- By: Nadine Hamideh
- Thursday March 5, 2020
Today was a day of learning, the students learned about a new math topic which was about coins. The students were divided into three tiers and were taught in small groups. My CT did the first small groups and showed me how to administer this activity task. It was then time for me to administer the task to the rest of the small groups. I was able to see how the different tiers worked and how to teach a small group math lesson to different tiers. The first tier of students just had to draw the amount of dimes and pennies that I stated. For example, if I said its time to make 24 cents, I would show students the amount in dimes and pennies and they would just draw that amount. I had to also provide an amount for the second tier of students in which they had to both draw out the amount of dimes and pennies as well as write the exact amount with a cents sign. The third tier of students were to come up with their own amounts as well as draw them out and write them. My CT informed me that this was a hard topic for them because they never really worked with coins for math, so she told me to compare it to base ten blocks for them and see if that would help them understand the material better. And honestly, it did and it was really great to see that by just making that small comparison the students instantly understood the task at hand. I just simply explain how this can be like working with base ten blocks. I told them that the dime is like the tall rod of base ten blocks, and that the penny is like the individual unit of base ten blocks. By just saying that the students were able to make connections and count out the dimes and pennies. In the end, I learned that it is very important to give students tasks that can be relatable, and if it is a new task to compare it to something that they have learned about previously if it can help them make better sense of the material.
That’s great Nadine! Your CT model a group and you practice with the other two. My classroom is also learning about money and some students have a difficult time learning. I tried making connections with the students and letting them know we need money to buy things. I worked with students who are struggling with counting coins. I used ABCYa game to sort the coins to their corresponding value. For instance, if we have a dime we must find the treasure box that it belongs to. The 1 value, 5 value, 10 value, or 25 value. I also used small white boards to add up the mix coins. Learning the different levels students are at has helped me prepared activities differently. Overall, great post.
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