Free teacher resource
Learning Division through Inquiry: A teacher resource
A real Anubhooti classroom's journey through division, from a bag of dog treats to the long division algorithm, and the textbook pages that go with it.
Start with the question the book starts with
Consider 585 ÷ 7.
Try doing this problem without using the long division method.
Most of us were taught one method and asked to repeat it. This resource follows a fourth-grade classroom where the method arrives last, after children have built the idea of equal sharing for themselves, with chana and cups and their own drawings. By the time the algorithm appears, it is only a paper record of something they already know how to do.
"I just gave them a problem, but no method to solve it. Children came up with different ways of solving it."
What is inside
1. Stories from Anubhooti classrooms
Snapshots of Anubhooti in action, showing how its stories, prompts and activities come together in real classrooms.
- Division: the classroom journey. Setting up the context with the story "Dog Treats"; three children, three ways of thinking; where the abstraction begins; "Every child CAN" and a board full of methods for one problem; think alone, then think aloud; the bridge to the algorithm with place value cards; bringing it all together as long division.
- Math without words. The picture-detective page where grouping starts, with the classroom dialogue in which children revise their answer from twelve to eleven to ten and back, and are asked to reason rather than to be right.
2. A preview of Anubhooti
Selected pages from the Anubhooti Mathematics textbook, with the revision questions that close each chapter.
- Equal Groups and Fair Share, Part 2. Kaka and Kaalia share barley grains two at a time; children work it with beads, look for the pattern in which numbers share fairly, and move to grouping and repeated subtraction.
- Ways to Divide. Sharing money and coconuts, then long division built with bags of ten: distribute the bags first, open what is left, distribute the ones. Practice time, summary and the Magic Mirror reflection page close the chapter.
Get the resource
Here it is. Happy reading.
Download the PDF (32 pages, 5 MB)
Save it somewhere you will find it again. If the download does not start, write to info@s2seducation.com and we will send it across.
While you are here: See the Anubhooti textbooks · How a partnership works
Want this in your classrooms, not just on your desk?
We work with schools on the books, the teacher mentoring and the assessment together, so a method like this survives past one enthusiastic teacher.