Manipulatives

The theme of this summative project is inclusive instruction for English Language Learners (ELLs). Below are five manipulatives that would be very useful tools in the toolbox of any teacher, but are particularly useful in meeting the needs of ELLs. Ells typically possess cognitive mathematics skills that are on par with their native English speaking counterparts, but struggle with math because the academic language used is not a part of conversational English. For students at the preproduction level of proficiency in English, manipulatives are one of the only ways to get the message across. Therefore, the use of manipulatives is paramount.

Soft Dot, Numeral, and Operations Dice

These soft dice can be used for many different concept areas such as: number sense, operations, patterns, games, probability, fractions, decimals, and problem solving. These can be used to teach so many different concepts. Students can roll the dice and then the teacher can ask what comes before or after this number or what is greater or less than this number. Students can roll the dice and then use that number as a starting point for skip counting. Students can roll the dice and then be asked to add, subtract, multiply or divide. Students can be asked if the number is even or odd. The can also be asked to make an equation with the dice rolled. These are great manipulatives to use with students who are ELLs, especially if they are in the preproduction stage of English. I have two students in my grade two class that are at the preproduction stage of English proficiency and we use dice to model simple addition and subtraction equations.

Pattern Blocks

Pattern blocks are a great resource for the classroom. Pattern blocks are one of the most useful but underutilized math manipulatives around. There are six different colours and shapes (pictured above) yellow hexagons, green triangles, blue and beige diamond shaped rhombuses, red trapezoids, and orange squares. We often use them in the early elementary grades for patterning and then forget about them, maybe getting them out again in the later years to model fractions. However, these manipulatives can be used for sorting, to explore transformations, to compose and decompose shapes, to talk about symmetry, and to explore congruency in the early elementary years. Later in Elementary they can be used for adding and subtracting fractions, working with angles, probability, geometry, and algebra. Shapes are words that English Language Learners are likely not familiar with as they are not part of conversational English, and it can be very hard for ELLs to understand problems if they do not understand what the shape in question is. These manipulatives are great for introducing this vocabulary.

Base Ten Blocks

Base ten blocks are another underused manipulative in the elementary and middle school classroom. Base Ten Blocks consist of cubes (one's place), rods (ten's place), flats (hundred's place) and blocks (thousand's place). Base Ten Blocks are a great way to learn place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and square numbers/square roots (see Camtasia lesson in Technology Resources section). The great thing about base ten blocks is that students do not have to know what the symbols mean before starting (as they would with dice); they can use a hands approach to help them wrap their minds around concepts. They can also be used to explain very complex mathematical concepts, such as squares/square roots, in a very simplistic way that even young children can understand. This can be a very useful extended activity for elementary student who is working far beyond grade level, for example an ELL student whose curriculum advancement was quicker in their home country.

Two-Colour Counters

These are great manipulatives to use for a number of concepts. They are a different colour on each side, usually yellow and red, and this makes them more useful than single solid colour manipulatives. These manipulatives can be used for sorting, categorizing, patterns, counting, addition, subtraction, as well as early probability and estimation exercises. I have used them with ELLs to demonstrate concepts such as skip counting, addition, subtraction, and patterning. When words cannot be used to explain problems these manipulatives make modelling the concepts much easier. They are better than a 100 chart because they still require the student to count instead of just being showed the symbolic representation of the number. This gives learners a firmer grasp of the concepts.

Interlocking Cubes

These manipulatives are very useful and can serve several purposes. Interlocking cubes help students develop spatial sense. They can also be used to teach operations, numbers, patterns, fractions, probability, squares/square roots, slope, algebraic rules, and volume. The cubes can be linked together like rods and ten frames (as shown above), which means they can replace those manipulatives if you are in a pinch. I used these the other day for a lesson on place value and counting. Students were given several handfuls of products (cubes) that had to be packed into boxes of tens (made ten frames) in order to be shipped to the retailers. This activity was useful for my ELL students as deconstructing the word problem to generate an answer by diagraming alone would have been a difficult task. Given the cubes and shown how to make ten frames, the students were able to complete the hands on task and then diagram the outcome.

Play Money

This manipulative is particularly useful for ELL students, as they may struggle with the Canadian currency. For example in Korea 1000 Won is approximately the equivalent of $1. Their money is based on a base of 1000 instead of the 100 base that Canadian and American currency is based on. I lived in Korea for more than 8 years, but when talking about purchases with other foreigners I would still say, This cost only $50! instead of saying, This cost only 50,000 Won!. It is difficult to think of money in terms other than what you were brought up with. These manipulatives will help alleviate the cultural bias inherent in all questions concerning currency. These manipulatives are great to use for counting, operations, fractions, patterns, decimals and fractions, and probability. This type of manipulative is perfect for any elementary classroom.