Does your student really need to learn all the times tables facts from scratch? How can you support students who are struggling to learn their times tables?
If you have a student who is struggling, or feels that they are struggling with learning their times tables, then one quick way to support them and boost their confidence is to identify which facts they actually need to learn by eliminating those that they already know.
During the Victorian period Students had to memorize facts from 0 x 165 Table 1-12 x 12 Schools in those days, however, the 0x to 10x tables mostly ignored the facts 11x and 12x, so it actually takes 44 facts to begin with.
In considering the 0x to 10x, including tables, we see that they contain 121 different elements, such as 6 x 2 = 12 However, it is often the case that many of these facts are already known. A good starting point, then, is to identifythe facts that you do know and those that your student is not sure of or does not know.
Multiplication can be carried out in any order so for each fact you learn you actually learn two facts; a kind of buy one fact get one free! By ensuring that students recognise this essential fact you can eliminate the need to learn 55 facts which will leave 66 facts for students to learn.
If your student knows that the rule for the 0x table is that the answer is always 0 then you have eliminated another 11 facts which leaves 55 to learn.
The rule for the 1x table is that the answer does not change; it is the number you started with, so for example, 6 x 1 = 6. This has eliminated another 10 facts leaving only another 45 to learn.
The 10x table is simple to learn and remember; move the digits one place to the left and add a zero (0) as a place holder e.g. 7 x 10 = 70. This might be best illustrated using a place value board or money to allow the student to see the place value of the digits. That is another 9 facts taken care of and only 36 left.
If you can skip count in twos and you know that even numbers are multiples of two then you have eliminated yet another 9 facts leaving 27 to learn.
What other facts does your student know? Think about the 5x table. All the answers end in 5 or 0 alternatively. Multiplying 5 by an odd number gives a product ending in 5, whereas multiplying 5 by an even number results in a product ending in zero (0). Again that is another 9 facts taken care of and leaves only 18 more to learn.
Now sit and list any other facts not already accounted for and then you will have an idea of exactly which facts are left to be learned.
Trickier facts such as 7 x 8 = 56 can be learned with the use of rhymes such as, '5 6 7 8, 56 is 7 times 8'.
Learning times tables does not have to be problematic or stressful. Simply check what your student knows already before you start. It will give him a real boost in confidence and a great place to start.
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