Student Work- Measuring Unit- Part One- Kayleigh Robb

(Pictures coming soon!)

As I taught my students to use rulers for my lesson Wednesday, I noticed several students working in different ways to accomplish their tasks of measuring different parts of a shape.

Students were paired in groups of two or three. Each group contained students of differing levels of mathematical ability but because measurement with rulers is a new concept for all students, I tried to pair students who are "good listeners" wig students who have "trouble focusing."
This allowed me to be able to circulate around the room and offer my assistance if necessary and it also gave me the opportunity to collect some notes/data on how "first time measurerers".

- On their own, many students were able to understand that they needed to start measuring at zero. Students who did not follow this procedure were often corrected by their partners. One explanation from a student of why he started measuring at zero was "you can't just have some before you start counting. You gotta start with none or you might get like, more than it is."

Another student when I asked "why start at zero?", said, "because when we measure with the candies, we start with no candies and then we make more candies to measure the things."

This explanation made me smile because I wanted the students to make connections between measuring with standard and nonstandard units. This student obviously made that connection, and I tried to mention the previous lesson frequently while teaching the ruler lesson in order to show students they had prior knowledge of measurement.

Many students, however could not tell me why they needed to start at zero. In a future lesson I would ask students to theorize about why we needed to begin at the "zero end", instead of just alluding to why in my lesson.

Over all, students did do really incredible with this lesson and with using the rulers and some even liked using the rulers better than using the candy! The following pictures are evidence of how students took on the task. I did attempt to leave it somewhat open-ended, to give them some sort of choice.