My personal opinion on this is that you might be simplifying it too much. It is exceptionally easy to create a "flash card" system for learning multiplication tables, but I know for sure that that didn't work for me and it doesn't really teach multiplication. What worked for me was thinking about repeated addition (at least to start off, then I memorized by use). I think most people would say that the best way for children to learn single digit multiplication *is* memorization, and that may well be true, but I think it is important that we don't overlook some better way of doing it. And these discussions need not slow down work. I am all for a "flash card" set of multiplication tables. I just think it is also important to show that 3*2 = 3+3 = 2+2+2 so the student can appreciate how addition and multiplication connect. Jason <div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 11:48 AM, Greg Dekoenigsberg <<a href="mailto:gdk@redhat.com">gdk@redhat.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <div class="im"> On Sat, 14 Mar 2009, Caroline Meeks wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Hi, What is the organization of this team? Is there a leader or leaders? </blockquote> </div> Karlie and I seem to be the leaders.<div class="im"> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Is there anyone on the team who is looking into the research on pedagogy and about what work and what doesn't for Math instruction? </blockquote> </div> The only hesitation I have here is if we allow long pedagogical discussions to slow down work. The goals here are deliberately simple: * Identify a set of learning objectives, as defined by existing curriculum guidelines. We've chosen Massachusetts 4th grade math: <a href="http://sugarlabs.org/go/User:Gdk/4th_Grade_Maths" target="_blank">http://sugarlabs.org/go/User:Gdk/4th_Grade_Maths</a> * Create activities that can tackle each of these objectives individually, in a modular way. * One by one, create a set of activities that ultimately address every learning objective in the 4th grade math framework. Any research that can help inform this very particular goal is welcome. --g -- Got an XO that you're not using? Loan it to a needy developer! [[ <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XO_Exchange_Registry" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XO_Exchange_Registry</a> ]] _______________________________________________ FourthGradeMath mailing list <a href="mailto:FourthGradeMath@lists.sugarlabs.org">FourthGradeMath@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> <a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/fourthgrademath" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/fourthgrademath</a> </blockquote></div>