• Category: addition and subtraction, differentiation, IEPs, learning disabled, multiplication facts, Tucson Festival of Books, University of Arizona, word math
• Published Dated: December 28, 2010
• Written by: Susan

I received word that my third book, Five Times Five Is Not Ten: Make Multiplication Easy was selected for participation in the University of Arizona’s Alumni Authors tent at the 2011 Tucson Festival of Books.

The event takes place March 12-13, but I have not been assigned a time yet. I plan to talk about the benefits of Five Times Five Is Not Ten, show how it is different than other multiplication practice books, and explain how both teacher and parents can use it to help children become automatic or fluent with multiplication facts. Students need to memorize math facts to be able to succeed in higher level math.

Five Times Five Is Not Ten introduces the multiplication facts with various strategies, and then the facts are practiced throughout the book. New learners would start at the beginning of the book, and children who already know some of the facts could be placed at an appropriate place for their level. The record-keeping pages show where to start in the book, and can be used to monitor progress as well. This book is perfect for teachers who are using differentiation in their classrooms, and special education teachers can use this material to satisfy IEP goals in math. The strategies and math facts program were originally created to help my learning disabled and cognitively handicapped students learn, but all students benefit from learning techniques to memorize math facts.

There are lots of practice pages to review taught facts. Not all students will need to do all of the pages. Another added feature is that some of the pages have review of some addition and subtraction facts. For example, when 7×8 and 8×7 are introduced, there is a practice section with 8+7, 7+8, 8-7, 8+8, and 7-7 mixed in so that students need to focus on the what the fact sign is, and so that the addition and subtraction facts are practiced while they learn the new multiplication facts.