J/I Math ABQ: Math Manipulatives in the Classroom

Ugh, that moment you type up a storm and then BOOM! All gone in the blink of an electrical outage!

Bare with me as I try to attempt the rewrite of this ever so passionate discussion piece.

"Manipulatives are the equivalent to a real-life problem. Although the practical application of the skills being portrayed are different, there is an inherent relativity to the physical. As a logical thinker it should be an easy common understanding between Math and English educators that in order for students to understand a topic it is best when the pieces and variables are at hand, there in front of a person to work with the objects rather than a "hypothetical".

Take for example the candle in a four walled room problem. The classic psychological problem that seems to be less of a challenge as society steps away from candle usage and relies more on modern technology-nonetheless, this activity will be much more manageable when all the necessary resource piece are available to be used. When people have the parts to smash, mesh and manipulate the problem becomes tangible logically as well as mentally.

I once described to my students the importance of reading out loud. Students believe it is a weakness, however what is not recognized is that if a person never knowingly heard a particular word before, but are then asked to identify known words in a select reading, they will most likely not recognize it immediately unless reading it out loud. There are however students with louder inner voices and the ability to hear the word clearly in their mind. But for students who are still developing that inner voice manipulation, it is key that they read the word out loud in order to allow their eyes and ears to collect that data of those characters in that specific arrangement.

Similarly in a math problem, the more data inputs a person can create with the resources/variables, the more successful they will be in solving the problem. The reality of this phenomenon is that it eliminates some of the more benign questions that are not relative or necessarily important to the question-but may be important to the person solving the problem."

Another site worth checking out that might be interesting to turn into "manipulatives"

http://www.math4thenines.ca/resources.html