Clip 11/11: Post Lesson - Part 4 Lipman School

Overview

Becca and Joe discuss the work of the math staff before the school year started. They had spent two days together working on slope and how the idea developed across grades and also looking at functions for their own personal growth. This helped them think about how to teach differently this year. The group then discusses student posters from the Problem of the Month First Rate. For level B, the group focuses on types of graphs students used in order to have multiple representations for their posters. They looked at how the line graph and bar graph did not capture the two measures in a rate adequately. For level B, they looked at how students used fractions and bar models or rectangular models to make sense of the rates. They talked about how many students attempted to use circle graphs, but that model made the comparisons more difficult. Then Becca shares the work done by one of the third grade classes on level C.

Teacher Commentary

COACH LINDA FISHER: One of the required features the school put in place for the Problem of the Month posters was to include a model or graph to support the work. Another feature was to write a conclusion in a complete sentence and show calculations. The student work showed that some models or graphs that they are most comfortable with are no longer useful for conveying information about rates or compound measures. Also, the idea that while fractions are often taught as parts of a circle, that isn't necessarily the best model of making sense of data and comparing information.