Young students should be active learners of mathematics. Hands-on experiences provide children with opportunities to explore and solidify their thinking about mathematical ideas. Students gain deeper understanding of mathematics through connecting their ideas and finding ways to express them.

As we study the Representation Standard, we will consider several aspects of the Standard in learning and teaching mathematics. We will look at the ways that children represent their ideas and connect their representations to the mathematics they are working to make sense of.

We will also consider the importance of providing mathematical tasks that lend themselves to representing ideas in a variety of ways, and the progression of early, less conventional, representations to the more traditional. We will reflect on the role of the teacher in structuring mathematics instruction so that students can more easily move from representations that are tangible and concrete, like manipulatives, to those that are more abstract, like mathematical symbols.

  Observe student work