Reply To: Lesson 3 – Teaching Through Task – Discussion

[Anne Sheeter]

Right now I am struggling with a problem mentioned above. The sixth grade students came to me thinking they know how to use the algorithm for multiplying decimals, but they don’t understand what they are really doing as they have no idea where to place the decimal. I got out the place value blocks to try to get them to visualize what is going on and several insisted on going back to the algorithm. Even when they created the model correctly because ” I remember this from last year” ( eg 0.3 x0.5using two colors on tenths pieces) they were not seeing how the answer was right in front of them. I really liked the idea of multiplying each decimal by 10 and then dividing them by 1/10th. I think using the green wall task might help them if I used that piece.