Math Strategy: Using Familiar Facts

Math strategy: Using familiar facts 

Math strand: Number Sense and Numeration - Multiplication and Division









Overview:
Using this multiplication and division strategy, students use a known fact that is closely related to the unknown fact to help them solve the equation. For instance, the student who forgets the answer to 6 x 7 uses a known fact such as 5 x 7, and then adds on one more group of 7.




How this supports student learning:
This strategy builds on students’ prior knowledge to determine unknown facts. Students develop efficient strategies for fact retrieval when being encouraged to use reasoning skills and look for patterns and relationships between numbers. A student learns certain number facts before others, and they can use such known facts to derive answers for unknown facts. The most known facts are 1x, 2x, 3x, 5x, 10x and their doubles. So, if a student knows their 2x facts and they get a question like 4x6=? they can think… 2x6=12 so 4x6=24 since 4 is the double of 2.


Where to next?
Encourage students to look for familiar facts hidden within multi-digit multiplication questions and combine other strategies they have learned. See example below:




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