Project Description
Math Programs
We provide individualized programs for children and adults to develop and improve math skills. Much of what we do is driven by the student’s math curriculum. Our philosophy is to move from concrete to representational to abstract. We also help students create strategy notebooks for reference. These are like math recipe books and contain algorithms for the skills they have learned. For example, a student might have a page in the strategy notebook devoted to adding fractions with unlike denominators.
Multisensory Math
Commonwealth Learning Center is delighted to offer Multisensory Math (MSM), a hands-on approach to math instruction based on Orton-Gillingham principles and practices.
Highlights of MSM:
- Multisensory instruction engages all learning pathways—visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile. Simultaneously targeting multiple neural pathways enhances memory and retention.
- Diagnostic and prescriptive teaching ensures that individual needs are continuously assessed and met. Pacing is aligned in accordance with the individual student’s processing speed, and content is presented and reviewed to automaticity.
- Concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) is the fundamental instructional sequence. Concepts are introduced with manipulatives so as not to teach math procedurally. The concrete stage is hands-on and three-dimensional, activating the kinesthetic-tactile pathways through gross motor activities. The representational stage reinforces the concrete experience through images of concrete objects or abstract shapes. Last in the instructional sequence, the abstract stage introduces abstract symbols to depict quantities, and students learn computations to solve problems.
- Large sequential activities are broken into small steps in order to accommodate working memory. Working memory is what allows us to store and manage information for easy retrieval.
- Keywords are used for cuing—a strategy that helps facilitate retrieval of knowledge for application.
- Rhythmic repetition is incorporated into instruction so as to cement concepts in memory.
- Graphic organizers are used to boost visual memory and to aid in recall.
- Morphology is directly and explicitly taught, enhancing understanding of vocabulary and concepts.
- Visual dictionaries (definitions and illustrations) are created to further solidify vocabulary.
We are welcoming students in kindergarten through algebra for this program.
Marilyn Zecher’s Multisensory MathSM
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