About the Author
I became a primary school teacher in Autumn of 1994. Whilst training in the profession I took a strong interest in the use of practical visual tools, particularly structured visual imagery to support the teaching of basic arithmetic skills in young children. I was particularly inspired by the out of print book 'Children Discover Arithmetic,' by Catherine Stern, 1949. I went on to use structured visual imagery throughout my teaching career, often designing and making my own materials. I found this approach to be particularly helpful in supporting children to develop links between different arithmetical structures, concepts and facts. I have also found that this approach has often helped to identify and address gaps in the conceptual understanding of older students.
............more about the book.
The aim of this 86 page e-book is to help those children who find the concepts of number difficult. These children often don t make the links and connections between the different arithemetic structures naturally and feel overwhelmed by a mass of separate facts to learn and a jungle of symbols to understand. Using a structured visual image approach, teachers find they have something concrete on which to apply, and repeat their explanations and the students begin to assimilate the language surrounding arithmetic structures and the symbols that represent them. Structured visual images provide teachers with a bridge between the abstract ideas and real arithmetic applications. The images support teachers explanations. The book is primarily a teaching tool, but there are some photocopiable work pages. I have avoided giving lengthy written explanations about the images as I believe teachers will use the images to support their own explanations.