1. A First Grade Learning Experience MEASURING UP A First Grade Learning Experience Pam Hays July 23, 2008 Daemen College

2. Our School  St. Joseph School is a Pre-K through eighth grade diocesan elementary school in the city of Buffalo.  St. Joe’s has a diverse student body with students from both the city and surrounding suburbs.

3. Focus Questions  Is there a better essential question for this LE?  Is the procedure clear?  Is the information in the congruency table formatted correctly?

4. Overview of Students  The class contained 20 students: 13 girls & 7 boys from various ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.  Two children had severe behavior difficulties, but were not identified by the school district as having disabilities.  One child was an ESL student, but received no ESL services.  One student was being evaluated for an auditory processing disorder at the end of the school year.

5. Classroom Management:  Follow directions the first time.  One person speaks at a time.  Keep hands and feet in your own space.  Follow our classroom procedures, including procedures for use of manipulatives. (LE page 2)

6. Time Frame  This learning experience was implemented over a period of four days in the fall of 2007.  This LE could take between 2 and 5 days to implement depending on the prior knowledge and ability of the students. (LE page 13)

7. Objectives By the end of the Learning Experience students will:  Choose appropriate non-standard units to measure real-world items.  Measure items accurately to within one unit of measurement.  Follow directions involving a few steps. (LE page 1)

8. Essential Question  How do we measure things in our world? (LE page 1)

9. Guiding Questions  How can we measure and record the length of an object?  Are some units of non-standard measurement better than others for large objects? Small objects? Vertical objects? Horizontal objects? (LE page 1)

10. Enduring Understanding  Measurement is a comparison of what is being measured and a suitable standard of measure.  Real-world items may be measured by various means. (LE page 1)

11. New York State Standards  MST 3 – 1.M.2 Use non-standard units (including finger lengths, paper clips, students’ feet and paces) to measure both vertical and horizontal lengths.  ELA (Listening Competencies) ELA 1.1.3 Follow directions involving a few steps.

12. Assessment Moments  Students demonstrate understanding of measurement, length, and estimation by completing Estimate It worksheet. (Diagnostic)  Students use non-standard units to measure classroom items with a partner and teacher guidance. (Formative)  Students demonstrate measuring skills individually for summative assessment. (Summative) (LE page 4)

13. Summative Assessment  Students complete task individually.  Task is scored on rubric as well as anecdotally.  Students complete their own rubric.  Teacher and student discuss rubric results rather than extensive written feedback.  Students assessed on choice of non-standard unit of measure, accuracy of measurement and following directions. (LE page 4)

14. Teacher Exemplar  Choice of non-standard unit of measure: Chose four appropriate non- standard units of measure.  Accuracy of measurement: Produced an accurate measurement (within one non-standard unit of length) with all chosen non-standard units of measure.  Following Basic Directions: Measured two items chosen from the given set of items. Each item was measured with two different non-standard units of measure.

15. Developing Student Work  Student was able to choose 1 out of 4 appropriate units of measure.  Student was able to produce an accurate measurement with teacher assistance.  Student measured only one item with one unit of measure. (LE page 10 & Student Work)

16. Proficient Student Work  Student chose 4 appropriate units of measurement.  Student produced accurate measurement with 2 out 4 tries.  Student used only one non- standard unit of measure for one of the items. (LE page 10 & Student Work)

17. Distinguished Student Work  Student chose four appropriate units of measure.  Student produced an accurate measurement in all four instances.  Student measured two items with two different units. (LE page 10 and Student Work)

18. Modifications  Type: Content/Material  Specific Modification: Number of problems may be lessened for assessment. Multiple problems may completed in separate blocks of time.  Rationale: Students who have difficulty attending to task for longer periods of time may feel pride and success in completing task.  Benefits: Allows teacher to assess student understanding independent of assessing student behavior. (LE page 12)

19. Modifications #2  Type: Tasks  Specific Modification: Time allowed for task may be extended. Practice may be repeated several times.  Rationale: Children construct knowledge at their own pace.  Benefit: The rate of retention improves when new knowledge is connected to previous knowledge.

20. On a personal note…  Thank you to the members of my group during EDU 518 who peer reviewed this LE “mid-stream”, and to Jeff Arnold for giving me the opportunity to take the class.  Thank you to Marilyn, Pat, and Heather for graciously sharing their LE expertise this summer.  Thank you to Catherine and Jennifer T. for sharing their Power Point expertise.  Thank you to all who will give their honest comments today!