Math Manipulatives for Bilingual Special Education Students

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

Can you imagine not having the resources you need to access math content? Bilingual students in Special Education absolutely need math manipulatives in order to effectively access the content presented in class.

I am a bilingual Special Education math teacher.

My students are in grades 3, 4, and 6, and all of them come from low-income backgrounds. Many of my students have recently moved to the U.S. from Mexico or Puerto Rico and thus are Spanish-dominant. Each and every one of my students are unique - they have unique personalities, unique family lives, and unique learning styles. I work with students that have a range of disabilities (sometimes more than one!): cognitive, learning, ADD, ADHD, OHI, etc. Despite their unique learning struggles, every one of my students is an eager learner that participates and performs to the best of their ability.

My Project

For a plethora of reasons, my students are very far behind - 1-5 years behind their peers. However, something I have noticed that has helped my students to make significant gains this year is that they can best access content when it is hands-on. I believe that part of this is due to them being English Language Learners (ELLs); ELLs learn best when material is presented in multiple ways, especially when there is a visual component. Particularly in math, many concepts can be visually laid out. Math manipulatives allow you to make math concepts tangible and accessible to students' unique learning styles. By having an assortment of math manipulatives and a projector to use in my lessons, I am absolutely positive that my students will have improved learning outcomes, which they need so greatly. By having a set of classroom calculators, my students will be able to do grade-level work without focusing on basic operations that they struggle with.

My students have a lot of obstacles working against them.

Not only are they English Language Learners coming from low-income backgrounds, but they also have special needs. They absolutely need content to be presented in unique ways in order to understand it. Right now, I do not have the resources I need to give my students the most effective math learning experience that they can have. Please help me to raise their achievement and life outcomes by providing me with these resources.