Lesson
1st Grade Math - Developing Student Understanding of Non-Standard and Standard Measurement
Clip 8/17: Measurement Lesson Part C2
Overview
The first-grade students work in pairs to measure objects around the room using cube trains in which each partner in a pair has the same number of cubes. Some students notice that it is a challenge to measure objects without distinct “sides” such as their head or the globe. One pair of students notices that with a larger object, they needed to combine their cubes in order to measure it.
Teacher Commentary
Teacher Commentary
When I hear a student say something, it may not be stated perfectly, it may not be stated using academic language, but the minute I find something that's leading us in a direction that I hoped we would go, then I try to take that and maybe repeat it, or ask another student to repeat what that student said — to make sure everybody heard it in one way or another, and then to ask them a question about it, or ask them to turn-and-talk and tell each other what that person said.
One: I'm trying to move the ideas of the lesson forward and two: I'm trying to make sure that every student has a lot of talk time in that class, whether it's their original idea or somebody else's idea. I don't want to be the only one talking in class, and I don't want only the outgoing, extroverted, confident students to be the only ones talking in that class. I want everyone talking.
Every student may not be the person who poses the initial idea, but I want to make sure that everybody has a chance to talk about that idea.