18 Concrete/Hands on Materials
Definition
Any tangible material that can be used by a student to better understand a specific concept or skill. Use of materials should be helpful in promoting increased understanding and/or skill accuracy.
In action
Teachers can provide relevant tangible materials to students during presentation or practice of a new/difficult skill or concept
Support Strategies
- Using actual or replicated money as part of a mathematics lesson on counting
- Using a map with pins to identify the provinces of Canada
- Using props to discuss the plot of a story
Case Study
Student: A Grade 1 student in Math class.
Content: Students are learning how to tell time on an analog clock. Students are given a worksheet with pictures of different clocks telling different times and are asked to write out the correct time.
Problem: The student is having trouble understanding how to tell time using the classroom wall clock.
Solution: Teacher provides a tangible plastic 2D analog clock and has them practice moving the clock hands to match the teacher whole-class model.
Additional Resources
- Article describing the benefits of concrete and virtual (online) manipulatives
- Summary of manipulative use in the classroom with research and practical examples from the University of Cambridge
- Description of the Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) instructional sequence to support student progress from concrete to abstract conceptualizations and skills from PATTAN
- Article from Dr. Daniel Willingham on whether and how manipulatives can help students learn
- Specific ideas for using manipulatives in mathematics from TeacherVision
