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Students with Problems Counting Money

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Hello. I am a student at Southern Illinois University who is going into the field of special education. For one of my classes this semseter we have to tutor elementary school students after school. The students I am working with are having problems with counting money and just genereal money skills. I am having problems coming up with research to back up my target behavior. I have plenty of activities, just nothing to back up why I am doing this. I have searched our library, the internet and about to exhaust my options. If anyone has any ideas, let me know, even if it is a great way to help the students. I feel that am running out of options on this one. Thanks for any help you can give.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/14/2001 - 5:00 AM

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: Hello. I am a student at Southern Illinois University who is going
: into the field of special education. For one of my classes this
: semseter we have to tutor elementary school students after school.
: The students I am working with are having problems with counting
: money and just genereal money skills. I am having problems coming
: up with research to back up my target behavior. I have plenty of
: activities, just nothing to back up why I am doing this. I have
: searched our library, the internet and about to exhaust my
: options. If anyone has any ideas, let me know, even if it is a
: great way to help the students. I feel that am running out of
: options on this one. Thanks for any help you can give.I keep directing people to the Third International Math and Science Study, TIMSS. No, there is nothing specific about money in it that I know of. However, there are a lot of very closely related research results on applied problem-solving and use of concrete models and thinking through methods, which should be useful to you. Best I can come up with on short notice.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/14/2001 - 5:00 AM

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: What’s your target behavior? That’s the first question.The next would be do you realize how little of what we do in teaching is research-driven? Reading instructors often have research to back them up but outside of reading instruction, there isn’t much data-based decision making going on in education. It’s also the case that for every research study, there’s another that contradicts it.Hello. I am a student at Southern Illinois University who is going
: into the field of special education. For one of my classes this
: semseter we have to tutor elementary school students after school.
: The students I am working with are having problems with counting
: money and just genereal money skills. I am having problems coming
: up with research to back up my target behavior. I have plenty of
: activities, just nothing to back up why I am doing this. I have
: searched our library, the internet and about to exhaust my
: options. If anyone has any ideas, let me know, even if it is a
: great way to help the students. I feel that am running out of
: options on this one. Thanks for any help you can give.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/14/2001 - 5:00 AM

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I understand that little of the instruction we provide is research driven. I didn’t mean the first posting to sound like I wanted research to back up my idea, I was just wondering if anyone knew of any. I think that as educators, we should try change the fact that little “data-based” decision making goes on in education. As a future special educator, we are taught that you need data to back up a referral, a placement, and anything that goes on in our classroom. I am just looking for ideas as to how I can help the students with their counting. They have the values of the coins and bills, it is just counting the values of a set of coins or bills.: The next would be do you realize how little of what we do in teaching
: is research-driven? Reading instructors often have research to
: back them up but outside of reading instruction, there isn’t much
: data-based decision making going on in education. It’s also the
: case that for every research study, there’s another that
: contradicts it.: Hello. I am a student at Southern Illinois University who is going

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/14/2001 - 5:00 AM

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Okay- I am now a bit confused. Do you also want suggestions on how to sequence your lessons? There is a big jump between naming the values of coins and actually counting them. BTW- You might try focusing your research question around the importance of place value skills rather than simply money skills.Robin

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/14/2001 - 5:00 AM

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: Okay- I am now a bit confused. Do you also want suggestions on how to
: sequence your lessons? There is a big jump between naming the
: values of coins and actually counting them. BTW- You might try
: focusing your research question around the importance of place
: value skills rather than simply money skills.: RobinMy daughter has recently been diagnosed as having a nonverbal learning disability she has difficulty recognizing coins some days she can recognize them and others …not a clue does your subject have a learning disability ? if so what type? My daughter has a sweet tooth and I make here get the change to buy an ice cream at school …She is verbally acute and knows that 2 quarters equal an ice cream or 5 dimes (the tiny silver coins }. I must recite the rules verbally for her the visual recognition is not there.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/14/2001 - 5:00 AM

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I am having a problem with one of my students with counting money. She is aware of the coins, knows the value of each coin. She can count each set of coins (pennies, nickels, dimes) individually. But, she cannot count them together, when you use a variety of coins for a certain amount(such as $.43). We have asked for help, we have gotten all kinds of materials for her! We give her the same money counting worksheet everyday, dealing with nickels, dimes, and pennies only! Everyday it is as if she has never seen it before. Please! Please! someone help me help her learn to count her change!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/14/2001 - 5:00 AM

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Stop using the worksheets for a while, and only give her pennies and dimes- that old base ten thing. There is a neat game you can ply if you have a die (one dice). Have her roll the die and she can take that many pennies. Then you roll. then it is her turn again, only the rule is that she cannot have more than nine pennies before she has to trade for a dime. Play this (you can use two dice when she gets good at it) until she has this trade down cold- and- can count the amount of money she has. Then you play with nickels and pennies for a while- and then with all three. Later, you can introduce quarters etc.- but always one at a time- with ne other coin until it is solid. It is a variation on something called the bankers game in chip trading and it as always worked for me. Have fun! Robin

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/14/2001 - 5:00 AM

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: I am having a problem with one of my students with counting money.
: She is aware of the coins, knows the value of each coin. She can
: count each set of coins (pennies, nickels, dimes) individually.
: But, she cannot count them together, when you use a variety of
: coins for a certain amount(such as $.43). We have asked for help,
: we have gotten all kinds of materials for her! We give her the
: same money counting worksheet everyday, dealing with nickels,
: dimes, and pennies only! Everyday it is as if she has never seen
: it before. Please! Please! someone help me help her learn to count
: her change!!!!!!!!!!!!!Agree with Robin — that worksheet is obviously not getting you anywhere, so put it to the side for a while.Have you tried writing out the addition problem? (That is, having her write it out for herself)For a very simple example, 4 dimes plus 6 pennies = 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 6 = 46 This may or may not help, but it is a route to try. The problem might be trying to do recognition of coins *and* a lot of mental arithmetic together.Good luck

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 04/19/2001 - 1:28 AM

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Carolyn and Jared,
I realize that I’m a month late in responding, so I hope you’re still reading this site. I came across a very helpful tool for counting money. It worked with almost all my moderately retarded students, and like a charm with less disabled students. Print out a 100 chart, with the # 1-10 on the first line, 11-20 on the second etc. Use up a whole 8X11 sheet of paper. Highlight the 5’s column (5,15,25 etc) with one color (Yellow), and the tens column with another color. Outline the 25, 50, 75, and 100 squares in black. Have the child place the coins (largest first) on the paper- Two quarters would be placed on the 25 and 50, a dime would go directly below on the 60, a nickle would “hop” to the next colored column (65) and pennies would go in each square (66, 67,) etc
Kathy

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