Multi-digit Multiplication Methods

Last week, students practiced multi-digit multiplication using the traditional method.  Today, Mrs. Banspach brought us her middle school perspective on this topic.  The traditional method is the one most commonly used here at school and at home when students ask their parents for help.  It's great when taking a timed quiz (which our district requires,) and it's efficient when students are working on multi-step word problems.

The second method we looked at today is sometimes referred to as partial products and sometimes it's called the area model.  It's easier to show you this method than to explain it in words, so take a look at the following short video.

We'll continue to practice this next week.  Mrs. Banspach showed us how middle school math teachers use this method when teaching algebra.  They report that students who learned this in elementary school have an easier time understanding the structure of algebraic equations.

Production note:  Thanks to Jake, my cameraman today.  He got it in one take.  :)