This past week, my students were introduced to the concepts of comparison and measurement. My MT and I created a large, 4 foot tall pencil and students estimated whether they were taller than it or not. After the estimation on the first day, students actually compared themselves to the pencil to see if they were taller, the same size as or shorter than the pencil. They then drew themselves in relation to the pencil and wrote "shorter", "taller" or "same size as".
The artifacts that I collected were their drawings. Some students were able to conceptualize the ideas of "taller", "smaller" and the "same size as", very well. Students who understood that they were taller than the pencil drew themselves larger than the pencil. Some students even made sure that their feet and the tip of the pencil lined up exactly, a key concept in measuring length. All too often, mistakes made with measurement calculations happen because the student does not begin measuring at zero. One student even told me "If it isn't even, then how do I know if I am really taller than it (the pencil)?".
On the other hand, some of my students drew themselves larger than the pencil no matter what they actually measured. Even if they knew they were shorter than the pencil, and wrote that they were shorter than the pencil, they still represented their findings as if they were taller. I think this could have been avoided with a little more modeling, or even if we had not used a giant pencil. The students work with pencils everyday, and are obviously larger than the pencils. This became a difficult concept for one of my ELLs to comprehend. He kept confusing his pencil with the big pencil and saying, "I bigger, I bigger!" I might have used an animal instead.
In general, the lesson definitely needed more concrete modeling for the students. I might have asked three students to come up the the board and do a quick draw of how they might show being taller, smaller and the same size as the pencil after modeling. Overall, I liked the lesson a lot and the kids enjoyed it too. I think it is a great way to expose children to measuring and comparing.
This is an interesting example. I think what would be interesting would be to gather some dialogue from students talking amongst themselves. This seems like the perfect opportunity to advance students mathematical thinking by giving them the chance to talk to one another (student to student) and defend their ideas.
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