Math Skills
Children’s Thinking: Fluency with Greater Numbers
Strategy: Subtraction Strategies
Appropriate Grade Level: Elementary
Procedures/Steps: These common strategies are not directly taught, but as students
move toward fluency with greater numbers, teachers are prepared to deal with
strategies that might emerge.
1. Use a number that is easier to work with and compensate
2. Add up from the subtracted number
3. Subtract the number in parts
4. Subtract each place value
5. Change to an easier equivalent problem
6. The traditional regrouping, or borrowing, algorithm
Comments and/or tips:
- Have students examine the strategies closely
- Students should explain verbally what they understand about the strategies
- Have students write their thinking on paper, which helps them clarify and
deepen their understanding of what they are learning
Source:
Huinker, D., Freckman, J.L., & Steinmeyer, M.B. (2003). Subtraction strategies
from children’s thinking: Moving toward fluency with greater numbers.
Teaching Children Mathematics, 9(6), 347-53.