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Wow. I am feeling SO SO very grateful that my DD learned long division the regular way. Just the regular old way.
Also, have I mentioned that she doesn't have to show her work this year with this teacher? Some part of me thinks this is a bit risky, but I think she has a teacher this year who "gets" GT kids. If she were struggling, maybe she would be asked to? She is luxuriating in this!
And here it seems they've just dropped everything but short division altogether - because you know as long as you get the general idea you can just use a calculator (or your iPod)....
Partial Quotients? That's the method my kids were taught at school for two years, right up until they were told at the end of 5th grade that they would have to learn the "old-fashioned parent way" because EDM wasn't used in middle school. Gaah! Thankfully I had shown my kids the "old-fashioned" way years before and they preferred that way anyway.
This is basically just the regular long division algorithm, except with a trial and error component if people aren't good at estimating the quotient. If you get each digit of the quotient right the first time, this method is almost exactly the same as the standard long division algorithm.
When the divisor is just a one digit number, however, there are definitely easier methods.
This reminds me of meringue. Just how much spare time did the person who invented this have, anyway?
But this is multiplication, not division. Is there some ungodly equivalent for division?
Yes, it's multiplication.
Originally Posted by polarbear
I think the lattice multiplication originated in Asia - our school district was parading it around a few years ago as the latest greatest way to teach multiplication. And then, oddly, it disappeared... hmmmmmmmm....
I don't understand these comments though. The lattice method is completely natural, and it is not that different from the standard long multiplication method.