Teaching 1st Grade Students How to Count Rationally to 15

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 …show more content…

4) I would then call on each of the 10 students to individually come to the front of the room and verbally demonstrate counting the 15 dots in order from left to right.
5) I shall direct students to touch each dot as they say its number to establish one-to-one correspondence.

The Order Irrelevance Rule will be addressed in the following manner:
1) I shall place 15 dots on the white board in a close random pattern.
2) I shall explain to the students that I am going to count the dots on the white board and it does not matter in what order I count them.
3) I shall model counting the dots in a random order following the stable order rule and as I verbally count each dot I shall place a line through it with a marker indicating it has already been counted so as not to count it again following the one-to-one correspondence principle.
4) I shall ask for volunteers to come to the white board and count the dots randomly in the same manner. To make it fun, I shall challenge each student to come up with a different pattern of counting and marking what was counted. (Students may use a line, an X, circle the dot, erase the dot, etc.)

Assessment of student mastery of rational counting to 15, will be accomplished through the use of a worksheet which will be completed with me at the teaching table one-on-one. In this work sheet students will demonstrate their ability to verbally count 15 items presented in a random pattern