I work with students who have mild to moderate disabilities. My students are eager to learn and have amazing attitudes about the daily challenges they face. Most of the students struggle with the concrete and abstract concepts of math and are lagging far behind. It is my job to get them caught up.
My school is in a rural area of Oregon with a high percentage of students living and poverty and homelessness.
The students are incredibly resilient and resourceful. I have worked very hard to maintain relationships of trust and respect in my classroom. Many of the students are on a "modified" diploma track, with their only hope of receiving a diploma being through my resource room. Any tools that enrich their learning and understanding of math are helping them move towards a high school diploma.
My Project
My students need 10 sets of Cuisenaire Rods for a fractions unit. My students struggle with the concrete concepts of fractions. They also have short term memory and processing speed issues. The fraction rods provide a level of understanding for fractions that they would not normally receive. Most of my students are testing between a 4th and 6th grade level of math. I would like to see them move towards pre-algebra concepts, but this is not possible until they have truly grasped the concept of fractions.
In order for my students to move beyond 4th and 5th grade math and into pre-algebra, they need to understand fractions and properties of fractions.
I have never seen a more effective way of teaching fractions than using Cuisenaire rods.
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