I found this week's reading to correspond very well with last week’s reading. Both articles dealt with measurements in the classroom; however this week’s had more to do with developing measurements. Van De Walle talked a lot about different kinds of units that can be measured; both standard and nonstandard. While reading I began to wonder which type of measurement was more beneficial early on in a child’s development (standard or nonstandard). Part of me things it would be difficult to teach very young students what a pound is, or how much volume something has, whereas teaching them its about as heavy as a brick would be more concrete in their mind and would allow students to relate their learning to the real world. On the other hand, I think it’s always beneficial for students to learn vocabulary and terms from a young age. In my classroom I see more standard units of measurement when teaching math, however I’m not fully sure if all the students are understanding the concepts. I believe this comprehension should be assessed more by my CT.
Another area of measuring Van De Walle brought up was estimating. I thought this went really nicely with what we have been doing in class these past few weeks, and especially last week. I think estimating can be a very effective tool, but only when then initial concept has been mastered. I think it will do more harm teaching students how to estimate before they are 100% confident in their ability to solve the problem in full. Some students may use estimating as crutch, and never learn how to fully solve a problem and get the exact answer. I have yet to see any estimating strategies in my kindergarten class and think it is for the best that they have not learned it yet. Some students are beginning to learn very basic addition problems, and I think they will need to develop addition and subtraction skills before they learn how to estimate.
Rose, I agree with you about nonstandard units being beneficial especially during the earlier grades. I found many helpful things while reading the VandeWalle article. I agree with them when they say measurement is one of the most useful tasks in mathematics, for it is used in our everyday lives, many times each and every day. Our students however are having much difficulty with this topic. I completely agree with them that "Although learning both the metric and customary measurement systems may be a contributing factor, the poor performance is more likely a function of how the subject is taught- too much reliance on pictures and worksheets rather than hands on experiences and a focus on skills with less attention to the concepts of measurement."
ReplyDeleteI think it is imperative that we as future teachers start our measurement lessons with non-standard units, no matter what grade level we are teaching. There are many reasons for this such as: "Nonstandard units make it easier to focus directly on the attribute being measured. The use of nonstandard units can avoid conflicting objectives in the same begining lesson. Nonstandard units provide a good rationale for using standard units. Using nonstandard units can be motivating."
I disagree with you about the role of estimation, for I believe you underestimated the importance of it. "Always have students estimate a measurement before they make it. This is true with both nonstandard and standard units." There are at least four great reasons for using estimation in every measurement trial. "it providesintrinsicmotivation, it helps students focus on the attribute being measured, when standard units are used estimation helps develop familiarity with the unit, and it promotes multiplicative reasoning."
It is really awful how our society lacks essential knowledge on measurement, and I think this article will help teachers bridge the gap of this much needed knowledge for our students.
I agree with Lauren,
ReplyDeleteTeaching these estimation skills on measurement at a young age is essential to their development in using Math in the everyday world appropriately and correctly. When we teach them the concepts of measurement, use an example of something that you know they buy or know of to the lesson. This will make your lesson more meaningful and beneficial to them. Mathematical measurement is not only used in class, it is very important to understand the concept outside of the classroom. You could even make that a post assessment to make sure they understand estimating measurements concepts. I think it may even lessen the confusion if they see what the measurements are actually used for outside of the classroom.