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Lesson Plan

More Words, More Problems

Are your students struggling with multiplication when it comes to word problems? In this lesson, students will see multiplication problems as a comparison and use word problems to create multiplication equations.
Grade:
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Learning Objectives

Students will understand how to interpret a multiplication equation as a comparison and interpret word problems as multiplication equations.

Introduction

(5 minutes)
  • Review the commutative property of multiplication with students.
  • write 12x9 and 9x12 on the board. Create a visual representation of these problems by making 12 groups of 9 under the first problem and 9 groups of 12 under the second.
  • Ask students if these problems are the same and if the order matters.
  • Then ask students to look at the models and explain how they compare and differ. Tell them that though both equal 108, the models have a different number of sets.
  • Explain to the class that the order of the problem doesn't matter but the comparisons between the models do.