Author: Mathew Needleman  Date Created: 8/2/2003 2:42:38 PM PST
Greater than, less than
Grade/Level: 1
Students: 20 students. 10 boys. 10 girls. 13 ELL students. 1 student mild autism.
Subject Area(s): Mathematics
Concept(s): Greater than indicates a larger amount. Less than indicates a smaller amount.
State Academic Content Standard(s): CA- CCTC: CSTP's (Standards for the Teaching Profession) • Standard : Standard for Assessing Student Learning Teachers establish and clearly communicate learning goals for all students. Teachers collect information about student performance from a variety of sources. Teachers involve all students in assessing their own learning. Teachers use information from a variety of ongoing assessments to plan and adjust learning opportunities that promote academic achievement and personal growth for all students. Teachers exchange information about student learning with students, families, and support personnel in ways that improve understanding and encourage further academic progress. • CSTP Key Element : Involving and guiding all students in assessing their own learning.  Question: "How do I?" or "Why do I?" : help all students to build their skills in self-reflection? CA- California K-12 Academic Content Standards • Subject : Mathematics • Grade : Grade One By the end of grade one, students understand and use the concept of ones and tens in the place value number system. Students add and subtract small numbers with ease. They measure with simple units and locate objects in space. They describe data and analyze and solve simple problems. • Area : Number Sense • Sub-Strand 1.0: Students understand and use numbers up to 100:  Standard 1.2 (Key Standard): Compare and order whole numbers to 100 by using the symbols for less than, equal to, or greater than (<, =, >).
Objective(s): Students will explain in words and pictures the concepts of greater than and less than as being opposites with ninety percent accuracy.
Prerequisite Background Skills/ Knowledge: This should not be students' first exposure to greater than and less than (and it won't be). Students have already practiced ordering numbers, and using the symbols < > = to compare numbers. Students perform these tasks nearly adequately. There is, however, still some confusion about the concept of greater than and less than itself.
Vocabulary/Language Skills: Greater than (more than) Less than (fewer) Equal Using the picture book, "More, Fewer, Less" as a starting point for discussion should help ELL students become more familiar with these terms.
Materials: Book: "More, Fewer, Less" Writing worksheet
Classroom Management: Keep lesson brief. Remind students about using a six-inch voice when working independently.
Models of Instruction: Direct Instruction
Procedure
Open: Display the book, "More, Fewer, Less" by Tana Hoban to students. This is a book with lots of pictures and no words and provides a terrific starting place for conversation about more and less.
Input: As you flip through the book, guide the students by asking more than less than questions, checking for student understanding.
Guided Practice: When students are able, allow them to discuss the pictures without your questioning (i.e. I see fewer blue shirts and more red shirts). Ask students to summarize what more than and less than mean.
Independent Practice: Pass out student worksheets to students (these will be papers split in half with more than on one side and less than on the other). Have students write and draw pictures to illustrate greater than and less than.
Close: Have a couple of students share their writing and ask someone else to summarize their learning in the lesson.
Assessment/ Reflection
Assessment: This activity will identify students who are still having trouble with the concepts of greater than and less than. Student writing will be examined to check to see that students have explained the concepts of greater than and less than with ninety percent accuracy. Although writing will be strongly encouraged, students will be allowed to draw pictures to illustrate their writing as all of my students are beginning writers.
Reflection: The literature I used, "More, Fewer, Less" worked wonderfully. The students really liked the picture and the answering the questions I asked from the book (Are there more spoons than forks or less spoons than forks, more chickens inside the coop or outside?, etc.) The repetition helped ELL students get familiar with the terms. By the time we were done reading, students were excited about drawing and writing about more and less. The worksheet I designed was simple enough for students to understand. All but two of my twenty students were able to communicate the concept of more and less correctly even though there were a larger number than that of students who did not write a sentence. Still, explaining more and less in words is difficult even for an adult. How do you explain more without using the word "more?" As an assessment tool, the pictures and the few words that the students wrote with their pictures definitely helps me to see who needs more help with the more/less concept. I also think this was a valuable lesson which students can now apply to numbers.