Singapore Strip example
Overview

Singapore strips—also called bar models or tape diagrams—are a powerful tool for visualizing a wide variety of mathematical situations. Tape diagrams are explicitly mentioned in the CCRSAE as a tool for reasoning with ratios, and they can be used for so much more. Through using them, students can improve their number sense, problem-solving skills, and confidence. 

    Audience

    This professional development activity/course is designed for:

  • Adult numeracy teachers at all levels of experience and confidence
Description

Learning to model quantities and relationships with Singapore strips can revolutionize teachers’ and students’ approaches to problem solving by empowering students to employ strategy and reasoning. According to Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics, “Becoming strategically competent involves an avoidance of ‘number grabbing’ methods (in which the student selects numbers and prepares to perform arithmetic operations on them) in favor of methods that generate problem models (in which the student constructs a mental model of the variables and relations described in the problem)” (p. 124).

In this half-day training, you will get a taste of myriad uses of Singapore strips and have a chance to try your hand at them yourself. Come discover how learning to model with Singapore strips can help your students tackle everything from working with fractions and percents to solving word problems that might be found in an algebra textbook or on a high school equivalency test.

    Learning Objectives

    Upon completion of this professional development activity/course, you will be able to:

  • Draw Singapore strip models to represent quantities and relationships in mathematical situations, including word problems.
    Use Singapore strip models to reason about quantitative relationships in context.
    Make connections between modeling with Singapore strips and modeling with variables and equations.
Presenter(s) / Facilitator(s)
Prerequisites

N/A

Date
05/11/2018 - 9:00 am to 05/11/2018 - 1:00 pm
Location

Picknelly Adult and Family Education Center
206 Maple Street, Room 402/403
Holyoke, MA 01040
United States

PD Center
SABES Mathematics and Adult Numeracy Curriculum and Instruction PD Center
Topic Area
High School Equivalency (HiSET/GED)
Learning Disabilities / Differences
Mathematics and Adult Numeracy
PDP Eligible
No