Bundle & Unbundle: Do it either way!

The most important thing in division is to understand place value. Once students grasp place value, dividing using unbundling and bundling becomes easier. Also it helps students to learn and understand the standard division algorithm. Here I have shown division from right to left using Scaffold method. I have used grids to place the digits in the appropriate places. Let us consider the problem: Divide 143 by 3. The problem requires dividing 143 into 3 equal groups. 143 have three digits. Each digit has a different place value. We are considering base 10 systems. 1 is in the hundreds place, 4 is in the tens place, 3 is in the ones place. In other words, 143 is 1 bundle of 100, 4 bundles of tens, and three bundles of ones. Now instead of starting from the left end, we start from the right end. There are three ones. So, each group gets a one. We have used all ones. Next we move to 4 in the tens place. We have 4 bundles of tens. We can divide 4 by 3 groups such that each group gets one 10 and a bundle of 10 is left. We unbundle that bundle of 10 and get ten ones. We divide the bundle of ones in three groups and each group gets three ones and a one is left. Now we have used all tens. We have 1 bundle of 100 but we cannot divide it in three groups. So we unbundle it. We get ten bundles of tens. We divide them among three groups. Each group gets three tens and a bundle of 10 is left. We unbundle that bundle of 10 and get ten ones. We divide the bundle of ones in three groups and each group gets three ones and a one is left. Now we have used all hundreds and tens and left with 2 ones.

So each group gets 4 tens and 7 ones. There are 2 ones that are left over.

Picture 1: 143 divided in 3 equal groups

Next I have shown Scaffold Method to do division from right to left.

Consider another example: 1067 5

Another scaffold example showing right to left division

Remarks: Use of grids helps in understanding the place value. When we do division from left to right in scaffold method, we can always add up the quotients obtained in each step and write it in a way compatible with standard division algorithm. But moving from right to left does not fit with the standard division algorithm. We cannot give a standard division algorithm for right to left division.