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These pictures show a short
activity the class does every day right when they get to school. The students
answer the question of the day, which is always a yes or no question. Then,
when they are all sitting down, the teacher brings the poster up and the
students count each side (yes and no). Then, three students are chosen to write
the numbers and greater than or less than sign on the white board. They always
start with the yes’s. In this situation, the question was, “Are your eyes
green?” Five students answered yes, and ten students answered no. The first
student went up and wrote a 5 and then the next student wrote a 10. Then the
teacher asks, “Which number is the alligator going to open his mouth to?” The
students reply saying, “10.” The teacher says, “5 is smaller than 10”, then has
students mirror what she said (repeat), and then has the students “teach” it to
a partner at their table. While saying, “5 is smaller than 10”, the teacher and
students show 5 on their hands, show a small space between their fingers, and
then show 10 on their hands. I noticed that while doing this, almost all of the
students say it very fast, which makes me wonder if they are really even
thinking about what they’re saying.
Questions:
1.
Why are the words “smaller than” used instead of
“less than”, which is typically how the sign is read?
2.
Do the students really understand what they are
saying?
3.
Do the students understand the concept of the
alligator mouth?
I might try to find the answers to these questions by asking
some students to explain this activity to me. I could ask them why the sign
opens to the bigger number. I could ask them what the number sentence would
look like if the 10 were first. I could also ask the students a question using
different numbers and ask them to explain how they knew that. This would show
me if the students really understand the concept, or are simply following along
with the teacher’s lead. I could also ask them if they knew what “less than”
and “greater than” mean as opposed to smaller than.
You are asking the important questions, in particular, " Do the students really understand what they are saying?" which is, of course, one of the key questions in teaching. Keeping this question in the back of your mind at all times will almost automatically make you a better teacher. The key of course is to give students the opportunity to say what they mean (i.e, to say what they are thinking).
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