Reply To: Lesson 4-2: Automaticity vs. Memorization

[Danee Kennedy]

I now realize why so many of my students lack number sense. They don’t view counting as qualitative. This lessons video has given me some ideas on how to help them gain a better understanding.

I believe as students first encounter the concept of multiplication, it is more important for them to gain an understanding of what is happening when they “multiply”. They should be encouraged to make representations and connections between the facts to grow their understanding. And this process should continue as the equations get larger. But here is my concern, due to required curriculum coverage, we have a tight timeline that must be followed. Natural automaticity comes because of the amount of time students spend working on a concept. For many students that doesn’t happen within the time frame. Is asking them to do activities to help them memorize their facts a negative approach if the student can articulate what “to multiply” means?