Manipulative Reflection

 

 

Manipulatives are a great way to get students to visualize how they are solving a problem. I truly never understood how teachers at younger grade levels go from encouraging their students to use their resources, to taking away the manipulatives that they are using and asking them to completely change the ways that they have grown so comfortable with. Since being an education major at Bradley, I have come to realize way teachers teach the way that they do.

Education is a continuous process, and the lessons that students are taught are meant to be for cumulative purposes. Once something is taught in the classroom, it is not meant to be forgotten, rather is it to be built upon. As teachers, we know that students are transferring their understanding when they feel that they can complete a given math problem individually. When the students finally feel comfortable enough to step away from the way that they are used to and explore a new challenge, that’s when we know that it is time to either build their knowledge by giving them a new task, or assess their growth in a different way.

With the way that technology is growing, teachers have easy access when it comes to assessing their students. There are millions upon millions of websites out there that can guide students in ways that allow teachers to track the progress that is being made. However, there are also many ways to encourage the same achievements in the classroom.

Group work is a nice way to get students comfortable with each other, but also it allows for collaborative efforts. One way to access if a child is understanding the concept is to make a routine out if it. For example, have the students work in the same groups for about 4 weeks, each week assign them a similar task, but give the students specific roles necessary to complete that task. As the students begin to grow comfortable with the routine, you can begin to rotate the roles that each student in the group takes part in, therefore it becomes a collaborative effort, yet they students are individually assessed. Manipulatives are not a bad thing and it is in our best interest to get students to use their resources in order to solve the problems that they are faced with because that is something that they can then take with them outside of the classroom.

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