Division

• There are two distinct concepts of division, the idea of dividing into equal groups and the idea of repeated subtraction. Since all students visualize and understand things differently, be sure to allow your students to use both concepts to model division.

• Look at these expressions:
  4 0
  0 4

  Many students incorrectly evaluate one or both expressions. Tell your students to check their answers using multiplication. Is 4 0 = 0? If it is, then 0 0 = 4. Since this is incorrect, then 4 0 does not equal 0. Is 0 4 = 0? If it is, then 0 4 = 0. Since this is correct, 0 4 = 0.

• Have students check a partner's division by multiplying. This may seem less tedious to students because they are not repeating their own work. Students may also take this as a challenge to find another student's errors.

• Base ten blocks can be an excellent demonstration tool and powerful manipulative to teach division. If commercial blocks are not available, paper kits can be made using construction paper.

• Practice labeling division problems with dividend, divisor, and quotient before teaching students how to solve them. This helps students to learn which number represents each part of the problem.

  dividend divisor = quotient

• Introducing the Concept
• Developing the Concept