The area model is a great tool to help students develop multiplicative and spatial reasoning, but let's get clear on some things. In this episode Pam and Kim discuss some of the common misconceptions about the area model and show how it can be used help students make connections between area and multiplication. 
Talking points:

• What is an area model?
• Common misunderstanding around an area model
• Place Value Partial Products vs Smart Partial Products
• Rote memorizing perspective vs Math-is-figureoutable perespective
• Closed/Discrete versus Open arrays
• Area models build spatial reasoning and connections of products to area and factors to dimensions
• Ratio Tables are better models for cranky computation problems

See Episodes 129-133 for more about Ratio Tables and 147 and 148 for more about the Area Model.

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