Stern Math

Temple Ary, math specialist and teacher trainer, working with first grade children at Harlem Success Academy in New York City. Temple is using the Counting Board to teach the numbers 1 to 10 and to show what numbers mean. The children can see the pattern of how the numbers increase by a single unit, the difference in length and height, the order of the numbers, and their relationship to one. She has not yet introduced the written symbols for the numbers because she wants the children to get these number sense concepts first.

• Read about teaching with the Counting Board
• Order the Counting Board

Temple Ary with second graders at Harlem Success Academy in New York City, using the Pattern Boards to teach odd and even. When the units are displayed on the 10 grid, it is much easier to see the pattern of the single units in the odd and even numbers. The Structural Arithmetic program introduces numbers and their patterns in different ways so that children get a thorough understanding. Here the numbers are broken up into single units. In the counting board they are represented in a length model.

• Read about teaching with the Pattern Boards
• Order the Pattern Boards

Temple Ary with a whole class of second graders at the Ramaz School in New York City. She is working with the Twenty Tray to teach what happens when you add a number to 9. You will notice that each child has a white board to write on and that the children are regularly asked to explain their thinking about how they got to a particular answer, thereby building their conceptualizing, problem solving skills and vocabulary for math.

• Read about teaching with the Twenty Tray
• Order the Twenty Tray

Dr. Herbert Ginsburg from Columbia Teacher's College visited Temple Ary at the Ramaz School in order to see the Stern Structural Arithmetic materials in action with children. He videotaped so that he could use clips with his graduate level classes to explore the issues of teaching and learning. At the end of the day he interviewed Temple about the method and its application.

Temple explains that the Structural Arithmetic program can be used beneficially with a range of children, from those who have trouble with math to those who are gifted in math. They have gained the well deserved reputation for being very effective with learning disabled children but were originally designed for all children.

Temple is joined by Fred Stern, grandson of Catherine Stern, the original creator of the program. They describe how the materials work in teaching math through creating patterns, relationships and number sense.