Student Work Blog 3- Patterns Kayleigh Robb

Student Work Blog- Week 3

            This week, my MT took Columbus Day off and I was free to develop a lesson on ABC patterns. My students, overall, have a good grasp on AB and ABB patterns. The concept of ABC patterns came fairly easily to most students. I created 5 different Halloween cut-outs and co-modeled an ABC pattern for my students, letting some of them choose which cutouts we would use and the order they would go in. I also showed the students that if they wanted to color the cutouts, the colors had to match their pattern as well.

            I let students choose which pattern they wanted to create (AB, ABB, or ABC) and let them choose the cutout characters they wanted to use. I gave them 6 cutouts each and I have given them follow-up Halloween pattern homework that I will use for my student work blog this week.

            I chose 3 student examples to show the various levels of comprehension and execution of this task. The first example comes from a student who often has a hard time following directions and has a strong urge to do what she wants that sometimes overtakes a lesson. I asked for the substitute to give her a little more assistance, however, I am excited to analyze her work.

One thing that this student did really well was that she colored all of her elements similarly to one another. She does seem to understand the concept the provides that patterns need to be composed of two or more different elements, but when those elements are repeated, they need to look the same. For example: in an ABC pattern, every “A” must look the same, every “B” must look the same, and every “C” must look the same in the sequence. This student comprehended this, even though her pattern is not conventional.

This student followed and ABB pattern, but did not completely follow the pattern once he began coloring.  His shapes represent the ABB pattern perfectly. When I asked this student why he colored the rest of his pattern green, he said “Cause I like that color best.” When I asked him if his pattern was still a pattern anymore, he told me, “Kinda, like the shapes are.” Obviously, this student comprehended how to create a pattern but did not fully understand that he need to continue his color scheme to make it a true pattern.

Initially, the substitute in my room told me that this student “didn’t follow directions.” But when I asked him about his work he said, “I make two patterns!” Although the shape pattern in ABB, this students color scheme is ABC. When I asked him to name the colors, he said, “See, is a pattern to like red, yellow, green, red, yellow and green.” I asked him what kind of pattern that made and he said “A-B-C.” Then I asked him to name the shapes and he said  “A-B-B.” It is funny because initially I looked at his paper believing this student, who typically has difficulties listening, had again, not listened, when in fact, he had come up with an interesting way to think about patterns.