Markert-Week 10

The student work that I decided to look at this week is one of my last exit slips I gave the class. I gave this exit slip after teaching the students pennies, nickels and exchanging one for the other. This exit slip was a single question that asked the students to “show me using nickels and pennies 13 cents.” I left this question open-ended so the students could use all pennies or a combination. I wanted the students to feel free to express thirteen cents in a way that made sense to them. The vast majority of the student’s demonstrated understanding of 13 cents by using two nickels and three pennies and a few students used thirteen pennies, both ways correct. The one student that I am looking at used both nickels and pennies. This student decided to draw two nickels and eleven pennies. This shows me that the student may not understand the meaning of thirteen cents. She may think that thirteen cents means thirteen coins. She followed the instructions using the coins but instead of adding their values she did thirteen coins. This would have been correct if it were just pennies but she included nickels in her answer. This could be a mistake on the wording of the exit slip or just a confusion of the question. It could also be that the student does not understand that a nickel is worth five cents.

Looking back on this exit slip there would be a few changes I would make. I would first ask the students to make thirteen cents using nickels, pennies, or both. I think that would make it more clear for the students knowing that they did not have to use both coins if they didn’t think that was appropriate.  I would have also liked to ask another question on the bottom. I would have like to have the students explain their thinking. If I had included this question at the bottom I would be able to see exactly why this student chose to draw thirteen coins using both nickels and pennies. I would also gain information on the students who used only pennies and students who used both nickels and pennies. Including a question at the bottom would have made this task higher level. It may also have been more beneficial if I had asked the students to show me two ways to create thirteen cents. This would allow me to see if the students know that you can create this amount two different ways and also it would show me that the students understand the value of both coins. For some of the students I feel that they use only pennies because they know they equal one so it is easier for them to just draw thirteen pennies and not even bother with the nickel. By forcing the students to think of two ways it will push them to think about using both coins.