{"id":12463,"date":"2016-05-21T12:39:34","date_gmt":"2016-05-21T19:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/?p=12463"},"modified":"2016-05-19T17:42:25","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T00:42:25","slug":"why-do-multiplication-facts-have-priority-after-3rd-grade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/why-do-multiplication-facts-have-priority-after-3rd-grade\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do multiplication facts have priority after 3rd grade?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Because older students CANNOT succeed in math without multiplication facts. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Am I sure? Yes, I&#8217;m sure. \u201cBut,\u201d you say, \u201cmy students are still counting addition and subtraction on their fingers.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>I know. And I am still sure\u2014fourth grade and up\u2014multiplication. Why? Once children are in fourth grade it is critical that teachers make sure they memorize multiplication facts\u2014primarily because <strong>you can\u2019t be sure of how much help they will get later to learn the math facts<\/strong>. Sadly, your students may only learn one operation to fluency. If so, multiplication facts have priority over addition and subtraction. Besides complex multiplication and division, the multiplication facts are needed for success in fractions and ratios. Students have to immediately see the relationships between numbers in order to understand topics like equivalent fractions, reducing fractions, combining unlike fractions, as well as ratios. Let\u2019s be honest here\u2026those are the things that state tests LOVE to ask about. Not to mention, these are the pre-algebra skills students need to be successful in algebra and the rest of math.  <\/p>\n<p>If you have the students for long enough (at least one year) you may find that they finish and have mastered both multiplication and division facts. Then you can go back and have them learn addition and subtraction facts as well. <\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t get me wrong \u2014 I know that addition and subtraction facts are VERY IMPORTANT \u2014 it\u2019s just that multiplication is MORE IMPORTANT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Because older students CANNOT succeed in math without multiplication facts. Am I sure? Yes, I&#8217;m sure. \u201cBut,\u201d you say, \u201cmy students are still counting addition and subtraction on their fingers.\u201d I know. And I am still sure\u2014fourth grade and up\u2014multiplication. Why? Once children are in fourth grade it is critical that teachers make sure they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":837,"featured_media":12465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0},"categories":[46,42],"tags":[35,43,49,47],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/837"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12463"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12468,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12463\/revisions\/12468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketmath.com\/stagingserver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}