Structuring

Structuring is a skill that supports efficiency when solving additive and subtractive tasks as students learn to compose and decompose numbers with and without visual support. Efficient strategies are developed through an understanding of how to structure using 5, 10 and 20 to ultimately structure through 100 and beyond. For example, a student understands that 8 can be thought of as 5 and 3. The child uses the knowledge of 5 as a reference to combine and partition numbers through 10 (later using 10 to combine and partition through 20). In order to teach structuring of numbers we use organizational models and color to promote imagery of number combinations without counting. As students apply this knowledge it supports movement from unitary (count by 1) strategies to composite (non-count by 1) strategies, thus enhancing efficiency with additive and subtractive tasks.