Students can be encouraged to solve the problem “another way” to develop their understanding of the model and become more efficient. Students can check their work using the same exact division method, but beginning with a different starting number. (In my teaching, the rectangles serve as a symbolic representation of an actual box or group of something.)
Using and explaining the “boxes” for the area/rectangular division model allows students to connect division to “taking away” from what we have to create as many “equal groups” as possible. The Area Model for Division provides entry points for all students to begin solving larger division problems, regardless of their multiplication fact knowledge (when taught the “open-ended” way). Four Benefits of Teaching with the Area Model/Rectangular Array Model for Division I do, however, encourage students to find more efficient ways to divide (use larger partial quotients/multiples of the divisor) as we move through our unit, so that they do not have to go through as many subtraction steps to get to the answer AND so that they learn to be thoughtful in the partial quotients that they choose.Įfficiency with the area model is something I think students can develop with encouragement and experience, but not something that I think needs to be required in teaching this method for division right at the beginning of students’ learning. Having a method for division that allows for multiple entry points for students is why I love this method so much and one of the main ways it differs from the rigidity of the standard algorithm for division. This approach is more “open-ended” and this is the way that I teach the area/rectangular array model to my students. In the second approach, students can begin with any number that makes sense to them and they are not required to always take the largest amount possible from the dividend.
I’ve found that the area model for division is usually taught one of two ways-in one approach, students are taught that they MUST use the largest partial quotient for each place of the dividend.
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