Abby Markert
TE 801
Student Work Blog Week
5
This
week in math my student’s were working with tally marks. We had previously done
a mini lesson and modeled tally marks and what they mean to the student’s. We
have continuously worked with tally marks since. As part of the morning message
one student a day is asked to make a tally mark by the weather outside.
Student’s have been exposed and taught what each tally marks means and what you
are to do when you hit the fifth tally. During the lesson the student’s all
scream out “slash it” when it becomes the fifth tally. With the enthusiasm that
they show for “slash it” it seemed that the students were aware of the fact
that they are to make the fifth tally a group. When the student’s were asked to
go back to their seats and complete a worksheet with tally marks most students
did in fact remember to “slash” the tally. However one of the students did not
seem to grasp the idea or was unaware of the fact that he had hit the fifth
mark. After speaking with the student it seemed that he did not understand why
we mark the fifth tally any differently than the others. This led to my
thinking of how I can help this student internalize his understanding. My MT
does a great job using tally marks in many different situations. We took a poll
of the class fish name, our favorite season, and everyday we do the weather.
This can help the students understand why me make tally marks but it does not
explain why we group them in fives. My MT has also gone over this with the
students every time we make a tally chart and the majority of the students seem
to understand that we count by fives. However another misconception is that
once you “slash” the tallies that it becomes a group of five and you count by
five. Most students will still just say “one, two, three…” I think that a way
we could help create a task that not only is more meaningful for these students
but a higher level task is asking them to come up with their own system of
tally marks. Asking questions like “would it make more sense to just keep
having one mark?” or “would it be better to wait till 10 tally marks?” This can
help the students understand and internalize the meaning of grouping and why it
is beneficial to do so. I think a lot of students just see the “slash it” as
something they have to do. They do not see it as a way to make it quicker or
more efficient to count a group. I think if the student’s designed their own
method of counting the tally marks it would help them understand and hopefully
come to the conclusion that counting by fives and making a “slash” is the best
way to count and organize a large group of data. This will also help solidify
the student’s understanding and helps those who may still be confused
understand it further.
I like the way you are thinking and the follow-up questions you are devising. "Slashing it" is, in reality, just an arbitrary convention. There is nothing inherently "correct" or "incorrect" about doing it or not. Can the student keep track of data? That is the essential question.
ReplyDeleteE.g., "Helping students keep track of data" is a big idea; "Slash it" is not a big idea.
So, I think a good problem would be to have the students keep track of a lot of data (e.g., count all of the rectangles in the room; go outside and count all of the flowers you can see, etc.) and then see how students keep track of the data. You can then have a whole-class discussion in which students compare their different methods...at that point, students who were not slashing it might recognize, "Oh, that's actually a helpful trick."