The Multiplication Advantage: Journey Into Multiplication
The Multiplication Advantage
150 Days of Ready-to-Use Multiplication Practice Experiences Embedded Within Routines Including Student Self-Checking Feedback Keys
Sample Page
The Free Sample Page is Ready: Sample Page 75 – The Multiplication Advantage
Be sure to watch the video below.
Video Playlist
Are you looking for videos to go with the book? Here is the Playlist of All Videos.
As you can see, this book includes 150 ready-to-go days of multiplication experiences… and there is so much more to this book!
Please note: This book is not a blackline master.
Instead, it’s intended for each student to have their own individual copy.
I wanted to create something new – entirely new – and there is much, much more than meets the eye here – although I do invite you to browse the pictures. I’ll include 30 sample pages below.
I’m about to launch something new – and I’ll use this blog post as a space to do it.
This student workbook will be used to launch something I’ve never seen – but have always wished we all had – which is a set of ongoing, adaptive, and iterative instructional videos that continually empower the teacher who is teaching multiplication while also running in parallel to an actual student workbook that completely prepares everything for the teacher.
Essentially, it’s like creating a workbook and then saying, “Now, I’m going to use this book to do everything I can do invest in and empower the teacher.”
While the book is for sale on Amazon, so a school can now purchases entire class sets – each student will need their own copy – the videos will be free for everyone.
So, if your school is not able to purchase individual copies for every student, you can still watch the videos.
The book is already available on Amazon here.
The videos will be freely available to everyone – whether they purchase the book or not – at a link soon to come here.
These are 10 choices I made in the creation of this book, all the way from page layout and design choices to the decision to write the book entirely in PowerPoint and convert it into a PDF…
…so that actual parts of book pages could be animated as part of a set of accompanying videos.
1. Visual Design
The book uses many images to illustrate multiplication, but much more importantly, it invites students to write and create representations that help them to think about multiplication visually.
2. Instant Feedback
Students need to know if they are on the right track. This book provides feedback to students in many different ways – through answer keys, matching pages, and by letting students check their own progress by sliding materials and keeping track of their own learning and progress.
3. White Space for Students to Write their Ideas
You’ll see a lot of white space which is a deliberate design choice to invite students to write down their ideas. There are actually fewer problems than you’ll find in many multiplication workbooks so that students can think deeply about multiplication – and have opportunities to illustrate their thinking.
4. Invitations to TALK About Math
Discussing math is a very important way to learn math, and this book opens up many doors for students to discuss what they are learning. Imagine all that white space filled with colorful student ideas ready to be shared and discussed.
5. Multiple Representations
Students read visual representations of multiplication – and they CREATE their own visual representations of multiplication. We know students navigate through concrete thinking, representational thinking, and abstract thinking – but less often think about how students navigate back and forth (and throughout) concrete-representational-abstract thinking and how important that representational bridge is or how very often it is used. This book is filled with representations, models, and opportunities for students to draw out their own representations.
6. Puzzles
Based on one of my favorite math routines I’ve created, which is Tiled Area Squares, there are many multiplication puzzles for students to solve. Solving the puzzles invites students to take numbers apart and put them back together in useful ways.
Multiplication and Number Sense should go hand-in-hand.
7. Simplicity for the Teacher
150 days of materials that are completely ready to use. Each student should have their own book – and the entire year is ready to go. The days are labeled and easy to follow, the answer keys are prepared for students to use, and the book uses repeated routines to make the process as simple as possible.
8. Simplicity for the Students
The entire book is built on the structure of routines. There are 15 chapters that each use 10 repeated routines that students can quickly learn. The content starts out at a simpler level in the earlier chapters, builds understanding of how the routines work, and then leans into the familiarity of those routines to build complexity and richness.
9. Deep, Rich, Important Mathematical Thinking.
This book is NOT about practicing getting answers fast. It’s about mathematical. It’s about those deep, rich, important math ideas that will continue to be important and helpful. This book has a very clear focus on how multiplication connects to what is coming next.
10. Something Completely Different – and Entirely New
I wrote the entire book in PowerPoint. Every graphic. Every question. Every text box. Everything. Then I turned it into a printed book. Why? Because I structured the entire book so that it can stand alone as a workbook – and also so that a free course can be added on to it. In the months to come, I’ll share more about that piece, but it will create an entirely new category for this book.
It’s likely that almost every workbook you’ve ever seen is just that: a workbook. Once you have it, there is nothing outside of that book to support you.
In fact, it’s possible that the only context you may currently have to attach this blog post to is the concept of a very static workbook.
With many those other workbooks…
There is no course that can be accessed.
There is no ongoing set of instructional strategies.
There is no ongoing, evolving set of tips.
There are no animated videos that give ideas of how to adapt it.
There is nothing to support the teacher in an ongoing way.
There is nothing that says, “The book is ready. Now I’m going to invest in the teacher who is using it.”
I wanted to do something different – something highly iterative – and something entirely new.
It’s not just a book.
While it can completely stand on it’s own – and I know classes will purchase entire sets and use them without every referring to the videos – there is something more that is coming soon. An entire course of strategies with tips, ideas, insights, mathematical connections, and ways to make this even easier and even more powerful for the teacher.
If you want a great book, then invest in the educators who will use it.
I’m excited to share the launch of my new book, The Multiplication Advantage: Journey Into Multiplication.
It’s perfect for 3rd Grade or any student beyond third grade who is still working to finally master multiplication.
While it’s for sale now, I invite you to stay tuned for the part that’s coming next, the part I’m most excited about, which is where I get to invest in the practice of educators who will be using it.
More to come soon, my friends!
The Multiplication Advantage: Journey Into Multiplication: 150 Days of Ready-to-Use Multiplication Practice Experiences Embedded Within Routines Including Student Self-Checking Feedback Keys
You can find the book at this Amazon link.
30 Sample Pages
As you view these, imagine a micro-course full of tips on top of each of these pages – which were designed to make that possible.
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The book is ~ 20 dollars on Amazon. To clarify, we need to spend 20 dollars for each student so that they each have a workbook, correct?
Correct. It is intended to be a school purchase, not recommended for a teacher to purchase out of their own funds.
Is it available anywhere other than Amazon? I got the okay from my principal, but we can’t order from Amazon.
Hi, Diana. It’s only available on Amazon right now.
I got my book the other day. I am pumped to start. Heather Maguire
Thanks, Heather. I hope you love it!
Good Morning Steve,
Do I need to wait for the videos to start the book or can I just begin? Also, I wasn’t sure if it went along with your multiplication course. Thanks in advance.
Heather Maguire
Hi, Heather. No need to wait for the videos. The book is separate from the Multiplication Course I wrote a couple years ago. There will be some new videos that go along with the book and give tips and ideas, but you don’t need to wait from them.