McCormick Student Work 10/18

The student sample that I chose was from the student's homework this week. The homework assignment had students draw a picture of an interesting clock or watch that they see in their homes. The student drew a clock with roman numerals on it. Each roman numeral was written correctly around the outside of the clock. The student also drew two hands on the clock, one shorter and one longer. I was very surprised that the student drew this because students have not explored roman numerals at this time. A family member could have assisted the student with finding the interesting clock, but I still think it's a very interesting sample of work.

This reveals that the student currently understands that other symbols can be on clocks and watches and that they are still clocks and watches without visual numbers on them. The student also understands that there are two hands on the clock, with one shorter and one longer. The sample reveals that there are gaps in this students thinking. The student was not required to locate this clock on her own, so an adult may have assisted her. She could have simply copied down the symbols of the roman numerals without having understanding that they represented numbers.

If I could ask this student a question about her work, I would ask her what the symbols mean that she drew. I would see if she knew that roman numerals corresponded with numbers. A way to advance this students thinking would be to show her many clocks that have different numerical values (one with only the 12, 3, 6, 9; one with no numbers but tick marks; one with only the 12 and 6; one with roman numerals). I would have this student compare the clocks to see what she noticed and if she thought they were all still clocks even though they looked differently. I might advance her thinking about what the two hands on the clock mean in a more complex way. In class, we talked about the minute and hour hands, but we mostly explored telling time to the hour. I would work with her to practice telling other times than just to the hour, so that she is using the minute hand, as well. A future math task that she might benefit from is telling time on one of these less common clocks. This would help her to estimate time by using a clock with only 12, 3,  6, and 9.