One Teacher’s Steps to Transforming Perceptions of Math Instruction

From LDA Magazine:

Jim Franklin is an inclusion special education teacher from Elm Street Elementary in Rome, GA. Jim presented a session at the LDA Annual Conference in Atlanta and submitted this article to share a resource with the LDA Community after reading LDA Today last summer.

Jim’s session focused on teaching the number line to 10,000,000, fractions, decimals, elapsed time, weight, capacity, and money. Jim had developed a new type of manipulative to teach these concepts after he was looking for new ways to work with rounding whole numbers. Jim created a rounding tool based on the number line that incorporated movable, interchangeable slides. After further development and use with students, he was able to further adapt then for use with low vision and some blind students. 

Not only did Jim explore his own perceptions of math instruction, but he allowed his students’ experiences and suggestions to transform his perception of what was possible for teaching abstract concepts like rounding, elapsed time, and money. In his article, Jim also shares his experience with a teacher who is an inspiration herself! 

About the Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA)

LDA’s mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities through support, education, and advocacy.

About the Louisiana Deafblind Project

The mission of the Louisiana Deafblind Project for Children & Youth is to provide technical assistance and information dissemination to Louisiana students with combined hearing and vision loss, their families, schools, service providers, school districts, and the Louisiana Department of Education.