More, Less and Equal Values- Kayleigh Robb

After moving on from my measurement unit, my students are diving into comparing numbers 1-20 and deciding if certain values are more, less or equal. I began by having a whole class review of the numbers and then began to demonstrate, with cubes, a pair of numbers. I coordinated the numbers by color and asked which color group was “bigger” (more) and “smaller” (less). I did this several times, gradually giving students more say in what we compared and how we compared them. I then asked student to compare the number of 6 blocks to another group of 6 blocks. “Which is more? Which is less? Turn and talk to you partner about!” Although I was not hoping to, I did not trick them. Students responded when I called them back that, “No, Ms. Robb, they are the same!” I responded with “Yes! When we make comparisons, boys and girls, we call that equal.”

 Then I passed out the cards, 1-23 (the number of students in my class) and asked students to go around and talk to their peers with their cards. The students told each other what their number was and then said, “I have more than you.”, or, “I have less than you.”

I went around and acted as “the zero”. I wanted to interact with individuals as well as groups.  I observed this several conversations first. There were several excellent discussions. The following is one that really stopped me in my tracks:

Student 1: holding 19 “I have 19.”

Student 2: holding 13 “I have 31.”

Student 1: “No. You don’t have that.”

Student 2: “I have less than you. This is less.

Student 1: “I have 19 and I have more but that’s not 31.”

Teacher: “Student 1, what do you mean? Can you show student 2?”

Student 1: “Well, 31 is a 3 and a 1. And that is a 1 and a 3. I think its, 13? Ms. Robb?”

Teacher: “Yes, it is 13! Is 13 less than 19?

Both students: “Yes!”

Teacher: “Excellent, I think you both made very good comparisons!”

            Here, I see that some of my students need background knowledge concerning the explicit naming of the numbers, 1-20. This student was not the only student to “misname” their number. But I can see in this students thinking that they recognize that in the order of the numbers, this number comes before 19, and therefore is “less” than 19. I can tell this because the student is able to determine that their number is less than the number that their partner has before their partner has an opportunity to say that she has “more”.