This essay will explore how I would teach a group of 10 first grade students to count rationally to 15 assuming that all of them are already able to count rationally to 10. I shall explain how I would ensure that students understand each of the four rational counting principles of one-to-one correspondence, the stable order rule, the order irrelevance rule, and the cardinality rule. I shall present an assessment I would use to evaluate student mastery of rational counting to 15. Finally, I shall discuss how I would adapt my instruction to accommodate English Language Learners (ELL) and students with learning exceptionalities.
Rational counting means students apply all four of the following counting principles:
· Cardinality Rule means the total number of objects counted is represented by the last number name reached. · Stable Order Rule means numbers are assigned in the correct order every time a group of items are counted. · One-to-One Correspondence is the assignment of one number name to each item in the group that is being counted. · Order Irrelevance Rule means it does not matter in which order the group of items are counted.
(Reys, 2012)
The Cardinality Rule will be addressed first because it is probably the easiest and most basic of the counting principles for these students to understand as they move from 10 to 15.
1) I shall ask the ten students how many items total they would have if they counted each individual item once and went to 10. For example, if they had crayons on their desk and counted each one only once and counted to 10 in doing so, how many crayons would they have? Students would reply 10 because they can already apply the four counting principles up to ten.
2) I shall explain to students that the purpose of the lesson will be for them to expand their ability to count items from 10 to 15.
3) I shall ask students if they count each crayon on their desk and
Bibliography: Reys, R. L. (2012). Helping Children Learn Mathematics (10th ed.). Hobokon, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.