Students with visual impairments may face challenges when working on the Mathematics standards in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). As a response to this, Perkins School for the Blind convened a panel of experts to identify specific standards that would be a potential challenge to students who are blind or visually impaired, and then proposed ideas for materials, foundational skills, tips and strategies, and lesson ideas to help to address these challenges.
This post is part of a series about different parts of the Mathematical standards.
What is a student likely to be working on in the area of Number Systems:
A number system is a way to represent number.
Base ten or the decimal system is one common number system.
Other number systems are Binary (base 2), Hexadecimal (base 16), and Octal (base 8).
Early elementary grades study numbers and operations in base ten usually in whole numbers and some.
By the time a student reaches 3rd grade fractions are included in the study of numbers.
Once in middle school students work with the Number System includes the study of positive and negative number, and rational number and irrational numbers.
In high school students learning is extended from rational and irrational numbers to imaginary numbers to form complex numbers.
As students advance through the grades they apply and extend their understanding of the number system.
Studying the number system enables the student to do mathematics; calculate, solve equations and represent measurements.
What are the particular challenges for a student who have a visual impairment?
The number system can become abstract particularly as the student advances from grade to grade. It is recommended concrete, along with tactile, examples be used when working with students. The use of real world examples of uses of the number system
Foundational Skills:
Addition
Subtraction
Multiplication
Division
Decimals, terminal and repeating
Fractions
Rational Numbers
Irrational Numbers
Understand the relationship between fractional integers and rational numbers