MEASURING UP A First Grade Learning Experience

1. MEASURING UP A First Grade Learning Experience Pam Hays July 23, 2008 Daemen College

2. St. Joseph School is a Pre-K through eighth grade diocesan elementary school in the city of Buffalo. St. Joe’s has a diverse student body with students from both the city and surrounding suburbs. Our School

3. Focus Questions Is there a better essential question for this LE? Is the procedure clear? Is the information in the congruency table formatted correctly?

4. Overview of Students The class contained 20 students: 13 girls & 7 boys from various ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Two children had severe behavior difficulties, but were not identified by the school district as having disabilities. One child was an ESL student, but received no ESL services. One student was being evaluated for an auditory processing disorder at the end of the school year.

5. Classroom Management: • Follow directions the first time. • One person speaks at a time. • Keep hands and feet in your own space. • Follow our classroom procedures, including procedures for use of manipulatives. (LE page 2)

6. Time Frame This learning experience was implemented over a period of four days in the fall of 2007. This LE could take between 2 and 5 days to implement depending on the prior knowledge and ability of the students. (LE page 13)

7. Objectives By the end of the Learning Experience students will: • Choose appropriate non-standard units to measure real-world items. • Measure items accurately to within one unit of measurement. • Follow directions involving a few steps. (LE page 1)

8. Essential Question How do we measure things in our world? (LE page 1)

9. Guiding Questions • How can we measure and record the length of an object? • Are some units of non-standard measurement better than others for large objects? Small objects? Vertical objects? Horizontal objects? (LE page 1)

10. Enduring Understanding • Measurement is a comparison of what is being measured and a suitable standard of measure. • Real-world items may be measured by various means. (LE page 1)

11. New York State Standards MST 3 – 1.M.2 Use non-standard units (including finger lengths, paper clips, students’ feet and paces) to measure both vertical and horizontal lengths. ELA (Listening Competencies) ELA 1.1.3 Follow directions involving a few steps.

12. Assessment Moments Students demonstrate understanding of measurement, length, and estimation by completing Estimate It worksheet. (Diagnostic) Students use non-standard units to measure classroom items with a partner and teacher guidance. (Formative) Students demonstrate measuring skills individually for summative assessment. (Summative) (LE page 4)

13. SummativeAssessment • Students complete task individually. • Task is scored on rubric as well as anecdotally. • Students complete their own rubric. • Teacher and student discuss rubric results rather than extensive written feedback. • Students assessed on choice of non-standard unit of measure, accuracy of measurement and following directions. (LE page 4)

14. Teacher Exemplar Choice of non-standard unitof measure: Chose four appropriate non-standard units of measure. Accuracy of measurement: Produced an accurate measurement (within one non-standard unit of length) with all chosen non-standard units of measure. Following Basic Directions: Measured two items chosen from the given set of items. Each item was measured with two different non-standard units of measure.

15. Developing Student Work Student was able to choose 1 out of 4 appropriate units of measure. Student was able to produce an accurate measurement with teacher assistance. Student measured only one item with one unit of measure. (LE page 10 & Student Work)

16. Proficient Student Work Student chose 4 appropriate units of measurement. Student produced accurate measurement with 2 out 4 tries. Student used only one non-standard unit of measure for one of the items. (LE page 10 & Student Work)

17. Distinguished Student Work Student chose four appropriate units of measure. Student produced an accurate measurement in all four instances. Student measured two items with two different units. (LE page 10 and Student Work)

18. Modifications Type: Content/Material Specific Modification: Number of problems may be lessened for assessment. Multiple problems may completed in separate blocks of time. Rationale: Students who have difficulty attending to task for longer periods of time may feel pride and success in completing task. Benefits: Allows teacher to assess student understanding independent of assessing student behavior. (LE page 12)

19. Modifications #2 Type: Tasks Specific Modification: Time allowed for task may be extended. Practice may be repeated several times. Rationale: Children construct knowledge at their own pace. Benefit: The rate of retention improves when new knowledge is connected to previous knowledge.

20. On a personal note… • Thank you to the members of my group during EDU 518 who peer reviewed this LE “mid-stream”, and to Jeff Arnold for giving me the opportunity to take the class. • Thank you to Marilyn, Pat, and Heather for graciously sharing their LE expertise this summer. • Thank you to Catherine and Jennifer T. for sharing their Power Point expertise. • Thank you to all who will give their honest comments today!