This is the last week before Spring Break, and I had my kids on Tuesday and Thursday. On Tuesday, it was really cool seeing a specialist teacher teach the class about counting. Her lesson was on counting inches. She bought Peeps, the little marshmallow chicks, and explained to the students that each Peep in 2 inches long. The problem that she wanted the students to solve was "How long would a train of 5 Peeps be if each Peep is separated by 1 inch?" To help the students find the answer easier, she gave them 1 inch blocks. She didn't really explain that each Peep would need two blocks, so the students were a little bit confused. After about 10 minutes of the students working by themselves, she demonstrated what to do on the board so the students would understand a little bit better.
If I was teaching the lesson, I would have explained before the kids set off to do their work that each Peep is as big as 2 blocks. I liked how she set them off by themselves, but I wouldn't have let them go by themselves clueless for as long as she did. Also, at the beginning of the lesson, I would have given the students like 3 minutes to play with the blocks because that is all they seemed to want to do, instead of focusing on the lesson.
Overall, I think the lesson was very valuable after the students figured out how to do the problem. For some of my students, it was really hard for them to grasp the whole inches concept, but for others it was easy. This is where their readiness levels became apparent.
If I was teaching the lesson, I would have explained before the kids set off to do their work that each Peep is as big as 2 blocks. I liked how she set them off by themselves, but I wouldn't have let them go by themselves clueless for as long as she did. Also, at the beginning of the lesson, I would have given the students like 3 minutes to play with the blocks because that is all they seemed to want to do, instead of focusing on the lesson.
Overall, I think the lesson was very valuable after the students figured out how to do the problem. For some of my students, it was really hard for them to grasp the whole inches concept, but for others it was easy. This is where their readiness levels became apparent.