Classroom Document
Out of all of the materials I gathered over my two weeks, I chose to focus on the Hundredths Grid. These grids were used in almost every decimal lesson I observed. The students were using them while completing adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing decimals problems. The Common Core standards promote students developing conceptual learning strategies. The focus is on students understanding what they are doing and being able to explain their answers. The Hundredths Grid allowed students to see what a portion of a whole looked like and it gave them something concrete to view.
For example, students were given a problem, 0.01 x 4 =, to solve. The students used their hundredths grids to find 0.01 (shaded in 1 box on the grid) and used 4 grids to show 0.01 four times. Most students were able to shade in just 0.01 (1 box) of the grid right away and then repeated that process over the 4 grids. For the students that didn’t understand right away, a few strategic questions had them figuring it out. Students were able to explain why they did what they did and how they arrived at an answer. The grids provided students a way to think about how much 0.01 is and to see it represented.
I think that anytime a student has something that will help them take an abstract concept (math) and help them see it in concrete terms is worth having in your classroom. I will use a grid (tenths/hundredths/thousandths, depending on grade level) in my classroom to help students see parts of a whole. This document can also be useful for teaching fractions and percents.
For example, students were given a problem, 0.01 x 4 =, to solve. The students used their hundredths grids to find 0.01 (shaded in 1 box on the grid) and used 4 grids to show 0.01 four times. Most students were able to shade in just 0.01 (1 box) of the grid right away and then repeated that process over the 4 grids. For the students that didn’t understand right away, a few strategic questions had them figuring it out. Students were able to explain why they did what they did and how they arrived at an answer. The grids provided students a way to think about how much 0.01 is and to see it represented.
I think that anytime a student has something that will help them take an abstract concept (math) and help them see it in concrete terms is worth having in your classroom. I will use a grid (tenths/hundredths/thousandths, depending on grade level) in my classroom to help students see parts of a whole. This document can also be useful for teaching fractions and percents.