Reaching for Math Mastery

In this 2018 CoffeED profile, Alex Kajitani, the 2009 California Teacher of the Year and creator of Multiplication Nation, explains why Kajitani wants every student to master the times tables and how connecting math to students’ lives led Kajitani to rap. A section added below sets out what research says about how to teach multiplication tables.

Play video: CoffeED: Alex Kajitani (14 minutes 48 seconds)14:48

How an Educator Engages ALL Kids in Learning Their Times Tables

Alex Kajitani is on a mission to help every kid master their multiplication tables. For him, it’s as simple and as difficult as that. Alex, a former award-winning teacher and creator of Multiplication Nation, sees the “times tables” as a basic foundation of everything from geometry to algebra — an essential element to moving forward in school. Alex believes that not knowing them puts a child at a distinct disadvantage both in education and throughout the rest of their lives. “Algebra I is the clearest indicator of students accepted into college,” Alex notes. “But what people don’t know is that failing it is the number one indicator of high school dropouts.”

Understanding the fundamentals also boosts the confidence of students and encourages more participation in class, an often-elusive goal in today’s classroom. “This is no longer a conversation about how we get one student to master their times tables so they can be good in math,” Alex says. “This is now a conversation on how we get all students to master them so they can move together as a class.”

Alex went from a lucrative career in restaurant management 15 years ago to being honored as that 2009 California Teacher of the Year and a top four finalist for National Teacher of the Year. The journey from just starting out as a teacher and working his way toward such recognitions was a challenge, but the end result is inspiring. Through his innovative strategies for student engagement, Alex became known as the Rappin’ Mathematician, and his ability to engage audiences isn’t confined within the classroom walls: his remarkable storytelling talent is in evidence during frequent conference presentations and his popular TEDx Talk.

Alex noticed that his students memorized complicated and rapid-fire rap lyrics from famous rap artists within days of the song being released. This realization inspired him to write his first rap song, based on adding and subtracting fractions. The song was a hit, and test scores that week shot through the roof.

It was an epiphany for Alex, and he realized that relating math to kids and their life meant the lessons would be learned and implemented. “We’ve got to stop trying to take our curriculum and force it into the students’ lives,” Alex says. “Instead, we need to take our students’ lives and see where that fits into the curriculum.”

Combining these insights and talents led Alex to create Multiplication Nation, a site that makes sure all students learn their times tables. For Alex, Multiplication Nation is an opportunity to take those lessons and create something that could have both an immediate and a long-term impact while remaining relatively easy to implement. “It’s sort of like being able to bring me into your class every single day and work with your students one on one,” he explains.

But through it all, he remains focused on the goal. “As I’ve said, I’m on a mission to help every kid master their times tables, and I’m not going to quit until they do. And even then, I probably won’t quit,” he says with a smile.

How to teach multiplication tables: what the research supports

Alex Kajitani says above that the mission is to help every kid master their multiplication tables, because the times tables underpin work from geometry to algebra. Teachers and parents who want to know how to teach multiplication tables often ask the same practical questions: what to do first, how long to practice, whether timed drills help or hurt, and how to keep children interested. A federal practice guide gives some of the clearest answers.

What the practice guide recommends

In 2021 the What Works Clearinghouse of the Institute of Education Sciences released Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Intervention in the Elementary Grades. Its sixth recommendation is to regularly include timed activities as one way to build fluency, and the panel rated the evidence as strong, based on 27 studies. The guide is written about students who struggle with math and are receiving extra help, so applying it to a whole class is a reasonable step but one the guide does not itself test.

The guide gives several specific points that apply directly to multiplication facts:

• Why it matters. Quick retrieval of basic arithmetic facts, including multiplication and division, is not easy for students who struggle with math. Automatic retrieval gives students more mental energy to understand complex tasks and multi-step procedures. The guide gives an example from fractions, where multiplication facts help students find equivalent fractions in grade 4 and above.
• Keep it short. Timed activities last between 1 and 5 minutes and are one part of a multi-component lesson, not the whole focus.
• Do not use timing to teach. Timed activities are added once students have worked on a concept over many lessons. They are not meant for introducing operations.
• Build in a sensible order. For multiplication, the guide suggests starting with zeroes and ones, then adding tens and fives, and so on. As harder facts come in, easier ones stay in the mix so students learn to tell fact families apart. The panel believes mixed practice helps students discriminate between operations.
• Teach a strategy first. Students need an efficient strategy to use during the timed work. The guide’s examples of multiplication instruction include drawing equal groups, skip counting, and using fact families and the link between multiplication and division.
• Vary the materials. Flash cards, computer programs and worksheets can all work, individually or in groups, and game-like features such as keeping score or cooperating as a team can sustain interest. After time is called, the guide advises discussing answers and asking students to correct and explain any missed items.

The panel is explicit about one limit: it does not recommend merely handing students timed worksheets or putting them on a computer program without supporting their learning. Timed activity works when it provides feedback in real time, sets goals for improvement and steadily increases item difficulty.

Where Kajitani’s approach fits

Kajitani’s idea, as described above, is that teachers should take students’ lives and see where they fit the curriculum, and Kajitani notes that students memorized rap lyrics quickly. The practice guide does not evaluate music or rap as a method, and no study testing the Multiplication Nation program was found for this article, so the results are best described as Kajitani’s own account of the classroom. What the guide does support is the surrounding structure: short, regular practice of facts that students already understand, with feedback and a growing set of facts. Songs and games can reasonably serve as the format for that practice, and a teacher can track whether students are improving.

What a teacher or parent can do this week

1. Check which facts a child knows well and begin there, with zeroes, ones, tens and fives.
2. Make sure the child has a way to work out a fact they do not yet know, such as skip counting or equal groups, before asking for speed.
3. Practice for a few minutes at a time, a few times a week, using cards, a game or a song the child enjoys.
4. Show the child a simple record of progress, so the goal is improving on last week and not beating other children.
5. Add new facts slowly, mixing in earlier ones.

Kajitani points out above that mastery matters for confidence and class participation. A child who can recall facts quickly spends less effort on arithmetic and more on the idea the class is discussing.

For more, see edCircuit’s math education coverage.

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