4 Math Instructional Strategies for Special Educators

I’m excited to introduce this week’s guest blogger, Juliana from CollaboratEd! She is here to talk about math instructional strategies! She is passionate about students who struggle with math. Juliana is a General Ed math teacher. She also has been a co-teacher, and have always taught the high school math intervention classes.

Now she is an independent Math PD facilitator for schools and districts. I work with a ton of amazing special educators. I’m thrilled to share these math instructional strategies with you here!

You can read Juliana’s last blog post to increase your math confidence!

Let’s talk about math instructional strategies from the special education perspective. Along with some practical math instructional strategies for specific segments of your special education math classroom! This is not an exhaustive list, just a list of the most common strategies I see in the math classrooms.

Math Strategy #1: Concrete Representational Abstract (CRA)

I find this comes very naturally to special education teachers! The CRA strategy means you teach the math content in 3 chunks. First, concretely with hands on physical manipulatives, something tangible. Second, you teach it representationally with students usually drawing a representation of the mathematics. Lastly, abstractly with students removing the scaffolds and just writing and solving math.

Here’s an example for pre-algebra/Algebra 1:

• Concrete: Have students group starbursts and m&ms by color on a plate
• Representational: Have students take a disorganized set of shapes and draw them grouped according to shape similarity
• Abstract: Given an expression (ex: 4x – 5 – 3x + 10), identify like terms with shapes (ex: 4x & -3x in a square and -5 & +10 in a circle). Combine like terms (just as students did in the previous two chunks, but this time with math!)

I absolutely love this instructional strategy. However, it can be challenging to create a CRA lesson for every piece of math content and math instructional strategies.

Math Strategy #2: Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR)

Sometimes called explicit teaching, or more often referred to as “I do, we do, you do,”. This gradual release of responsibility is probably the most common and most traditional math instructional strategy on this list. And, in my experience and opinion, the most effective for students with learning differences. I see most teachers using GRR is not effective for students who struggle with math. Teachers commonly use GRR like this:

• 20 minutes of “I do” – lecture/direct instruction
• 20 minutes of “we do” – worksheet or book work practice with the ability to ask for help
• 20 minutes of “you do” – get started on homework independently

This doesn’t work. It’s way too overwhelming for our students who struggle with math. 

What do to instead

• 1 problem “I do” – Solve one problem for students, thinking out loud as you go
• 1 problem “we do” – call on students to answer as many questions as possible about the steps to the problem and solve as you go
• 1 problem “you do” – have students work in teams to solve one problem and agree on an answer

You can learn more about my take on GRR and how to apply these math instructional strategies and suggestions with my Math Wars Method™ Workshop.

Math Strategy #3: Problem Based 

Problem based mathematics encourages students to investigate mathematics and come up with solutions without the direct instruction piece. One of the most popular problem based math curricula is Illustrative Mathematics which is available for free.

While I love the idea of students investigating mathematical problems to build perseverance. They also gain skills in problem solving. It comes with some real challenges for our students with massive learning gaps.

However, I struggle to recommend problem based resources to 6-12th grade teachers. The students that have struggled with math for years tend to shut down and give up.

Try these math instructional strategies

Instead, I encourage teachers to launch a unit with an engaging problem to get students to try trial and error. Then do a few days of more explicit instruction to help them grow in their confidence.

Then at the end of the unit do another problem based task. Allow students to solve however they want to. As the year goes on you can integrate more problem based mathematics and less explicit instruction as your students grow more confident!

Math Strategy #4: Building thinking classrooms

A book taking the math world by storm is, Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Grades K-12: 14 Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning, by Peter Liljedahl. I have truly enjoyed reading this book and the research Liljedahl cites throughout is truly impressive.  

In the book he details what a “thinking classroom” is. He explains that explicit instruction kills thinking. This is not effective for creating a classroom where deep mathematical understanding can occur. He suggests practical tips like the importance of vertical white boards for students to solve problems.

Thinking Classrooms

A “thinking classroom” would be a problem based classroom. This is where rich tasks are used for students to discover the mathematics and think about and create the problem solving steps (instead of being instructed explicitly about how to solve them). He gives many “curricular” and “non curricular” examples teachers can put into practice immediately.

While I do love the idea of a thinking classroom, I have hesitations about going all in on a thinking classroom. When the majority of students in the classroom are students who struggle with mathematics. My hesitations are the same as I mentioned in strategy #3 around student math confidence and how a thinking classroom might be overwhelming for a student who has never been successful in mathematics. 

All that being said, there is a lot to learn about encouraging student thinking in his book and I feel it’s a must read for any math teacher looking to grow student confidence and perseverance in mathematics!

To Wrap Up

I hope you have found this list of math instructional strategies helpful for you in thinking about how to best deliver math lessons! Find what works for your teaching style and your students.

Looking for more ways to adapt your math curriculum? Read this post!

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