Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion New, fancy long division... what is this?

Can anyone explain this fancy new method of doing division to me? My son is having trouble with it, and these boxes make no sense to me! I have no problem just teaching him division the way I learned it, but I think they are expecting him to show his work in the way they are teaching it...

Our dd had to do this method last year, and I honestly don't remember how to do it I was completely confused by *why* the kids needed to do it this way, but my dd was able to explain the *how* to me - so if you can either ask the teacher or get an explanation from someone it's really not a tough concept, just a bit over-the-top for those of us who managed to survive school learning long division the old-fashioned way

BTW, my spouse and I went ahead and taught our dd how to do long-division the way we were taught, rather than learning how to do it this other way... and our dd thought our way was easier.. and oh my... did we get in trouble with her math teacher.... argh....

polarbear

Can you give an example of this process?

This sounds like the "Lattice" method and I thank my lucky stars our school doesn't use it. I have seen it being used in other local school districts for multiplication and division and it is very confusing to me (and almost everyone else that I've witnessed trying to figure it out).

To be fair, if a child was just learning to do multiplication and division maybe it would make sense, but for me already knowing how and then trying to figure out what number goes in what box was grueling.

Is this it?

Box Method Long Division

Thanks - that was really easy to follow and not that wildly divergent from the traditional method after all - if that is what then OP was referring to.

Interesting Val! That's a different box method than what my kids were taught. I wish my dd was home so I could ask her to remind me how she was taught!

pbear

Looks like short division with fiddly little boxes.

That's not it.. it looks like a chart with the divisor on the left and the dividends spread out on top. I'll have to email his teacher...

What about this epoh?

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LatticeMethod.html