Continuing the Conversation
Cathy Fosnot
Minilessons for Multiplication and Division
A warm–up mental math string
 100 x 13
 What strategy does this
 2 x 13
string support?
 What big ideas underlie
this strategy?
 102 x 13
 99 x 13
 14 x 99
 199 x 34
Pictures for early multiplication
Small Group Discussions
 What strategies would
you expect to see?
 How would you
represent them?
How many apples? How many
lemons?
 Count by ones
 Skip count
2x6=4x3=6x2
2x9=2x3x3=6x3
 Associative property
How many tiles in each patio?
 The furniture
obscures some of the
tiles possibly
providing a constraint
to counting by ones
and supporting the
development of the
distributive property
The Landscape of Learning
Let’s go to a
classroom…
Cdrom, minilesson
folder (first), 3rd
page
Video clip #53
Did anyone try minilessons like
these, with pictures? Did you
find any nice pictures in
magazines that you could use?
Here’s one that I found.
Grade 4
 6x8
 12 x 8
 What’s the focus of the
string?
 12 x 4
 24 x 2
 A) doubling and halving
 3 x 16
 B) associative property
 18 x 50
 C) distributive property
 D) using friendly
numbers
How could you show doubling
and halving strategies on an
array?
Let’s go to a
classroom…
Cdrom, minilesson
folder (first), 1st
page
Video clip #16
Grade 4
 170 / 17
 34 / 17
 What’s the focus of the
string?
 204 / 17
 357 / 17
 323 / 17
 A) distributive property
for multiplication
 B) partial quotients
 C) simplifying
 D) A and B
For the last problem, 323/17, if
a child said I got 19 because I
took 17 away from 340, how
would you represent that using
an open array?
20
17
-1
340
-17
Let’s go to a
classroom…
Cdrom, minilesson
folder (second),
3rd page
Video clip #330
Has anyone tried a minilesson
like this?
Any struggles with
representing?
Grade 5
 100 / 4
 200 / 4
 What’s the focus of the
string?
 200 / 8
 400 / 16
 A) distributive property
 800 / 32
 B) simplifying
 300 / 12
 C) splitting
 900 / 18
 D) using landmark
numbers
How does this string help with
fractions?
Folder 2, page 5
Clip 236
Landscape of Learning
Time for further questions…
Have fun with minilessons….