Expeditions to Numeracy
A Place-Value-Based Intervention for K-4
Student-explorers travel to CountOn County where they visit important areas of mathematical interest. There, they investigate and discover significant number and place value concepts, build and practice number and operations skills, and learn to think about mathematics in a new way.
INSTRUCTION
The activities in Expeditions to Numeracy:
- Teach to well defined objectives
- Actively engage learners in meaning-making activities to promote focus and attention to task
- Carefully build the “prior” knowledge and experience that fosters connection-making
- Teach in small, incremental steps
- Provide multiple points of entry to accommodate students at various levels of learning
- Involve learners in reflection, self-monitoring, and self-assessment
- Facilitate small group instruction
ASSESSMENT
Expeditions to Numeracy provides diagnostic tools to assess the needs of individual students:
- Pre-tests to promote efficient and productive instruction
- Post-tests to check students’ learning at the end of every exploration
- Blackline masters for pre- and post-assessments
- Checks-ups for learning at the end of each activity
- Individual and group record pages for tracking student progress
A Wall Map of CountOn County provides a visual portrayal of the entire program, hinting at the connections and playfulness available to all learners through the study of mathematics.
In Add’n’Subtract Town and Multiply’n’Divide Village, explorers use their place value understanding and the full set of whole number blocks to develop all the operations procedures.
Money Island is a stand-alone unit. On Money Island, explorers use block “money” to learn about the bills and coins in our real money system. |  | In Place Value City, explorers use the Digi-Block system and the ten-frame to unlock the mysteries of place value. Explorers continually return to the City’s number-set regions (0-10, 0-19, 0-99, 0-999, and 0-1000+) to build the conceptual understanding of place value that gives them entry to corresponding regions in the Town and the Village.
Proficiency Park is a popular area in CountOn County. Explorers regularly visit the Park to engage in games and exercises that extend, strengthen, and apply the skills they are developing in the other regions. | ||||
Student-explorers and their leaders (teachers) use the map to orient themselves within the program, to plan expeditions in and around the five regions, and to track learning progress.
