During math instruction, students are excited to share their learning with other students. The materials I have chosen will assist students with this conversation. The excitement as they talk and share their math thinking is contagious!
Our school is within a large urban district.
41% of our students receive free and reduced lunch support. 58% of our students are minority students. Many of our students live in subsidized housing. Our students look forward to attending school and are very involved with school programs. In addition to our school day we provide before and after school programs, and summer programs as well.
My Project
The students in my classroom will be using manipulatives not supplied with the GO math program to strengthen their knowledge of mathematical concepts and assist them with explaining their mathematical thinking. I can see students standing in front of the magnetic 120 number chart moving magnets to show how they arrived at the answer for a word problem. Students will use the write and wipe boards to draw pictures of their solutions as they explain their answers to other children, and then proving their answer using the part-part-whole diagram on the board. When they have finished this portion of their math time, they will then be able to pick a game from the Greg Tang Game pack, or pick one of Greg Tang's books to read and discuss with a group. The level of mathematical discourse will become deeper in my room, and the hum of exciting conversation will be apparent to anyone who visits. Learning will become more focused on children "doing" instead of teacher "showing."
I began learning about using manipulatives by attending Greg Tang workshops.
Mr. Tang had the same concerns I had - why are children afraid of math? How can I help them explain their mathematical thinking? I quickly realized that my students were lacking a resource to help them - materials that they could move around, a write and wipe off board that could help them organize their thoughts. I truly believe that all students will become better math thinkers through the use of these supplies.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Rumsey and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.