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Many students remember using manipulatives like patterning blocks, clocks, counters, or base ten blocks in elementary school. However, manipulatives can be used and add great value to high school math lessons too!
In class we watched a video clip from a math conference where Dr. Ruth Beatty discussed manipulatives and multiple representations in mathematics. Dr. Beatty made an interesting point regarding the stigma attached to using manipulatives.
Furthermore, our course instructor Liisa Suurtamm, talked about who should use manipulatives. It was stated that manipulatives in a math lesson can be used for all students, not just students who are struggling to understand the concept being taught.
Together, this made me really question what I thought the purpose of manipulatives was. My previous understanding of manipulatives was that they were to help students who couldn’t understand an abstract way of looking at a math concept. By involving all students in the use of manipulatives, the stigma around certain students using manipulatives is addressed.
In this article, Marilyn Curtain-Phillips states that manipulatives are the missing link in high school math. She argues that “Manipulatives are value resources for accelerating and deepening students understanding of math”, which supports exactly the ideas discussed in class. By using manipulatives, both students who may be struggling to understand a concept and those needing a way to further their understanding can benefit.
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Liisa Suurtamm, EDBE 8F83 Lecture 3: Conceptual
and Procedural Understanding, Retrieved from online lecture notes.
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We did a couple different patterning examples as a class that challenged my way of solving a problem. We were given a pattern like the one here and asked to describe what position 4 would be and what the pattern was.
For me, it would have been much quicker to write out a table and find the pattern that way. And although there is nothing wrong with that, I tried to look at the problem in terms of the patterning blocks and answer the question using a different type of representation then what I am used to.
What will I take with me from this lesson? That there are so many interesting ways to incorporate manipulatives into a high school math class and these can help a range of students, not just students who may be struggling. Multiple representations of concepts are important to teach and to recognize that students may see things in a wide range of ways. I hope to further my exploration with incorporating manipulatives into my lessons during my practice teaching blocks this year.
Hi Laura,
ReplyDeleteThe stigma attached to using manipulatives is something that I talked about in my own blog post as well. After last week's class, I have realized how beneficial the use of manipulatives in a Secondary classroom can really be. However, in order for the benefits to reach their full potential, the stigma that surrounds them MUST be reduced. I think manipulatives need to be re-introduced into the classroom in such a way that makes students excited and willing to engage with them, rather than have them think that manipulatives are just for the kids who "don't get it". Like you say in your post, manipulatives can both benefit those students who are visual learners, as well as challenge and provide a deeper understanding for those students who are not visual learners. I think one way to demonstrate this to students (while simultaneously reducing stigma) is to use manipulatives to demonstrate concepts that students may have never considered visually before, or to introduce an activity with manipulatives as some sort of puzzle they can solve.
Great post, thanks!
Daria
Hi Laura,
ReplyDeleteI too also use to think that manipulatives were only used to help students who couldn't understand certain abstract processes in math which definitely creates a stigma associated towards them, especially if other students feel the same way within the same classroom.
After the class we had this week my conceptions of manipulatives has definitely changed and I see them as a valuable resource for all students whether they are struggling with certain topics or not it still grants them a better understanding and allows them to physically apply what they have learned in the classroom.
I hope that we can both find interesting ways to use manipulatives within our classroom to help our students learn different topics.
Thanks for the post!