Skip to main content

Vertical Alignment Reflection



    This assignment was very eye-opening to me because it was the first time I ever had to compare similar standards for different grade levels. I realized very quickly how repetitive these standards are and how nicely they scaffold into each other. I was able to see the curriculum flowing from level to level through the measurement and data standards. Students begin measuring in basic units and comparing using bigger and small or shorter and longer then they progress through elementary school and eventually use English and Metric units of measurement to measure things and compare more specifically using the exact lengths.

    The younger grades have a lot of overlap in measurement because they measure in basic units for a few years before they even learn to use measuring devices and are able to compare measurements more specifically. One standard that I don’t think is redundant is the standard for students telling time. In 1st grade, they learn to tell time in hours and half hours In second grade, they learn to tell time on digital and analog clocks. Finally, in third grade, they should be able to tell time so they start learning to measure and estimate time.

    All teachers need to be aware of not only the standards for the grade that they teach but also for the grades above and below. Especially since the COVID pandemic, students are much further behind than they have ever been and teachers need to be aware of the standards their students should have previously learned to make sure they don’t need to be retaught. Teachers also need to be aware of the standards a grade or two ahead of the grade they are teaching so they are able to support and challenge the gifted students.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ch 5:Pose Purposeful Questions

   Posing purposeful questions reminds me of the third CCSSM Standard which is Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others because teachers should pose purposeful questions to gauge student understanding and students communicate their understanding back to the teacher through their arguments of why they got the solution they did. There are five types of purposeful questions teachers ask students which are all used for different purposes. The first type of purposeful question is gathering information, which teachers use when want students to recall basic facts or definitions (mostly things that are memorization). This is a question used to assess students because it usually has a right and wrong answer and can help the teacher gauge whether or not the student understands. The second type of purposeful question is probing thinking, which is used when teachers want students to explain, elaborate, or clarify their thinking and reasoning and why they came up wit...
Post a Comment
Read more

Grade Level Curriculum Reflection

     Through this year-long curriculum, I learned how important it is for teachers to plan ahead. There are so many standards that need to be covered throughout the year and the standards all vary in the length of time it will take to teach and for the students to master. Teachers need to plan for this and read through all the standards at the beginning of the year to make sure they have time to get to everything. I have been in math classes before (more in middle school) that seem to be so rushed at the end of the year which could have been due to the teacher’s lack of a year-long curriculum plan. Obviously, other things could have come up or lessons took longer than my teacher thought, but it still reminds me of the importance of having a plan because I know how stressed I was when I had to learn concepts too quickly and didn't have time to master them before the tests. I also learned how important it is to review standards from the previous grade because they tie in so...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ch 4: Build Procedural Fluency from Conceptual Understanding

A conceptual understanding of math is essential for students to be successful in math classes throughout their life. To me, conceptual understanding is the basics of math (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, equalities, etc), why these concepts work, how they work together, and then being able to remember and draw from these concepts in more complex problems. In order for students to gather conceptual understanding, they need to be willing and ready to learn and they also need to believe in themselves and their intelligence. The teacher's role is to be the expert but to guide students toward these understandings and not simply state them like facts, or else students will memorize them and not understand why these concepts work and why they are important in the future.  Procedural fluency is the ability to use equations, representations, manipulatives, etc to solve a simple problem. The word simple is relative to the child’s grade level and also their academic level. Fo...
Post a Comment
Read more