Count Me In Tools
Manipulatives and More
By Age and Grade
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Students are the focus at jd-commons, not subjects. Students do not really practice addition or multiplication or equations anymore than piano students
practice the piano -
the piano doesn't need the practice! Subjects are the vehicle for
the practice and study that goes on in the student. Subjects tap different thinking skills: observing, analyzing, synthesizing, interpreting, generating, getting the main idea, getting the gist, improvising, honing, taking the long view, attending to the detail, defining the problem, and solving the problem. This is not a revolutionary idea, but it is easy to forget about in the midst of day-to-day subject teaching and learning. Building on this, facts alone do not constitute knowledge or thinking ability. At the same time, thinking needs to think about and with something. If the students’ minds are burdened with having to reestablish basic math facts and concepts, they’ll be like music students not fluent with their basic scales, burdened and frustrated later when they come across those scales in a piece of music. The essential experimentation and discovery in student focused learning and experienced based memory of needed facts are not mutually exclusive learning objectives. A good education means setting students free, without setting them adrift. So we search for:
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