Co-Teaching Lesson: Measurement (Shelley)

Here is a summary of the Grade 1 Measurement lesson we observed during our co-teaching session at Donwood Park JPS.  Thank you, Shelley, for being our demonstration lesson teacher!
3-Part lesson plan and Assessment for Learning tool

Prior Learning:
This was the first measurement lesson in Shelley's class.  It served as a diagnostic task to inform her teaching during the measurement unit.


Part 1: Getting Started:
Shelley told students that she wondered who had the longest shoe in the class.  Several students shared their prediction.  

She then asked the class: How can we find out for sure who has the longest shoe in our class?  As students shared, she recorded their ideas on chart paper.

Part 2: Working on It
Shelley introduced the problem to the class.

She asked the class: What does the word justify mean?  After they discussed this word, the class agreed that it means 'prove that you are right".

Shelley then asked: What are math tools you can use to solve this problem?  She recorded their ideas on chart paper as students shared.  This chart serves as a anchor for students when they want to spell certain words etc.

Classroom Management:

Shelley placed chart paper, markers, and all the math tools on desks to ensure a smooth transition into the problem solving.  She didn't want to leave it all out on one table for students to choose because she felt that this would create chaos!

We observed several strategies and misconceptions while students solved the problem:

Some students confused length with perimeter.

Some students directly compared their shoes.  But they struggled with recording the justification.

This group all directly compared their shoe but one student insisted that his shoe was the longest and 'doctored' the recording to match his answer.  

This group chose the same unit to measure each shoe print.  They did not pay attention to the Popsicle sticks not fitting accurately.

Part 3: Reflecting and Connecting
Gallery Walk
Shelley wanted to highlight all the different ways the class approached the problem.  So she decided to use the gallery walk consolidation strategy.  All student work was left on top on desks.  Groups rotated around to look at the different strategies.  As students looked at each other's work, Shelley asked them to talk about how their work was the same and how it was different.

Math Congress

After students were able to see every one's work, Shelley asked two groups to share their with the whole group.  The intent of the math congress is to bring out key ideas and clarify misconceptions.

This group just looked inside their shoe for sizes.  Shelley asked them to prove that size 98 was actually the longest.

They decided to try to the straw to measure the lengths.  Shelley asked them to share with the whole class why this was the best math tool to measure how long each shoe print out.  

Shelley used this example to clarify any misconceptions about tools spilling out of the shape etc.

Shelley did not plan on letting students use the ruler but let them do so when they requested it.  As this group shared, it became obvious that they knew how to use the ruler appropriately.

Part 3: Explicit Teaching
After the selected groups shared, Shelley summarized the key points of the lesson:
- the length if the longest part of the shoe, not around it
- the best math tool to use is the one that doesn't go over the shape
- you have to use the same tool to measure all the shoes before you can decide which one is the longest

Shelley plans on spending more time clarifying these points tomorrow before moving on to the next problem.

Raman and Tsedale taught a similar lesson to Shellye's Grade 1 class.  Check out that post to compare student work.