Clip 1/6: Lesson - Part 1 Price School

Overview

This stage of the lesson starts with the teacher establishing classroom norms for active listening. The class does a whole-group experiment of the teacher power walking a 5-meter strip. The members of the class are given jobs for collecting data or monitoring time. Then the teacher uses a ratio table to talk about rate and find equivalent rates and unit rates.

Teacher Commentary

COACH LINDA FISHER: The experiment gives all the students a common experience with the idea of rate. This allows all learners access to the discussion and mathematics of the task. At 6th grade, students will have varied degrees of familiarity with the topic.

The ratio table allows students to think about the idea of scaling up a rate or finding a unit rate. Students can think about and discuss the multiplicative nature of rates. I tried to emphasize the importance of units being attached to numbers. I think quantitative reasoning is central to this mathematical concept.

By giving wait time, most students were able to use the ratio table to find equivalent rates. I think the active context helped students to reason more easily than using an abstract rate. We want students to have several opportunities to experiment with rate, before trying to formalize definitions and procedures. We want to develop and build on their ideas.