnagar. She can be reached at sheela.iyer@ril.com.
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Very crisp and teacher friendly write up. I had the pleasure of introducing Mr PKS’s concepts in some of the schools in which I had worked. There were some problems at the beginning, but once teachers and parents got convinced, it was easy for teachers to implement the concepts. Thanks for the article.
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