Mental Math Grade 6 Teacher's Guide

When introducing a new strategy, use the chalkboard, overhead or LCD
projector, to provide students with an example of a computation for which
the strategy works. Are there any students in the class who already have a
strategy for doing the computation in their heads? If so, encourage them to
explain the strategy to the class with your help. If not, you could share the
strategy yourself.
Explaining the strategy should include anything that will help students see
its pattern, logic, and simplicity. That might be concrete materials,
diagrams, charts, or other visuals. The teacher should also “think aloud” to
model the mental processes used to apply the strategy and discuss
situations where it is most appropriate and efficient as well as those in
which it would not be appropriate at all.
Explaining the strategy should include anything that will help
students see its pattern, logic, and simplicity. That might be
concrete materials, diagrams, charts, or other visuals.
In the initial activities involving a strategy, you should expect to
have students do the computation the way you modeled it. Later, however,
you may find that some students employ their own variation of the strategy.
If it is logical and efficient for them, so much the better. Your goal is to help
students broaden their repertoire of thinking strategies and become more
flexible thinkers; it is not to prescribe what they must use.
Your goal is to help students broaden their repertoire of thinking
strategies and become more flexible thinkers; it is not to prescribe
what they must use.
You may find that there are some students who have already mastered the
simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts with
single-digit numbers. Once a student has mastered these facts, there is no
need to learn new strategies for them. In other words, it is not necessary to
re-teach a skill that has been learned in a different way.
Mental Math – Grade 6 9