Conceptualization
This week in my Grade One class the focus in math has been on the concepts of 1more, 1 less, 2 more and 2 less. To differentiate instruction the students have worked on various activities to gain understanding of the concepts. In math class this week students used 10 Frames to show the concept, played two different games, completed a worksheet and a workbook page. Each day also involved some oral questioning on the topic. Through my observations of my students engaged in these activities I was certain that all but one student understood the concepts.
Yesterday afternoon as a culminating activity I had all students make a “lift and seek book”. Their one page book, folded into three sections, read like this
Is 2 less than
(text varied-1 less than, 1 more than or 2 more than).
Students had to choose a number and draw the corresponding dots on the first section, the phrase was in the second section and then of course students had to fill in the correct number and dots on the third page. Only four students completed their booklets correctly!
Mrs. Ryan learned that along with varying the instruction this week I should have been varying the mathematical language. All week throughout the various activities the language was consistently “what is 2 more than 7, show on your ten frame a number that is 1 less than 9, if you shake a 2 on the die then you put on two more blocks, etc.” Yesterday the language was turned around :12 is 2 less than . My students demonstrated lack of conceptualization of the concepts of more and less. An interesting lesson for me!
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