New Groups Below and Algorithms

The students are now familiar with how to write 2-digit addition problems using the standard algorithm.  The only thing that we do differently from what has been taught in the past is where we write the numbers that we are regrouping. In the past the regrouped numbers were written at the top of the algorithm, above the appropriate place value. Now we regroup that number and write it below the problem, right on the equal line. This is done so that students are better able to see the entire number that they just added and are better able to understand the value of each digit in that number. For example, in the the problem below 34 + 37, students are able to more easily see that 7 + 4 is 11 and that 11 is 1 ten and 1 one. Writing the 1 ten at the bottom helps the students to remember to regroup the ten into the tens place and add it together with the rest of the tens.