Why is TURN the Tables motivating?

TURN the Tables is motivating because students are successful from the beginning of the program through to the end of the program. Students are never confronted with multiplying problems with which they have not had prior practice. Each section (i.e. The 2s, The 3s) includes multi-digit problems to reinforce the facts which gives students added confidence and ability as they are slowly guided through the process of learning higher levels of multiplication to mastery. Every section includes two, three and four-digit numbers times the number being studied (i.e. The 2s). Students are not stifled by needing to take test after test to pass each set of facts and never having the opportunity to calculate multi-digit problems until they have mastered all of the facts. Students feel great accomplishment by calculating multi-digit problems as their peers who have been able to move on do after mastering the basic multiplication facts.

How is the methodology used in TURN the Tables different than traditional ways to teach the multiplication facts?

TURN the Tables gives students an explicit strategy and tools which incorporates multiple senses to master the multiplication facts. Students do not progress to the next set of facts until they have mastered the facts cumulatively. The most common way that the multiplication facts are taught is by simply giving timed tests. When a student passes a timed test on The 3s, he/she takes tests on The 4s until the test is passed and continues this pattern until he/she has passed up through The 10s or 12s. What oftentimes happens is that students do not retain the facts and by the time they get to The 5s, they have forgotten The 2s, 3s and 4s. They are only retaining the facts until they pass the test. They are not given a concrete way to recall the facts.