Tips to Conquer Long Division

After teaching long division for a few years and reviewing the process with upper elementary students, I found that they STILL get nervous when it comes to division.

Reflecting on my teaching practices, I realized that I wasn’t giving my students enough time to practice on their own. Sure, they knew the process when we were doing the problems together, but when I left them alone for the assessment, they had WAY too many questions.

I set out to condense my long division lessons into true mini-lessons. My students still get one or two practice examples with me in their math notebooks, but the rest of my math block is dedicated to independent and/or partner practice.

Depending on the time into the unit, I may start my students with a partner practice, which normally consists of a fun learning game! I found that with long division (especially in the beginning), two minds are better than one!

Independent practice is always a component in my math block because, especially with long division, my students need to just SIT and PRACTICE.

Now since I only covered one to two problems in my mini-lesson, I am often pulling my small groups to differentiate instruction while students are working independently. I frequently use communicators and my curriculum materials to help guide my small group instruction (…yes, I will be working on small group lessons in the upcoming years to share!)

Want activities that are created for you? Click below for some of my favorite partner and independent activities!