Measurement in the classroom

In this weeks reading, there was a strong emphasis on how to teach and use measurement in the classroom. From these readings it appears that many teachers do not go over the ideas of measurement thoroughly enough for students to fully comprehend it. In the Thompson reading they discuss how "Measurement is one of the most useful of the mathematical strands for everyday citizens." They then go on to talk about how many middle school students were unable to correctly measure given objects or properly select the correct answer on a standardized test for an estimation of an objects size using measurement. I found this to be very interesting, it seems that teachers are not focusing on the use of measurement because they believe that students should have already learned these basic ideas. In the article they go on further stating that many students have this issue of measurement because they are not familiar with the metric system.
This idea of the importance of understanding measurement in the metric system reminds me of when I was in Australia. Living there for 5 months I had to become familiar with the metric system. At first I had an extremely hard time converting kilos to pounds and kilometers to miles. Ordering meet from the deli and figuring out how far away I was from a given destination became a daily struggle. Growing up I was not exposed to the metric system and if I was I felt like my teachers speed through these ideas and believed that their students would not necessarily need them in the future. I find that focusing on measurement and understanding it to greater level is extremely important.
The readings also discuss the importance of investigations through measurement, If I were to teach measurement in my classroom, I would have the students compare the metric system to the measurement system that is common to the US. The students would also have a chance to ask questions and correlate ideas as to what is similar and what is different in the two systems.
Overall, I think that measurement is a very important concept that many students need to concur. Like the Thompson reading discussed students at the college level are still having difficulties conquering the idea of size and measurement, which is showing that there is not a strong enough focus on this idea.

Measurement and Exploring

This week's reading, "Building a Curriculum Around Big Ideas" by Ron Ritchhart talks about the importance of teaching measurement to students. A few teachers in this article are discussing how they should start teaching measurement to students. They want to make sure that they are teaching measurement the correct way. They don't want to just tell the students measurement formulas. They want them to figure out the real life application of measurement so that the students better understand the concept. One teacher, Carl, talks about how measurement is used in the first place and in the real world (Ritchhart). I think that this is a good place to start when thinking about teaching measurement. The students need to understand why they are doing and learning measurement in the first place. I think that students learn more if they find meaning behind what they're doing, instead of just plugging in formulas and spitting out numbers. Another teacher in this conversation while talking about measuring and using comparisons to measure says, "comparing is still measuring. You're finding out something about the two objects. If you're comparing to see who is taller, then you're dealing with height" (Ritchhart) I think that this person has a good point and comparing two different things is one way to measure. I think that students at a young age would enjoy doing this type of measurement. They would be able to relate it to their own lives, and easily be able to see the importance of measuring height. Teachers could also incorporate teaching about growing and the importance of being a healthy person in order to grow and be strong. Thompson and Lambin's article "Concrete Materials and Teaching for Mathematical Understanding" talks about the importance of using concrete materials to help students understand math concepts. I think that measuring people and comparing heights would be a fun thing for students to do and it would be good to use concrete materials, in this case, people. Students could also use people and peers to measure weight and lengths of body parts such as arms or feet, as well as height. I think that students using concrete materials when learning about measurement will definitely help them understand the importance of learning measurement. I think students should start off with measurement by doing activities such as the one I described. I feel like students will understand the importance and real life application of measurement by exploring for themselves by using concrete objects, making it more important to them.