Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum
Teacher professional development and classroom resources across the curriculum
Observing Student Representation
|Introduction | Estimating Blocks | Problem Reflection #1 | Counting Blocks | Problem Reflection #2 | Classroom Practice | Observe a Classroom | Reflection Questions | Your Journal|
Now that the students have made estimates, they need to count the number of cubes in their containers, and they need to show the process they're using to count the cubes. They have previously been working on grouping items by tens, and the teacher is interested to see if they use any grouping strategies.
The group we visited in Problem 1 is counting the blocks and putting them in piles of 10. They have represented their thinking in the following way:
Teacher: How many cubes were in your container?
Teacher: Explain to me how this shows 81.
Teacher: That is a good way to show 81 with the blocks. How could you show your work on paper?
The group members go back to work to show their thinking using paper and pencil. They come up with another way to represent their thinking:
Teacher: What do you have here?
Teacher: Show me how you would count them.
Teacher: Why do you think that?
Teacher: (pointing to the groups of 10 blocks) How many blocks did you say you had here?
Teacher: But you said there are 71 tallies. Which is correct?
After counting, the students realize that they did not record one set of blocks, and they add 10 more tallies to their record sheet:
Here is how another group of students recorded their thinking (they began drawing individual blocks in the first circle but then erased them):
Teacher: Can you explain what you have here?
Teacher: What does each set mean?
Teacher: (pointing to the first set) What is this?
Teacher: That is a lot of work -- but how can you show me that each circle has 10 if you don't want to draw all of those cubes?
Teacher: How else can you show how many are in the circle?
Teacher: (pointing to the extra square) Okay -- now, what is this?
Teacher: Sounds like a good plan. Call me back when you finish.
The students set to work. Their completed representation looks like this:
|Teaching Math Home | Grades K-2 | Representation | Site Map | © ||