Building Math Understanding with #MATHREPS
"Sharing MathReps with the Grade 3 class in my building has been a heartwarming experience! The students are very excited to try new learning and take risks thanks to the workbooks."
When students use a non-permanent surface, they can build confidence. This confidence helps them take risks in their learning. MathReps Workbooks by Wipebook allow students to explore math concepts and build on foundational concepts.
Supporting Your Instruction with Wipebook
In the past year, I have seen how useful erasable Wipebook MathReps Workbooks are in my classroom. They help support student learning. I try to use the Wipebooks daily and encourage students to pull it out for any problem they are working on.
In guided math groups, my students will practice a skill on their Wipebooks. This lets me give them immediate feedback. They can make quick corrections when they have misunderstandings.
The more I use Wipebooks in my practice, the more students gain confidence. They start using the tool on their own without needing reminders.
MathReps has helped me tailor my teaching to meet my students' needs. It also lets me collaborate with teachers in my school to improve math skills. I teach Grade 6, but I can use the grade 3-4 MathReps template. It helps my students practice number skills and concepts. For students working on modified programming, this provides an extra learning tool to help my students build independence while having repeated practice.
Representing Concepts in Different Ways
With the Wipebook MathReps Workbooks, I have focused on the number forms and representation of numbers in sections 3.1 and 3.2. I have seen students get faster each day by representing numbers in multiple different ways.
We have explored how to take a concrete representation with ten base blocks and represent it with drawings and numbers. You can easily move from concrete to representational to abstract skills using the MathReps templates. By having a set space for each number form, the cognitive load on students is lowered as the template chunks each part. If students make an error, they are able to erase their mistake and redo the work without the fear of it being permanent.
“I am so excited to use that tool, I love it so much!”
Sharing MathReps with the Grade 3 class in my building has been a heartwarming experience! The students are very excited to try new learning and take risks thanks to the workbooks.
The students can easily engage with the curriculum and want to work with numbers. Seeing the students represent numbers in different ways, and attempt the parts I have yet to teach is encouraging. Students can restart their work and try different numbers.
As we have moved throughout these first few weeks, students were able to move from representing a single number on the first page, to showing a pictorial and number representation on the second page.
Being able to see both numbers represented on one single page allows the students to make a quick comparison and then decide if they are equal or not. An added bonus was the students loved to draw the greater than/less than signs with teeth for alligators.
Building Skills and Confidence in Math Learning
Students are excited to use new things and learn in different ways! When I introduced the MathReps Workbooks, one student was my personal hype man. They were excited about every new part I showed.
When practicing with the Wipebooks, students are able to collaborate to discuss numbers and concepts they are working through.
Being able to collaborate with their work encourages positive interactions and allows them to hear different perspectives. Each student can choose a different number to work with. However, they all follow the same steps to show a number in different ways.
After working with the Grade 3 class, the students were excited to share their work. They wanted to discuss the different strategies they used with their numbers.
When building skills in students, they need to learn they have the tools and skills to be successful. Repeated use of the Wipebook encourages students to take risks and builds confidence in their own abilities.
Students can use the Wipebook and other tools around the room to support/guide their own learning and recognize when something does not look right. The Wipebook allows students to restart their work if they feel necessary, or redo sections of it. It is an amazing tool that helps to build a deeper understanding of concepts and curriculum.
Over the past year and a bit of using Wipebook Workbooks and the Wipebook MathReps Workbooks, it has been exciting to see how much further my students have been able to go with their learning, and the confidence they have to try something new.