Teaching Children Mathematics / September 2004 97

C
onsider the following scenario:
Teacher. Can you solve this problem? (Gives
student paper with 4 1/8 written at the top)
Student. (Writes 3/8 as answer) Three-eighths. I
subtracted one from four, and then kept the denom-
inator, eight, the same.
Teacher. Suppose you had four large brownies
and you ate one-eighth of one brownie. How many
brownies would you have left?
Student. (Pauses, then draws four rectangles,
cuts one of the rectangles into eight pieces, and
shades one of the pieces) Three and seven-eighths.
(Writes 3 7/8)
Now consider another scenario:
Teacher. I will tell you a number, and you write
it. Please write for me the number one-half.
Student. (Writes 1 1/2)
Teacher. Please write for me the number one
and one-half.
Student. (Writes 1 1/2) It is the same thing.
Teacher. (Writes 1/2 and points to it) What
would you call this?
Student. Half.
I have observed both of these scenarios, and I
suspect that most teachers have seen something
similar. The first scenario captures the fact that
real-life, or relevant, situations may be more com-
prehensible to students than are written symbols.
The second scenario exemplifies the fact that the
connections children make between language and
written symbols may differ from the connections
adults make. This article describes five representa-
tions: relevant situations, pictures, manipulatives,
spoken language, and written symbols. It also uses
these two scenarios to explain how understanding
the connections among representations is useful for
making sense of students responses to tasks, and
discusses an instructional sequence to help stu-
dents make connections among representations.
The Representations Model
Lesh, Post, and Behr (1987) identify five ways to
represent a mathematical idea and emphasize
their interconnectedness. Principles and Stan-
dards for School Mathematics (NCTM 2000)
states, Representations should be treated as
essential elements in supporting students under-
standing of mathematical concepts and relation-
ships; in communicating mathematical approaches,
arguments, and understandings to ones self and
to others; in recognizing connections among
related mathematical concepts; and in applying
mathematics to realistic problem situations
through modeling (p. 67). The five representa-
tions presented in this article are a subset of those
that a teacher or students might draw on when
examining mathematical ideas.
Pictures
Although the representation Pictures can refer to
the pictures of mathematical ideas that teachers
Lisa Clement, Lclement@mail.sdsu.edu, is an assistant professor at San Diego
State University. She is interested in classroom discourse and using childrens
mathematical thinking to support teachers practice.
By Lisa L. Clement
A Model for Understanding,
Using, and Connecting
Representations
Copyright 2004 The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Inc. www.nctm.org. All rights reserved.
This material may not be copied or distributed electronically or in any other format without written permission from NCTM.
draw or that are in textbooks (such as rectangles
that are cut into four equal pieces with one piece
shaded), I tend to think of pictures as those that
children draw themselves. When teachers ask chil-
dren to draw pictures, they can learn more about
what a child understands about a particular math-
ematical idea, and they can use the different pic-
tures that children create to provoke a discussion
about mathematical ideas. For example, when
teachers ask children to draw one-fourth of a
brownie, they can determine which children
understand that every one-fourth piece should
have the same area as the others, or that they
should use the entire brownie when cutting it into
fourths. If some children use equal parts and oth-
ers do not, the teacher can lead a discussion about
these differences. Constructing their own pictures
can be a powerful learning experience for students
because they must consider several aspects of
mathematical ideas (such as equal parts) that are
often assumed when pictures are pre-drawn for
students.
Manipulatives
Children might use Unifix cubes, base-ten blocks,
or fraction circles to solve a problem. Manipula-
tives are objects that students can touch, move, and,
often, stack. Because children can physically
manipulate these objects, when used appropriately
they give children opportunities to compare relative
sizes of objects that represent mathematical ideas
such as fractions or place value. They also allow
children to identify patterns, put together represen-
tations of numbers in multiple ways, and so on.
Spoken language
Two uses of spoken language exist. One is a way
for students to report their answers, and another is a
way for students to express their reasoning. Tradi-
tionally, teachers often use the spoken language of
mathematics but rarely give students the opportunity
to grapple with it. When students have opportunities
to express their mathematical reasoning aloud, how-
ever, they may be able to make more explicit the
knowledge that had been implicit for them.
98 Teaching Children Mathematics / September 2004
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Written symbols
Written symbols refers to both mathematical
symbols and the written words that are associated
with them; for example, 1/4, 2/8, 0.25, 25%, and
one-fourth, two-eighths, twenty-five hundredths,
and twenty-five percent. Written symbols tend to be
more abstract for students than are the other repre-
sentations. I usually introduce symbols after stu-
dents have had opportunities to make connections
among the other representations so that they have
different ways to connect the symbols to mathe-
matical ideas, thereby increasing the likelihood
that the symbols will be comprehensible to them.
Relevant situations
The fraction 1/4 can be represented in a variety of
relevant situations; for example, Juan ate 1/4 of
the pepperoni pizza or Alicia and her three best
friends shared a large chocolate bar fairly. How
much of the candy bar did each person get? A rel-
evant situation can be any context that involves
appropriate mathematical ideas and holds interest
for children. It is often, but not necessarily, con-
nected to a real-life situation. For example, one
teacher created a story about leprechauns that,
although not a real-life situation, held great interest
for her students; therefore, this context is consid-
ered a relevant situation.
Drawing on Connections
between Representations
to Understand Childrens
Thinking
When teachers focus their instruction on the repre-
sentations that may be the most familiar to chil-
drenrelevant situations, manipulatives, pictures,
and spoken languagethey may provide children
with greater access to and enjoyment of mathemat-
ics. Teachers can help students make connections
from these representations to written symbols, but
only after students have begun to connect the for-
mer representations to one another. For most chil-
dren, the meaning of the symbols is more abstract,
and therefore more difficult to comprehend, than
are the other representations.
For example, when teachers verbally prompt
students to write the mathematical symbol for one-
half, children will often incorrectly write 1 1/2, as
in the second scenario at the beginning of this arti-
cle. Attending to connections between relevant sit-
uations, spoken language, and written symbols
helped me consider one possible explanation of
this occurrence: Children use half, not one-half, in
their everyday spoken language for sharing things
equally. For example, one child may ask another,
Can I have half your brownie? Therefore, that
many students write 1 1/2 when the teacher asks
them to write one-half is not surprising. They write
the symbol 1 to represent the one in one-half,
then write the symbol 1/2 to represent half, a
familiar term to them.
Knowledge of the representations is also helpful
for reflecting on which of them would be most
meaningful to students when mathematical ideas
are first introduced. For example, when asked to
solve the problem 4 1/8, many students will
answer incorrectly with responses such as 3/8 (sub-
tracting 1 from 4 and leaving the denominator the
same, as in the first scenario)
or 3/4 (subtracting 1 from 4,
then subtracting 4 from 8).
The students who make these
errors tend to think of the
numerator and denominator as
separate numbers to be oper-
ated on, instead of treating the
fractionin this case, 1/8as
a single number. In my experi-
ence, however, the same stu-
dents are much more success-
ful when asked to solve a
problem that corresponds to 4
1/8 but is set in a relevant
context. One example of this
is Maria has four big brown-
ies. She eats one-eighth of one
brownie and saves the rest for later. How much does
she have now? Setting a problem in a relevant con-
text helps students develop an image that they can
use in deciding how to solve the problem. In this
example, even students who are still unsure of the
final answer almost always know that three brown-
ies and some part of another brownie remain. The
problem also invites students to draw a picture (or
use manipulatives, if available) to represent their
thinking. The symbols alone rarely suggest to stu-
dents that they should draw a picture because, at
least initially, the symbols tend to have little mean-
ing for most students.
I use a picture (see fig. 1) to remember not only
the representations but also the importance of the
connections between them. The picture provides a
quick visual image of the representations model
that guides my teaching.
Teaching Children Mathematics / September 2004 99
Children use
half, not
one-half, in
their everyday
spoken language
The Model in Action:
A Decimal Lesson
I recently had the opportunity to tutor two fifth-
grade students to help them compare decimals. I
knew from my previous work with students that
comparing decimals is often challenging. Many
students compare decimals by ignoring the decimal
point, and treat the numbers as whole numbers. For
example, students who use the whole-number
approach would compare 0.73 and 0.8 and say
incorrectly that 0.73 is greater, because 73 is
greater than 8. Other students could get correct
answers by adding zeroes to the decimal number
with fewer places until both decimals had the same
number of places to the right of the decimal point.
For example, a student who uses this approach
would add a 0 to the right of 0.8 to get 0.80. Then,
when comparing the decimals, the student could
say that 0.73 is less than 0.80. Although this
approach helps students get correct answers, stu-
dents still might not understand that decimals less
than one are parts of wholes. They might still think
of decimals as whole numbers, only now that they
have made both decimals the same number of
places, they can get correct answers.
In a preassessment, the students I was tutoring
compared pairs of decimals in written, symbolic
form (for example, 0.73 versus 0.8); neither stu-
dent could successfully compare them. I wanted to
begin instruction by using a real-world context
(relevant situation) that I thought might be famil-
iar to them, instead of beginning with the written
symbols. I also wanted them to use spoken lan-
guage and base-ten blocksflats, longs, and sin-
glesto support the context so that they would
have multiple access points for thinking about the
relative size of decimals. Therefore, I began the
lesson by describing the community in which I
live; it has many apartment buildings and very lit-
tle land for things such as gardens. I then intro-
duced the flat (a manipulative) as a plot of com-
munity land that is cut into small pieces so that
neighbors have a place to garden, if they so
choose. I asked the students to identify the number
of pieces into which the garden was cut (100). I
also asked them to identify each small piece (one-
hundredth of the garden) and row (one-tenth of the
garden) and why it was so named. I orally asked
the students to show me, with the manipulative
pieces, one-tenth, three-tenths, and thirty-five hun-
dredths of the garden. Later, I selected manipula-
tive piecestwo small pieces, five longs, and two
longs with seven small piecesand asked the stu-
dents to orally tell me what fractional part of the
garden I had selected. I began with spoken lan-
guage and had them respond with manipulatives;
then I presented manipulative pieces and had them
respond with spoken language. At this point, my
instruction was focused on helping the students
think about decimal fractions by using a relevant
situation, manipulatives, spoken language, and the
connections among all three.
I next attempted to support the students think-
ing about multiple ways to name the same section
of garden. I was not only thinking about connec-
tions between a situation, manipulative, and spo-
ken language, but also wanting the students to
understand that connections can be made within
the same representation; in this case, multiple ways
exist to name the same part of the land, such as
three-tenths and thirty-hundredths. Of course, this
naming requires more than the students ability to
vocalize the correct words. The students must be
able to view and think about the same parcel of
land using different-sized pieces, in this case,
tenths and hundredths.
100 Teaching Children Mathematics / September 2004
Figure 1
The five representations
After working on similar problems, the students
could build a fraction of the garden when the frac-
tion was provided verbally, name the parts of the
garden in two ways, and explain why both ways
were appropriate. I asked the students to write the
symbols for the fractions with which they were
working. At this point in the lesson, they had built
with manipulatives seventy-three hundredths of
one garden and eight-tenths of another garden. One
of the students already knew how to write fractions
in decimal form, so he was able to represent the
same fraction in written symbols in multiple ways,
such as 73/100, 7/10, 3/100, 0.73, 0.7, and 0.03. He
would name the fraction 73/100 seventy-three hun-
dredths, but the same fraction, when written 0.73,
as point seventy-three, instead of also seventy-three
hundredths. Many students use this language. They
may do so because fractions written in decimal
form do not indicate the existence of a denomina-
tor, for example, with a symbol such as / or ;
in the example of 0.73, the written symbol does not
include the denominator 100. The denominator
helps students recognize that decimals are tenths,
hundredths, thousandths, and so on. I suggested
that my student use the same language for 0.73 that
he used for 73/100, because the language might
help him remember that decimals are fractions
rather than whole numbers.
My lesson design started with a context that was
relevant to the student and that was further sup-
ported by the use of manipulatives and spoken lan-
guage by both the teacher and the student. The
introduction of written symbols late in the lesson
was purposeful and based on the preassessment,
which indicated that the students had not yet made
appropriate meaning of the symbols. I decided to
delay the introduction of the symbols until the stu-
dents had made appropriate connections within and
among the representations of relevant situations,
manipulatives, and spoken language. In a post-
assessment, these students were able to appropri-
ately compare several pairs of decimals (all less
than one) in symbolic form and explain which pair
was greater with an explanation that went beyond
adding a zero.
Summary
The representations model provides a lens for mak-
ing sense of students responses to tasks and a guide
for planning lessons. Teachers should first consider
whether all or most of the representations should be
a component of a set of lessons. The model is also
helpful for selecting an order in which to introduce
the representations. Teachers should begin with
those that are most meaningful for students. When
analyzing their students work, teachers may want
to consider the following questions:
What representations did I use when I posed the
task?
What representations did students use to under-
take the task?
Were any translations among representations
particularly challenging or helpful for students?
How did the representations and connections
among them support the students mathematical
reasoning and flexibility in their thinking?
When considering an important mathematical idea
that they plan to teach, teachers
should consider the following
questions:
Which representation or
representations will be most
meaningful for my stu-
dents?
In what order does it make
the most sense to introduce
(or invite the use of) the dif-
ferent representations?
Which representations or
translations will promote
more powerful mathemati-
cal thinking for my students?
Looking back on my first few years of teaching, I
now realize that I spent much class time talking,
instead of allowing my students to discuss mathe-
matical ideas, and using written mathematical
symbols without relevant situations, manipulatives,
or pictures to support students understanding of
the symbols or language. The representations
model helped me recognize gaps in the way I rep-
resented mathematical ideas to students and pro-
vided structure for planning lessons. I now reflect
on the most appropriate order for introducing rep-
resentations that will best support my students
understanding. Teachers with whom I have shared
the model have had similar experiences. Increasing
the number of connections among representations
that students can use to grapple with mathematical
concepts may increase the number of students who
report good experiences with mathematics and
increase their mathematical understanding.
Teaching Children Mathematics / September 2004 101
The
representations
model provides a
lens for making
sense of students
responses to tasks
References
Lesh, Richard, Tom Post, and Merlyn Behr. Rep-
resentations and Translations among Represen-
tations in Mathematics Learning and Problem
Solving. In Problems of Representation in the
Teaching and Learning of Mathematics, edited
by Claude Janvier, pp. 3340. Hillsdale, N.J.:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1987.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
(NCTM). Principles and Standards for School
Mathematics. Reston, Va.: NCTM, 2000.
The author would like to thank Bonnie Schap-
pelle, Vicki Jacobs, and Randy Philipp for
their comments on earlier drafts of this arti-
cle. Preparation of this article was supported
by a grant from the National Science Founda-
tion (NSF) (REC-9979902). The views
expressed are those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect the views of NSF.
102 Teaching Children Mathematics / September 2004
Editors Note
Looking for additional resources? NCTM offers a variety of resources related to
representations, such as the following:
Lubinski, Cheryl, and Albert D. Otto. Meaningful Mathematical Representa-
tions and Early Algebraic Reasoning. Teaching Children Mathematics 9
(October 2002): 7680.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). The Roles of Represen-
tation in School Mathematics. 2001 Yearbook of the National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics. Reston, Va.: NCTM, 2001.
Perry, Jill A., and Sandra L. Atkins. Its Not Just Notation: Valuing Young Chil-
drens Representations. Teaching Children Mathematics 9 (December
2002): 196201.
Visit www.nctm.org for more information on all of NCTMs resources, includ-
ing professional development offerings and publications available in the online
catalog.Ed.