I actually think this task is rather interesting. Students may run around their houses trying to count the amount of items they have, which makes counting and numbers interactive and worth while to some extent. I also really like that this teaches them the early ideas of creating and analyzing graphs/charts. However, it does not indicate whether they are aware of what they are displaying by coloring squares on a piece of paper. The concept of less vs. more is also apparent which would definitely bring about some awareness, but considering that the student above did not do this portion of the assignment, I am finding little value in the task.
- Is there any sold way to assess this task?
I think grading this worksheet may be rather difficult. As a teacher, we may know how many people live in our students' households, so we might be able to guess if they had filled the chart in correctly. I'm assuming the student's accuracy is not necessarily the most important aspect of the homework assignment though. As an educator, I think I would look to see if they had colored boxes for each object, then ask the student to orally tell me the number. Next, I would see if the student had correctly circled the object they had the least amount of in their home. Again, the only way to assess if the student is aware of what they are indicating on the graph is to have a conversation with them, which makes worksheets like these rather difficult assess/grade.
- How could we make this task more challenging for the students?
I think that this task could be advanced by requiring the students to write-in a few of the numbers along the bottom of the graph. This would allow for the educator to view if their students actually have knowledge of number order. In addition, simple word problems could be added: How many more beds do you have then clocks?; How many of these items do you have in your house altogether?
- How can this task be engaging for the whole class?
This could also become some sort of partner activity; how many clocks
do you and studentB have in your homes altogether?...We could turn this
into a class project, where a classroom chart is created; how many
students have 1,2,3...bed in their homes &make a classroom graph.
This would segue into a lesson on comparing, less vs. more, etc.
I agree with your analysis here, particularly the idea of how to then combine these graphs with other students the next day, and then collaborate to make a class graph. Another extension might be to ask students, "what are other ways we can display this data?". This task helps students construct a histogram, but are there other ways to express the data? There need not be specific answers here, but such a question will get students thinking about the idea of data analysis and representation.
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