My son is in a self contained class SLD for math. He is not doing well. He complains teacher goes to fast. Teacher complains he doesn’t do his work and doesn’t ask questions; or tell her she is going to fast. His private evaluation recommends that he be taught with manipulatives. She absolutely refuses. When I asked about the recommendations at the recent IEP meeting, she asked which ones? My response was all of them. Her reply was she teaches a small group, and gives extra time on tests or classwork. She said manipulatives were out of the question. She would not include that on his IEP. He is in 6th grade and she has written his IEP to follow 3rd grade AKS and that is all. Obviously, I signed that I attended but I did not sign the IEP as acceptable.
I want what is best for my child obviously. Before school started as I enrolled him, I spoke with the head of special ed at this school and she said that multisensory techniques would be used during instruction. Is she allowed to say that because they use them in science sometimes. Other than that, for other subjects, not math; it looks like the text book is read in class, there is class discussion, small classrooms and the teachers use an overhead projector to take down notes. My son also has a visual perception problem. This is the worst kind of instruction for him.
Any thoughts from you will be greatly appreciated.
Re: manipulatives in self contained math class
ALL children, not just your son or disabled children need to be taught new concepts with manipulatives. And some kids need much more interaction with manipulatives than others. The teacher is obviously not informed in the matter. What does his IEP say?
If the IEP says he must be taught using manipulatives then he must be, but other than that I don’t know how to go about getting that done.
Maybe a parent here can add her 2¢. This is mine.
—des
Re: manipulatives in self contained math class
I completely agree that these students need to use manipulatives. I am from Toronto, Canada, and our Province has released a document for “At Risk” students which highlights the need for manipulatives.
There is a great deal of emphasis on using manipulatives from Grades 7-9. I have written a resource binder for Ontario teachers which provides handouts to use with manipulatives.
To get the ministry document, you will need to go to the Ontario government website, and then to the education piece. The document is entitled T.I.P.S.
If you would like to hear about my resource, feel free to contact me at my e-mail ([email protected])
Re: manipulatives in self contained math class
There are *lots* of slow-loading PDFS that include the terms TIPS and manipulatives… ah, wading through bureaucracy!!!
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/reports/numeracy/numeracyreport.pdf looks like it could be interesting (of course, I have to get past all the “about this study” stuff first…)
U of South Carolina has a course on secondary math manipulatives (and I took it via distance learning from Illinois — course materials include some lovely toys :-) :-)) .
I use a *lot* of visuals w/ my older college students (as in older than 30, not just older than elementary school). Mathrealm has some neat visuals for some algebra concepts online, though it’s sadly not a solid sequential program, just interesting insights and practice.
Has he been evaluated for his achievement level in math using a standardized test like the Key Math, or another test? I would start by asking for a math achievement level, then meet and discuss techniques of instructioin; if he is in 6 th grade with average IQ and functioning significantly below grade level, he needs more than extra time on tests. Can he add and subtract, does he know his times tables, etc. ? What did the private eval. say about his math skills?