This past week I spent time with a friend and we talked about math teaching and leaning. She talked about how her child struggled learning division the way it is taught (she specifically stated-partial quotients and using an area model). She expressed how her daughter never struggled before and has not since. She ended up teaching her a long division standard algorithm, which I have heard teachers call it the “McDonald’s cheeseburger” way. My friends daughter must not have had a robust understanding of place value, multiplication, or using manipulatives. If a child understands multiplication and using base-ten blocks or area models, they should be able to divide. I always start out with base ten blocks when students are learning division because they need to understand what division is. Division is sharing a certain amount equally and is tied closely to fractions and decimals. It is really important for us to help students make the connections between and among different parts of the mathematical domains. Using the base ten blocks allows students to physically move and exchange pieces when splitting them up into equal groups. Also, with this method, students see what a remainder means. There can be a lot of great mathematical discourse by students using base ten blocks for division.