I completed an action research project in a 4th grade classroom at Bluefield Intermediate

School located in Bluefield West Virginia on methods for teaching long division in such a way
that the underlying concepts can be understood by students. I pre-assessed the students on
completing several long division problems with remainders and after teaching the unit, I
administered a post-test. According to Marjorie Montague, author of Teaching Division to
Students With Learning Disabilities: A Constructivist Approach, allowing students to be "active
and engaged learners who construct meaning by selecting, organizing, connecting, and
understanding information, ideas, and concepts as a consequence of prior knowledge and
experience" (2010, p. 166) sets them up for confident learners. While teaching this unit on long
division, I wanted to teach the students different strategies for completing a long division math
problem. According to Klein and Milgram, authors of The Role of Long Division in the K-12
Curriculum, "the long division algorithm is an essential tool for understanding what a real
number is" and how long division has "important connections of the algorithm to more advanced
parts of mathematics" (2000, p.4).
After administering the pre-test, I noticed right away that the students did not understand
how to work a division problem using the standard algorithm. The results of the pre-test
indicated that everyone in the class received zero percent on the test. The students seemed a little
apprehensive while taking the pre-test, but I reassured them that it wasnt for a grade, it was just
a pre-test to show me what methods and lessons I needed to put together so they would
understand how to work the problems. There were a few students who attempted to answer the
problems; I noticed that some of the students set the problems up like a multiplication problem,
while others attempted to put the dividend into groups. The data I collected from the pre-test

gave me a perfect opportunity to teach the students several methods for solving division
problems.
Some of the methods I used to teach division were the RDW (read, draw, write) method,
the array model, area model, t-chart method, and finally the use of a place value chart using
number disks as manipulatives. I began the unit with solving division word problems so the
students used the read, draw, write strategy so they could draw and visually see how a number is
dispersed into different groups. Students then used the array and area models to show the
partitive and measurement approach of division. For example, when we use the array model for
the problem, 26 divided by 4, the students will use the partitive approach of division and draw 4
dots in a column because 4 is our divisor. Each group has four dots. We then end up with 6
columns of 4 with a remainder of 2. Students then used the area model to show the measurement
approach of division by drawing a rectangle and saying that the height of the rectangle is 4 and
the width of the rectangle is 6, which are 24 square units and then showing 2 additional units
added onto the area model for the remainder. The students then used the place value chart and
number disks to conceptualize how to decompose a number and break it down into a smaller unit
and understand that the smaller unit is actually equivalent to a larger unit. When students are
finally able to solve division problems using the standard algorithm, they are encouraged to use a
multiplication t-chart. Students are also taught the mnemonic devise (daddy, mother, sister, and
brother) to remember the steps of a division problem.
After teaching the unit on long division, I administered a post-test to see how much the
students improved. The results show that 5 out of 15 students received 100%, 5 out of 15
students received 80%, 4 out of 15 students received 60%, and 1 out of 15 students received 0%.

Works Cited
D. Klein, R. M. (2000). The Role of long division in the k-12 curriculum. Retrieved from
www.csun.edu/-vcmth00m/longdivision.pdf

Montague, M. (2010). Teaching division to students with learning disabilities: A constructivist

approach. Retrieved from http.//dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15327035EX1103 04