Teaching Division to Students that Struggle

Are your students struggling with division?  Maybe they don’t know their multiplication facts fluency or struggle with number sense?  Or maybe they can’t skip count?  No worries!  Today I am going to show you a way of Teaching Division to Students that Struggle.

Serving low performing math students daily forces me to find tricks and tips for my students that will help them find the right answer in a way that makes sense for them.  Many times, I tell my students that even though there are many ways to solve a problem, once we find one that works for them to stick with that way ONLY.  That might sound wrong or mean, but if a student has extreme difficulty, introducing them to multiple ways will only confuse the child.  After they have mastered one strategy INDEPENDENTLY, then it is appropriate to show them a new way.

Divison has been a struggle for nearly all of my third graders.  I finally found a way that is concrete and tactile for them to understand.  They struggle skip counting on their fingers and memorizing multiplication facts, but they love counting on dots and touch points!  Take a look at how this strategy works.

Simple right?  My students all made A’s or a B on their division assessment after they started using this strategy!  Yay!  More importantly, they felt successful.

Here are the steps that I show my students:

Step 1:  Write the divisor and then write that number of dots next to it.

Step 2:  Say the number and count up on the dots.  Write the new number below.

Step 3:  Continue until you get to the dividend.

Step 4:  Then count the number of rows/factors.  That is your quotient!

I have 45 students who will tell you that this strategy works for them!  Give it a try with your struggling math students!  Thanks for reading!