This document discusses the importance and effective use of math manipulatives. It recommends using manipulatives regularly to help students understand math concepts concretely before moving to more abstract representations. Specific manipulatives mentioned include counting tiles, Cuisenaire rods, unifix cubes, and algebra tiles. The document also outlines the concrete-representational-abstract instructional approach and cites sources like the Common Core standards and National Council of Teachers of Mathematics to support using manipulatives across grade levels.

1. Making the Most of Math
Manipulatives
April 1, 2016
Clare Wurm, Consultant
State Education Resource Center
Connecticut

2. Today’s Agenda
• Why use manipulatives?
• How to use manipulatives?
• What manipulatives to use?
• Practice!

3. Math Manipulatives
Do you currently use any math manipulatives?
What kind?

4. Why Use Manipulatives?
• Recommended by math experts
• Aligns with CCSS
• C-R-A Instruction
• Motivating and Engaging

5. Why Use Manipulatives?
Position Statement of 2013:
“In order to develop every student’s mathematical
proficiency, leaders and teachers must
systematically integrate the use of concrete and
virtual manipulatives into classroom instruction at
all grade levels.”
- -National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics

6. Why Use Manipulatives?
p. 78 Principles to Actions, NCTM, 2014

7. Recommendation 5.
Intervention materials should include opportunities
for students to work with visual representations of
mathematical ideas and interventionists should be
proficient in the use of visual representations of
mathematical ideas.
Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Response to
Intervention (RtI) for Elementary and Middle Schools.
What Works Clearinghouse
Why Use Manipulatives?

8. Why Use Manipulatives?
I hear and I forget. I see and I
remember. I do and I understand.
- Confucious

9. Example:
Newton’s Third Law of Motion:
For every action, there is an equal and opposite
reaction. The statement means that in every
interaction, there is a pair of forces acting on the two
interacting objects. The size of the forces on the first
object equals the size of the force on the second
object.

10. Why Use Manipulatives?
Common Core State Standards for Mathematics
1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of
others.
4. Model with mathematics.
5. Use appropriate tools strategically.
6. Attend to precision.
7. Look for and make use of structure.
8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
PRACTICES:

11. Why Use Manipulatives?
Common Core State Standards for Mathematics
1. Make sense of problems and persevere in
solving them.
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the
reasoning of others.
4. Model with mathematics.
PRACTICES:

12. 5. Use appropriate tools strategically.
6. Attend to precision.
7. Look for and make use of structure.
8. Look for and express regularity in repeated
reasoning.
PRACTICES:
Why Use Manipulatives?
Common Core State Standards for Mathematics

13. Why Use Manipulatives?
C-R-A
Concrete Representational Abstract

14. C-R-A
Concrete =
Math concept is modeled with
concrete (physical) materials

15. C-R-A
Representational =
Math concept is modeled with
representational examples (e.g.
drawing, diagram, tally marks)

16. C-R-A
Abstract =
Math concept is modeled with
numbers and symbols

17. C-R-A
Beneficial for students with
disabilities…
and for ALL students.

18. Why use manipulatives?
Which would YOU rather do?

19. Classroom Example
Watch the video. What do you notice
about the use of manipulatives?

20. How to Use Manipulatives

22. How to Use Manipulatives
• Use regularly.
• Let students mess with materials first.
• Use before teaching algorithm.

23. How to Use Manipulatives
• Use various manipulatives for the
same math concept.
• Have students draw manipulatives in
their solution.
• Use manipulatives as basis of math
conversation or writing.

24. How to Use Manipulatives
• Connect the more abstract math concept
to the manipulatives as student learns.
• Let the manipulatives serve the math, not
the other way around.

25. Examples
• Counting tiles
• Cuisenaire Rods
• Unifix Cubes
• Algebra Tiles

26. Thank you!
Continue the great work you do with our
students. You make a difference!

27. Thank you!
Contact me at:
Clare Wurm
25 Industrial Park Road
Middletown, CT, 06457
860-632-1485 x383
wurm@ctserc.org