First+Grade



okay, let's see if this works.....

1st grade is doing a CBL on Fractions. I have attached (to the best of my knowledge anyhow) our outline. We are test-piloting this in 3 different ways:


 * one class is doing the CBL with teacher-selected small groups from the beginning.
 * one class is doing the CBL with student-selected small groups from the beginning.
 * one class is doing the CBL as whole group and individual learning.

We will keep you posted as the drama...I mean, learning unfolds!! :)

April 11-15

Things we noticed: 1st graders needs LOTS of scaffolding...and actually, skills (data collection) in place on which to scaffold :)

We found that our kids were good with the Big Idea, the essential question and even the guiding questions. When it came to guiding activities as to "how to collect our data"...we kind of stumped. So we reviewed and re-taught some of the math concepts (ie; pictographs, tally marks, sorting/graphing...) Once they got this down, we had to guide the students to one form of activity ..."We are all going to use tally marks on a chart drawn like this-- to collect data on shirt sizes, using Small, Medium and Large" then on to the next activity (kind of whole group lesson but with partners for info. gathering).

Students also want to give the solutions. Very black/white...problem/solution type of thinking. Concrete thinkers at this stage. :)

Our kids continue to only grasp the concepts WE (the teachers) have presented. Ie; fractions used in dividing food. We had to guide a lesson (different shirts in our classroom for instance...in order to model that fractions don't just apply to food items---however, when it came time to reflect on our data, kids still talked about equal pieces of pizza!

Notes:
 * need a LOT of guiding (maybe walking through the CBL process a few times before having the students direct)
 * very small groups (2-3) in which EVERYBODY has a job with clear expectations
 * have to work out "bugs" in math languagefraction as an equal part of a whole (kids confused with Singapore part/part/whole concept)
 * repeated exposure to data collection processes as they come up....