Singapore mathematics approach: The impact a problem solving heuristic, the strip model, has upon students with learning disabilities ability to solve story (word) problems in an after-school setting.

The Thomas Reynolds Center for Special Education and After-School Programs is currently teaching 3rd and 4th grade students in an after-school program a mathematical problem solving heuristic called the “strip model” from the Singapore math curriculum. All twenty student participants receive instruction from Thomas Reynolds Center Graduate Assistants who are pursuing their Masters Degree in Special Education. The strip model helps students solve addition and subtraction story (word) problems by drawing a rectangle in order to help them visualize the relationships between the quantities. Students will have the opportunity to apply the strip model to solve joining, separate, and part-part-whole problems. The strip model provides students with a visual representation to assist with determining the correct operation to use to solve the problem. Baseline data was collected using a series of curriculum based measures. Students began the intervention at staggered intervals once a trend in the data was obtained. Intervention consists of an explicit instructional approach known as, “I DO, WE DO, YOU DO” in order to teach the strip model diagram. When intervention measures demonstrate a desirable trend, the students will move on to the post measure phase consisting of two story problems a day without instruction