Today I decided to video tape some of the kindergartners while they completed a task that involved hands on manipulatives and then the same type of task that involved an iPod game to note any observations of similarities and differences in how the students completed each task. First, I videotaped a girl and gave her the numbers 1-10 written on individual pieces of paper and asked her to put them in order starting with number one and ending with 10. She could successfully complete this task so I gave her numbers 1-30 and asked her to do the same thing. She struggled a lot with putting 11-30 in the correct order. For example, she put number 21 in number 12s spot because she knew the number 12 consisted of “a one and a two” but didn’t know the correct order of those numbers. She knew some numbers and knew at least one of the numbers that the number should contain but probably only got half of the numbers 11-30 in the correct order. She was using strategies by saying the number out loud, for example nine-teen, and realizing her emphasis on the “nine” and that nineteen does have a 9. I could tell this process required a lot of thinking for her and trying to recall what certain numbers looked like and where they fit in with other numbers. However, when I asked her to complete the “Line Em Up” game on the iPod, she could complete this task without my help at all. I would ask her what number it asked her to place on the number line and although sometimes she knew the number, sometimes she did not. For example, the number 15 came up and she did not know its name. However, since 4,5, and 15 were the only numbers left to be filled on the number line she placed the number 15 in its correct spot. She completed the iPod activity in about five minutes, whereas the first hands on number line task I gave her probably took about 15 minutes. Personally, I think she would benefit more from the first activity because although she could not correctly place the numbers 1-30, this activity allowed her to sit and process her thinking, change her mind about where numbers went on the number line once she realized she placed them in its wrong spot, and overall made her do the work. I think if I were to do this activity with her next time, I would only giver her numbers 1-20 and wait until she can learn to identity the teens since her main problem was confusing the teens with the twenties. It will be interesting to explore manipulatives and a similar iPod game regarding other number sense concepts with other students to see how they perform each task.
Posted on February 4th, 2011 by christina-mazza
Filed under: Christina Mazza