ERIKA BEHRMAN student work blog

                  For this week’s student work analysis, I chose a worksheet completed by one of our lower-level math students, Fernando*, that focused on greater and less than. The first problem of the sheet provided students with a visual representation using hundreds flats, tens rods, and ones units, which although Fernando miscounted the units, his number was close and he chose the correct symbol to represent the comparison with another given number. However, the rest of the sheet consisted of various number pairs with a blank space for the student to select the correct symbol of >, <, or =. The only problems that Fernando chose the correct symbol for were those where both numbers were equal. This reveals to me that he understands that the equal sign means that both sides are the same.

Since he switched the symbols for all the other problems, I would like to work with him one-on-one to see if he does not remember what each sign means and therefore understood conceptually which number was smaller/larger, but just chose the wrong sign. If so, that is a misunderstanding that could be clarified with a mini-lesson. Or, it could be that his number sense is not developed to the point where he can compare them. If this is the case, a helpful next step for working with Fernando could be to use a number line that helps him to visually compare where the two numbers fall on it. He would be able to observe the trends of number getting bigger or smaller depending on the direction one is moving on the number line. To reinforce the greater than and less than symbolic representations, we could create these symbols out of craft supplies and have him choose numbers on the number line and then place the appropriate symbol in between. Between these two approaches, I feel that Fernando’s understanding of greater than and less than would improve; if they didn’t succeed, I feel that information gained from observing how he worked through these two options would provide me with a direction in which to proceed with assisting him.