Student Work Blog #1 - Amy Tenbrink

I was not in the classroom during math instruction time, because I had to switch the time of day I go to the classroom. I was, however, in the class for calendar time. During calendar time, with the kindergarten and first graders, they do a segment where they count to a new number each day. The highest number is one number higher than the day before. They haven't been doing it for very long, so they are only at forty. I noticed that some students were actually counting along with the teacher and with the student leading. (The leader student has a pointer and points to each number on a chart as they say the number, though he or she is just pointing at random by the end of the counting.) Some kids, on the other hand, were just saying random numbers, or not even speaking at all. I pulled some of the kids aside after the counting segment and asked them how high they could count to. Some kids said 100, 1000, even one million, but others, the ones who weren't counting along, said things like "I can only count to five." or "I don't know". This showed me that the kids counting along are confident in their counting abilities, and therefore estimate higher when asked what number they can count to. The kids that aren't as confident in their counting abilities estimate lower, or don't give an estimate at all. I feel that this could be a good way to gauge how confident a student is feeling with counting, so that you know when you can move on to a different task, like counting by twos or fives.