Understanding More About Singapore Math

Betty Chu Pryor Lower School Head

Modern math instruction may initially look strange to those who grew up in a different generation. Many Belmont Day parents and faculty first learned arithmetic using traditional algorithms such as carrying the one when doing multidigit addition problems. Today, when those adults visit a classroom, they may be surprised to see young students working with rod and cubeshaped manipulatives before they even put pencil to paper.

Belmont Day adopted the Singapore math curriculum for lower school math instruction in 2018. The premise of this program is that students need to learn the concrete before they move on to the pictorial and finally to the abstract. For instance, when students learn place value, they start working with cubes so they can see that seventeen is made up of one set of 10 and 7 individual ones. Then, they move on to a pictorial representation of what 17 might look like on a poster. Finally, they move to the abstract. The curriculum spirals up, revisiting each concept in a developmentally appropriate way, building on the skills developed in earlier grades.

Another important element of this approach is giving students a vocabulary to explain and understand math. Students can articulate and explain their thinking, which can be missing in traditional programs. For example, bar modeling allows students to demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between numbers. Suppose a student wants to demonstrate that one number is bigger than another. In that case, the bar models can be used to visualize that one bar is bigger than another. The size of the bars are proportional to the numbers that they represent. This concept is straighforward, but it helps students conceptualize the numbers.

Research shows that students using this approach have a much more thorough understanding of numbers and number sense. They truly understand the why behind the math rather than simply following the algorithm. Further, the program sets up students for success in middle school, where the math curriculum takes another challenging leap forward.

Lower school faculty had their Singapore math skills buoyed through several professional development opportunities. The first chance came this past summer when Kevin Mahoney, EdD, an expert on teaching using the program, returned to campus. He has been mentoring and coaching BDS faculty since 2018. That session specifically focused on differentiation: how to meet the needs of mathematicians needing additional support, children who benefit from enrichment, and how to meet the needs of students in the middle.

The teachers appreciated the expert guidance and connecting with fellow math teachers across grade levels to exchange ideas and share strategies from their classrooms.

During the school year, Dr. Mahoney returned for additional sessions with lower school math faculty, focusing on math fact fluency, using hands-on manipulatives, and building the home-school connection in regard to math.