Rocket Math
Alternate Division Pages
(no zero answers)
© (2010) R & D Instructional Solutions
Item #1075
Why have “alternate pages?”
In the original Rocket Math Division, beginning with Set L, there are division problems
where the divisor (what you are dividing by) is larger than the dividend (what you are dividing
into). These kinds of problems occur in long division. For example “eight divided into four.”
The answer is “0.5” but students are shocked to find these problems. They do not know to begin
with the zero as the answer. So Rocket Math set out to teach them that fact—that when the
divisor is larger than dividend the answer is 0. Even though in a long division problem there
would be more steps, we at Rocket Math simply wanted students to be familiar with these kinds
of problems and to recognize that, for example, “nine doesn’t go into eight” and therefore the
answer is zero. We felt this would help students (and teachers) when students came to long
division and encountered this situation.
It turned out that not everyone agrees with us. And some of the people who disagree with
us, do so very strongly. Consequently, we decided to make these alternate pages available in
which there are no problems with zero as an answer. We still think it is a loss for students not to
get an opportunity to encounter zero as an answer before doing long division, but we want our
customers to be happy. So here you have the alternate pages. They can simply replace the same
pages in the Rocket Math division. Good teaching and thanks for choosing Rocket Math to
help your students.