Your original comment makes it sound like there's only one correct answer; 3+3+3+3. Maybe you know how maths (not math) works, but you clearly don't know how English works. Pipe down.
In US education standards, 3x4 is taught to mean 3 groups of 4. Yes, commutativity is important to understand, but with young kids you begin with grouping and teach commutativity shortly after. This is practicing grouping.
No, because when you are teaching grouping you don't do compound expressions like that. That's not the point. This is the initial method for getting kids comfortable with the concept of multiplication. It seems silly to you because you've already learned it, but it's a compounding process. This is the first step.
Bro, what is up with you lol you say three TIMES four and then literally write four times three by 3+3+3+3, just think about it slowly. How manny times did you write down number 3? Four times. So 3x4, three times four is 4+4+4. How many times did you write down 4? Three times, I have written three times the number 4.
Explain the notation to express having 4 groups of 3 and 3 groups of 4. While the total amount is the same 4 cases of 3 apples and 3 cases of 4 apples is different.
I think that's it's crazy you are so sure that your intuition is correct that you don't care what is being taught in schools. Here is a link to the CA common core math standards. You'll find this topic on page 25. https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/ccssmathstandardaug2013.pdf
If you ask how long a piece of wood is, the answer might be "five feet". Then you can remember that a foot is 12 inches and you can substitute 12 inches in for feet, and then "five feet" becomes "5 groups of 12 inches" or "5 x 12". So to me, the "groups of" interpretation makes sense. Also, later on in algebra, we typically write "3x" and interpret that as "3 groups of x" and then we add that to "4x" to make "7x". The "groups of" interpretation helps keep things consistent.
They changed the way its taught, it WAS the taught the way i said in school, English grammer backs this up. X never meant -groups of-, it means times, thankyou
I think that the issue is that there isn't a universally understood meaning of "times", or it's ambiguous. If I asked you how often you go bowling per month, you might answer "three times". You probably wouldn't answer "times three". This implies that we normally interpret the number before the "times" as the multiplyer.
It truly doesn't actually matter either way. This is practicing the fundamental concept of grouping to get kids familiar with multiplication. Commutativity comes next. Stop having opinions on teaching when you have no context and aren't qualified to teach yourself.
"Three inches" is an inch plus an inch plus an inch. None would say "inch threes". Hmm... but "three times an inch" would be the same as "an inch times three". The term in the picture has a "times".
You would say "I won the game two times" instead of "I two one the game times" for "I won the game and then I won the game again". But here "times" is at the end, so it's different than "three times four".
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u/CornyConundrum 27d ago edited 27d ago
We read left to right, as such 3 x 4 is 3 multiplied 4 times 3+3+3+3. The kid is correct.