How To Teach Area Model Division - Tarheelstate Teacher

9) After finding the answer to this problem, I’d go through all of the steps again with the same division situation, but choose another starting point from the original ideas that students had. This will show students that they can start the problem in a variety of ways (whatever initially makes sense to them), and that it is possible to do so while finding the same quotient.

One tip/strategy that I’ve found useful is to have students create a “cheat sheet” of multiples of the divisor before starting the problem—and especially if they cannot quickly come up with multiplication facts for the divisor based on their multiplication fact knowledge. (You may want to call this an “easy fact” sheet or a “help sheet” if you do not want to call it a “cheat sheet.” I just explain to students that it’s not really cheating when it comes out of your own head.)

I encourage my students to use “easy” multiplication facts to begin “taking away” from the dividend. Rather than spending tons of time adding up multiples (mentally or on paper) or trying to get as close as possible to the dividend, students use the facts that come easiest to them and just get moving.

The area model allows us to break the dividend into manageable chunks, “take away” the amount that makes sense to us, and keep moving. I regularly explain to my students that if they just get started in the first block (partial quotient), the next block will be easier.

Some example “cheat sheet” numbers for our example problem would be:

6 x 10 = 60

6 x 100 = 600

6 x 5 = 30

6 x 50 = 300

6 x 11 = 66

6 x 110 = 660

Given this “cheat sheet” list, you can also see the variety of entry points that students can start with. I encourage you to expect students to complete division problems with the area model following through at least 2 different starting points for the problem; you can get them to “buy in” to solving the same problem again by telling them that this is a great way to check their work.

I’ve created a set of free division task cards that you can use to give your students “real-world” context for division problems. I’ve used the “box” concept with various school supply items as the quotients. I’ve also included two versions of the card—one set has the 1-digit divisor stated, while the second set is made so that students can roll a dice and come up with numerous divisors for the problems given.

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