This activity is designed to help students understand what occurs in the division process, rather than just following prescribed steps.
Additional Resources
Divide and Ride by Stuart Murphy deals with interpreting remainders.
Teach this method of division to your students before the traditional algorithm. It shows what occurs in the division process rather than just prescribing steps to follow. Students should have worked with multiplication patterns like:
6 x 2 = 12
6 x 20 = 120
6 x 200 = 1200
Students should have explored division with Base Ten Blocks as shown on the accompanying page.
1. Demonstrate a positive learning attitude toward mathematics.
2. Become mathematical problem solvers.
6. Represent mathematical situations.
Invitation to Learn
Pose a problem such as, "My library book has 382 pages. I have three weeks
before I need to return it. How many pages do I need to read each week to finish
it in time?" Let the students work on this for 10-15 minutes and share
some of the strategies they used to figure it out. This can act as a pretest
to see how much your students know about division.
Instructional Procedures
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 |
. | . | . |
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 |
/// |
/// |
/// |
382 |
|
- 3 |
1 page each week, subtract 3 pages altogether |
379 |
(pages left to read) |
- 3 |
1 page each week, subtract 3 pages altogether |
376 |
(pages left to read) |
- 3 |
1 page each week, subtract 3 pages altogether |
373 | (pages left to read) |
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 |
100 |
100 |
|
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 |
100 |
100 10 10 7 |
100 |
Curriculum Integration
Math/Science--Use the Math by Hand Application for the TI-73 calculator
to demonstrate the same process.
Possible Extensions/Adaptations
Use this activity to begin discussing different ways of interpreting remainders.
Because students are coming up with different problem situations, their remainders
may be interpreted differently. Did you need to ignore it, round up, or report
it as a fraction or decimal?
Homework & Family Connections
Many parents have not seen this strategy for division. Have the students explain
it to their parents. Let the students know that they are to practice this strategy
alone and not look at the traditional algorithm yet.
Give the students a number sentence such as 413 ÷ 8. Have them write a word problem for the number sentence, and identify which number is the dividend and which is the divisor. Tell students to solve the problem and explain the steps they used. Have them name the quotient and remainder, and explain what the remainder means in the solution.