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Anyone who’s ever tried to teach fraction arithmetic to beginning students knows the frustration of working with students who don’t know multiplication and division very well.

Contrary to popular belief, fraction arithmetic requires more than just simple two by two multiplication and division of whole numbers. In order to perform simple reducing of fractions a student must know all of the divisors of the numerator and the denominator to know if they have any common divisors in order to find the largest one to divide with.

The place where most students have problems is when raising fractions with different denominators in order to compare them or add or subtract them. This is where a different type of multiplication chart is necessary for all students to be able to perform this arithmetic well. Using this simple chart I’ve put together, the student can quickly and easily find the lowest common multiple simply by scanning the divisors in the list of whole numbers. I’ve also listed the 2 by 2 multiples of all of the whole numbers from 1 to 80.

This chart also allows students to easily find the common divisors of fractions in order to find the largest one to reduce fractions. It can be used as a tool to begin to memorize the multiples and the divisors of whole numbers while actually doing fraction arithmetic in the process.

I use this chart with my beginning GED students and it has proven itself every time I use it. Students who would normally have dropped the class due to the frustration of not having memorized the standard times tables chart are able to finish the fractions section of the class and move on to other math concepts.

I firmly believe that this chart should be used by all beginning math students as a transition from basic multiplication and division to fraction arithmetic. I also believe that this chart should be mounted in every elementary school math room.

To view a 20 minute video on how to use this simple chart use the “Youtube Samples” link and choose the “Pre Fraction Math” parts one and two.