Makes Students Feel in Control

The Thinking Blocks app is great for teaching students to use bar models to solve story problems . Bar models, rectangular models, or area model are common terms used when teaching math to help model and visualize story problems! When using this app, student go through the process of identifying the representing word problems and their number relationships to solve problems using different bar models. This app is a good resource in teaching students strategies to tackle story problems. While this app could be used for skill practice, I think it would be best utilized as a direct instruction resource.

Thinking Blocks is not a bells and whistles app but I value the step by step approach and visuals it provides for students as they complete different types of word problems. For many of my students who struggle with word problems it's because they don't know where to start. This app forces them to solve a problem 1 step at a time. It forces them to label a block picture then add bars and finally the corresponding numbers. Only after each of these steps has been completed correctly can students give their answer. I also like the feedback that appears after each step. It supports the math I am already doing with my students. I would like to see a further breakdown of numbers--1-20, 1-50, 1-100, 1-500.

Thinking Blocks is truly required for Common Core and PARCC assessments. It also works great with Singapore Math. Today's math requires students to make visual graphics of math operations and problem solving. Both PARCC assessments and Singapore Math use bar modeling extensively. Thinking Blocks guides students through demo videos and actual step-by-step problem solving. This app is not a gaming app, so it is not action packed for students, however, I am so glad that I found it.