The Multiplication Rap

Music and rhyme are reliable ways to embed ideas and facts into the a child’s mind - think about “A,B,C,D” and “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes”. The Multiplication Rap is a book written with similar good intentions, to help children memorize math tables using rap poetry.

Unfortunately, there are issues with the rhythms of some lines, the items chosen for the rhymes, and the lack of strategies that could be taught in the poetry.

Sustaining a long rap is a challenge, although users can divide the poems up when teaching each separate number. But there is not a consistency or a pattern to the content of the poems.

Unfortunately, it appears that Prince Edward Island author Hope Dalvay uses words that fit the rhyme instead of the content, as exemplified in the excerpt above. How many children think about boars - and their desire to soar (where?), and how many contemporary children know anyone named Kevin, none of which are depicted on the page. Other examples include:

7 groups of 7 shoppers waiting in line,

7 times 7 equals 49,

7 groups of foxes fetching sticks,

7 times 8 equals 56

The rhymes do not segue from one into the next to develop patterns of thought. The rap is straight memorization. If that’s the case, why not simply memorize the times tables, which has always served children well?

There are innumerable effective strategies for learning multiplication tables, but Dalvay teaches only two, for the number 5 and the number 9. The strategy for number 5 is not explained in a linear manner, and the strategy for number 9 is only a confirmation of the correct answer, not a method to achieve it.

Surprisingly, Dalvay claims she has no strategies for teaching the number 12. Yet this reviewer, whose potential career as a mathematician was thwarted in Grade 9 by New Math (#confusion), knows to multiply a number first by 10 and again by the number and then add the two sums together (e.g. 12 x 13 — 12 x 10 (120) + 2 x 13(26) = 156). In fact, there are many easy strategies that can be found online. A quick YouTube search turned up several. Many of these tutorials were led by children.

The pencil-colour illustrations by another PEI resident, Kate Chisholm, are carefully drawn, but the characters all have the same face and expressions. While a few have their hands in the air or are shown jumping to the song (Woot Woot, Congratulations to you! “Why? you may ask. Well we’re halfway through!), their mostly static presentations don’t capture the energy and beat of the rap rhythm. Her drawings of the groupings don’t show groups.

In assessing a book, a reviewer must decide if it will be helpful to a teacher or useful to a student to learn more effectively. The Multiplication Rap would take more work to learn than it would to simply practice and retain the times tables through a sing-song tune and repetition.