math and manipulatives

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

I am a learning assistance teacher in BC who works with intermediate students in reading and math. I am currently exploring the issue of using manipulatives in the classroom and looking at alternative lesson formats for teaching math. Any suggestions and or resources would be welcome.

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 10/22/2001 - 11:17 PM

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I am doing my student teaching as part of a grad. level program in Special Ed. I am doing my required research on the use of manipulatives/ vs. visuals and whether one or the other is more effective toward reaching the symbolic in subtraction and addition with regrouping and borrowing in an third grade e.d. classroom
Any responses that you get please forward on to me. Also, How do I post to this listserv?
Thanks alot
Michela Riccio

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 10/23/2001 - 9:21 AM

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Michela-
First- this isn’t a listserv- it is a bulletin board which works somewhat differently- you only get emails on the threads you are participating in and then only if you click the box under the posting window that says email…

With regard to your question- which you asked in the thread about chip trading down below- manipulative to icon to symbol is a progression. It isn’t an either or where one is better than the other. Instruction at the iconic level isn’t going to be very effective if the concept isn’t in place. And if they haven’t had a chance to move through the sequence because someone was in a hurry to do worksheets then they may never get it. This is not a function of what grade you are in- it is part of the developmental sequence.

Given the context therefore- which I didn’t have below- I am not sure what you want when you say “what do you have about visual representations of… for a 3rd or 4th grade? (Not your exact words -but close enough) Activities? You can find lots of those in any well organized math series… I could point you at a few of those. The research part I think you will need to do on your own:) but I don’t think you will find a lot. You might try the ERIC digests- search math- and see what you come up with. The other place tyou can try is the LD in Depth section of this site. They have a lot of information.

Robin

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