I think they’re trying to teach some weird new form of base ten where you have to fill up a grid of ten dots when doing addition and then add the remainder.

So it’s like 8+9 is represented as two rows of 5, and when you fill them you have 10 + 7 left over.

Basically the same as drawing 4 lines and a strike through them to count 5.

That said, it’s a pretty stupid method and it’s not easier than the way us old people learned how to add.