Managing Manipulatives Workshop
In a recent training with Elementary teachers, I shared with teachers the importance of using manipulatives as well as tips and tricks for managing manipulatives. Our district has adopted a math curriculum, Pearson Investigations3, that uses manipulatives on a regular basis. The importance of manipulatives is crucial to students exploring math and discovering the patterns and rules of mathematics. In general, there is very little attention given to why and how to use manipulatives, and any attention to these topics is typically very brief. I designed this workshop to provide some information on why to use manipulatives and then delve into the practical side of it - how to organize manipulatives for daily math instruction. Understanding the "why" is very important and a great motivator to continue to persevere to find solutions to any problems that might occur with organization or management.
A note before we continue ... this workshop was originally done through YouTube Live and you can watch the recording here. I am continuing to explore ways to deliver professional development for our teachers that make content easy to access. It might also help the problem of travel time after school :) Also, I used a HyperDoc to deliver the content and to allow teacher reflection. The lesson design for this workshop was an "Explore - Explain - Apply" design. I will include the "apply" questions in this post as a way for you to reflect on how content can be incorporated into your classroom.
Workshop Objectives:
- Teachers will understand the role of manipulatives and why it is important for students to use manipulatives to enhance math learning.
- Teachers will develop a plan for managing classroom math manipulatives that includes procedures for using manipulatives appropriately.
- Teachers will see examples of ways to organize manipulatives in the classroom and decide which structures will work for their classroom.
Explore the Problem
To narrow down our discussion, I organized the topics into 3 problems that teachers face when using manipulatives:
- Sometimes I feel like our instruction time is used better to practice the standard algorithm. Why should we use manipulatives to teach math?
- Often it is a hassle to get out the manipulatives, as there is so much time used to get them out and put them away. It is also challenging to have students constantly playing with the manipulatives. How do I make sure our math time is productive when we use manipulatives?
- Sometimes I feel like math manipulatives don’t really help students understand the traditional algorithm better. How can I use manipulatives to help students have a better understanding of math?
Problem #1
Explore
"Sometimes I feel like our instruction time is used better to practice the standard algorithm. WHY should we use manipulatives to teach math?"
Explain
- Manipulatives help students make sense of abstract concepts.
- Manipulatives provide students ways to test and verify ideas.
- Manipulatives serve as useful tools for solving problems.
- Manipulatives make learning the mathematics more fun.
or URL here: https://vimeo.com/157768846
Apply
Think about the concept that you are currently teaching (number recognition, addition, multiplication, etc). How can manipulatives help students understand that concept?
Extend
For more information on why manipulatives are important for math instruction, check out these resources:
Apply
Think about the concept that you are currently teaching (number recognition, addition, multiplication, etc). How can manipulatives help students understand that concept?Problem #2
Explore
"Often it is a hassle to get out the manipulatives, as there is so much time used to get them out and put them away. It is also challenging to have students constantly playing with the manipulatives. How do I make sure our math time is productive when we use manipulatives?"
Explain
Organization: There are several ways to organize manipulatives. As you consider how to make this work in your classroom, here are a few things to consider:
Things to consider:
What do you have?
- When are students using them?
- Individual
- Groups
- Location & Space
- Classroom Rules & Procedures
Suggestions for Classroom Procedures:
- Make sure students know the location for gathering and returning materials.
- Support students in becoming responsible for their learning and the tools that they use.
- Don’t have a procedure/rule that you are not willing to follow.
- Teach students how each of your procedures are expectations should be carried out.
Apply
Where can your math manipulatives have a “home” in your classroom? Consider the location, whether it is a bookshelf, cabinet, or storage drawers. What are your procedures for gathering and returning manipulatives?
Problem #3
Explore
Sometimes I feel like math manipulatives don’t really help students understand the traditional algorithm better. How can I use manipulatives to help students have a better understanding of math?
Explain
Making the connections between the manipulatives and a written method is extremely important.
Consider using questions that guide students in making comparisons and finding similarities.
- How does this model look the same as this expression?
- Where do you see the ____ in the model? Where do you see it in the expressions/equation?
- How are these two strategies different?
- How are these two strategies the same?
Apply
What learning progressions are happening at your grade level? Consider the operations that you teach and the various methods that you are using to deepen student learning. How can you provide learning experiences for students that make connections among concrete and abstract strategies?
References
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Burns, Marilyn. About Teaching Mathematics: A K-8 Resource. 4th ed. Sausalito, CA: Scholastic, 2015. Print.
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Fletcher, Graham. "The Progression of Addition and Subtraction." Vimeo. Https://gfletchy.com/, 4 Mar. 2016. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
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