The country numeracy adviser brought in for the session, Clare Tope, began wielding a big stick. The stick in various forms is a popular tool in the new strategy. It is marked off into typically 10 equal segments and the teacher sticks on numbers written on card for whatever times table is on the agenda. The halfway point is a very important reference mark - and we learned that children throughout their maths work are taught to think about halves and doubles of numbers, as a quick way of getting around, as it were. Times tables went up to 12 at least in my day.
Nobody bothers much now.
Getting that across to children is important. I confess I found the next bit hard - it is difficult to deconstruct a method you have been using for many years, to try to see through the eyes of someone for whom all this numbers business is initially baffling. To multiply 67 x 3, for example, you make a grid that multiplies 60 by 3 then 7 by 3 and add up the two results. Again it works for bigger numbers, too. This is chunking.