Wednesday, July 30, 2014

"Japanese" Multiplication

I found a really cool video with an alternate method of multiplication that I haven't seen in schools before. This method would greatly benefit visual-spatial learners or just those struggling with current multiplication methods in general. Check out the video here and let me know what you think! Some may suggest that it's more complicated than necessary once you get into two and three digit numbers, and this may be the case for some students, but for those looking for a different option, this is a great one!





Another method known as "lattice multiplication" is somewhat comparable to Japanese Multiplication. Check it out here!


1 comment:

  1. I have seen some of my friend's parents quickly calculating this out this way and always wondered about it. The video was well made and explained the system very well. I can see how some students may be confused at first especially if they are used to traditional drill multiplication work. However, once you get the hang of the system it is quite straight forward. This would be very useful to students that struggle with memorizing facts. I found it easier to grasp when I labelled my sticks with place holders of 1000s, 100s and 10s etc. This made the regrouping question a lot easier. This is a new strategy that I will be using with my students in September. Thanks so much for sharing.

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