5 Instructional Strategies for Math Skills Development by Pauline Hsu

Math Manipulatives

phsu24 — 2025-03-16 20:55:11 UTC

Math manipulatives are helpful for visually and physically conveying abstract concepts. For example, addition and subtraction is a concept that may be difficult for students to understand. However, with math manipulatives, students can see how blocks are taken away or added. Math manipulatives allow students to manipulate numbers themselves as engage with the blocks, coins or other forms of math manipulatives.

Relevant Word Problems and Activities

phsu24 — 2025-03-16 20:55:12 UTC

Framing math in a way that can relate to real-world scenarios can make math engaging and applicable. The outcome is to show students that math is all around them and can be used in everyday scenarios. The piggy bank is used to show how money is something everyone interacts with and students may often have. Activities that involve counting money and buying things with it relates math to things students will or already come across outside of math class.

Classroom Discussion

phsu24 — 2025-03-16 20:55:13 UTC

Classroom discussions are a great way for students to reflect on their own strategy in how they solved a problem and share it. Reflection is important as an instructional strategy for students to think about why they think the way they do. An example of a classroom discussion and activity is showing a relevant image of numbers or calculations and ask what students think, notice, and wonder.

Encourage Students to Choose

phsu24 — 2025-03-16 20:55:13 UTC

People think differently and solve problems using different strategies. Students may understand concepts differently or arrive to the same answer using different strategies. Allow students to choose the pathway that makes sense to them. For example, computing 23 x 4 can be done in different ways. Some students may calculate using a standard algorithm that is taught. Other students may multiply 4 and 3. Then 20 and 4. Then they would add the products of both.

Small Group Activities

phsu24 — 2025-03-16 20:55:13 UTC

Encourage students to work together in solving problems. This is a place for students to discuss strategies and see how others choose to solve a problem. Students are able to help one another out. They brainstorm, bounce ideas off one another, and can share things that others may not have noticed.