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Parent Strategies for Improving Reading and Writing

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Parent Strategies for Improving Reading and Writing

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Today, perhaps more than ever, parents play an important role in their child's education. Gone are the days when it was solely the school's job to educate. Parents are an active part of the teaching and learning process, which can be challenging combined with all the other tasks of providing for a family.

The following ideas are intended to help increase your child's understanding of reading and writing skills and to develop confidence in learning, while providing parents with a general framework for how to get this all done. Choose two or three of the following strategies and use them throughout the year.
General Reading and Writing Improvement Strategies:

Read to your child

Model good habits by reading in front of your child

Check your child's assignment list daily

Provide a consistent time to study each day without distractions or media

Visit the public library frequently

Join public library summer reading programs

Provide opportunities for your child to attend theater performances

Use reading software or online games or apps, if available

Provide activities that relate reading and writing to daily life

Have your child write the menu for dinner

Have your child locate letters and words on food containers

Have your child help write a shopping list and have them check off the items on the list as you shop

When traveling, write words in a grid and have your child color in the boxes as they see the words on signs

Vocabulary Development:

Notice street and store signs together and talk about what they say and mean

Build vocabulary by having conversations with your child regularly

Talk about the people you see and the types of jobs they have

Talk about the colors and shapes of things you see

Sing songs you both know

Talk about the places you're going and what you see along the way

Ask your child specific things about their day

Open-ended topics are especially good for building vocabulary. Have your child answer questions like:

When I grow up I want to be...

My family...

The only thing I could think of was...

One night I woke up so scared that...

I am happiest when...

When I feel angry I...

A trip I'd like to make is...

On the weekend I would like to...

My favorite television show....

Provide word search or crossword puzzles

Play word games (such as Scattergories®) to help develop word choice and categorizing skills

Read a challenging book aloud to your child to give exposure to higher level words

Label objects around the house with sticky notes

Describe objects using a simile or metaphor (e.g., the car is as red as an apple, or the clouds are like cotton balls)

Word Study:

Play word games

Practice word play with your child by saying words and having them say a rhyming word

Practice synonyms and antonyms by saying a word and having your child say a word that means the same or the opposite

Play games such as, "I'm thinking of a word. Who can guess a letter in it?"

Say one letter of the alphabet and have your child name the next three letters in order

Say a letter and have your child name the letter that comes just before that letter

Locate pictures in magazines and practice identifying the beginning and ending sounds of each picture

Play word games such as Hangman® or Scrabble®

Have your child look in old magazines and cut out pictures of people, places, and things (nouns), and then have them categorize the pictures any way they want

Say a letter and then have your child name an animal or food that begins with that letter (or, to further challenge the child, try having them name an animal or food that ends with that letter)

Name an animal, object, or country. Have your child use the last letter of that word and think of a word in the same category that begins with that letter, then take turns with subsequent words

Circle words in a newspaper or magazine that start with the same letter or are in the same word family (e.g., words ending with -ing or -unk)

Practice writing spelling words in shaving cream or pudding smeared on a plate

Color the consonants blue and vowels red

Have your child post their weekly spelling words on a sticky note and put it on the bathroom mirror

Reading Comprehension:

Read a story or have your child read

Have your child pick their favorite part

Ask your child to think of alternative solutions to a problem

Have your child predict what will happen next

Ask your child to change the ending

Make up a sequel

Use audio books to follow along with text

Have your child make a list of things that could never happen, things that might happen, and things that are sure to happen

Monitor your child's reading by:

Asking literal questions about the facts

Asking inferential questions about what they think it means

Asking critical questions about how they might use the information, like:

Why did the author choose to use this particular word?

How could the author have explained this better?

Compare and contrast movies with previously read books

Provide high interest literature, including magazines

Provide reference materials and activities that encourage your child to use reference skills

Read newspaper articles with your child and discuss events in the news. Discuss:

What is the importance of the news?

What might happen as a result of these events?

What actions might have led to different results?

As children become more conscious of their larger society, they might begin to think about and investigate some of the following areas:

Providing food for the growing population of our nation

Living on the moon

Living peacefully with other nations

The impact of inventions on everyday life

After watching a movie, have your child retell the movie from beginning to end in the correct order, and using details, describe their favorite scene

While you're reading to your child or when your child is reading to you, encourage them to create their own movie in their mind; have them draw pictures of the story

When reading together, after each paragraph ask the child 'wh' questions (Who? What? Where? When? Why?) to see if they are understanding

Writing:

Encourage your child to keep a journal (for travel, family events, or feelings)

Encourage letter writing, pen pals, and thank-you notes

Have your child write a declarative statement, interrogative question, and exclamatory sentence about a picture in a magazine. An example would be: There is a barn on the farm. What animals live in the barn? There are baby chickens hatching in the barn!

Have your child write a story, song, poem, or article about a family event and then read it back to an adult

Have your child write a conversation using correct punctuation. The conversation could be between two of their favorite TV characters, two characters in a book, or even two members of their family

Students who become interested in certain aspects of the news should be encouraged to write letters requesting information or commending the actions of some person in the news

Encourage students to write to their Congressperson. Their office staff is glad to supply information about current affairs-new bills being considered, their opinions regarding certain issues, and so on. They will often respond to letters that request information or ask questions

These parental strategies for reading and writing only scratch the surface. If you have other ideas, please share them with us on Twitter using the hashtag #ParentStrategies. We'll be providing some parental tips that cover math in a blog to follow.

Kara brings 15+ years of marketing communications experience to her role as the Senior Manager of Digital Content at NWEA. She is passionate about learning and creating opportunities to share NWEA partner stories on a variety of platforms. For the past year, Kara has been creating content for Assessment Literacy.org, working on the NWEA-Gallup assessment perceptions study, and collaborating with the Task Force on Assessment Education for Teachers. Prior to that, Kara held communications and consulting roles in a variety of industries. She completed her undergraduate work at the University of Notre Dame and earned a master's degree from Northwestern University.

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Parent Strategies for Improving Their Child's Reading and Writing

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Today, perhaps more than ever, parents play an important role in their child's education. Gone are the days when it was solely the school's job to educate. Parents are an active part of the teaching and learning process, which can be challenging combined with all the other tasks of providing for a family.

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NWEA Blog

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In a previous blog, we shared some parent strategies for improving a child's reading and writing with some tips that they can use throughout the school year. In this post, we'll share some strategies that parents can use to help their child with math. As holiday and winter breaks approach, these strategies are some ways to continue learning even while everyone is away from school!

Choose two or three of the following strategies and use them throughout the year. They are intended to help increase your child's understanding of math skills and to develop confidence in learning.
General Mathematics Improvement Strategies:

Provide activities that enrich and relate mathematics to daily life:

Talk about how many bowls to put out for dinner

Fold napkins in different shapes

Have your child count similar items as you put away groceries

Have your child help measure ingredients for recipes

Give your child change to count out to pay for small purchases at the store; have older children calculate the change

Ask your child to compare prices of items by asking things like, "Which can of beans costs more?"

Allow your child to weigh the fresh produce; have older children calculate the price by multiplying the price per pound by the number of pounds

Read the days and dates on a calendar, talk about the number of days in the month, the number of days remaining until a special event, etc.

Draw a scale map of your home and determine the best escape route in case of an emergency

When traveling, write numbers on a grid and have your child color in the box as they see the numbers on signs or license plates

Check your child's assignment list daily

Monitor daily work and be aware of the content being studied

Use computer software or online games or apps to practice math skills at home

Provide some math activities at home:

Each person rolls the dice and adds, subtracts, or multiplies the numbers

Dice and Money. Each person rolls a die and gets the number of pennies as dots shown. When someone gets five pennies they trade it in for a nickel, dime, and so forth, until they're trading for a dollar

For two people, give each person 13 cards from a deck of cards, have each person flip a card, then have your child decide whose card has the higher value to determine who wins the set of cards. In a tie, place three additional cards face-down, then turn the last card up; the higher card on that turn wins all the cards. Play until one person has all the cards in the deck

Newspapers and Magazines. Find numbers in print and cut them out, then glue them in the correct order onto a larger sheet of paper

Keep empty containers, write different prices on them, then play Store by using a calculator to add up the prices for different purchases

Computation:

Count orally by twos, fives, or tens

Complete connect-the-dot pictures

Have your child make a number book which contains a page for each numeral from one to ten. On each page, have your child glue clippings from newspapers and magazines illustrating that number concept (two dogs, three ducks, or four horses). As your child progresses with number recognition, they can add to the book and add numerical figures used in various ways

Count and pair objects found around the house and determine whether there's an odd or even number of items

Review math facts at home, in the car, waiting in line, or during other downtime

Provide your child with verbal math problems. "Take the number five; add six; multiply by three; subtract three; divide by five. What's your answer?" Speak slowly at first until your child gets better at solving these mental problems; then speak more quickly

Help your child identify ads in signs, newspapers, and magazines that use percentages

Encourage your child to read nutrition labels. Have them calculate the percent of protein in each item

Geometry:

Fold a sheet of paper in half and have your child draw a shape along the fold; cut out the shape and unfold the paper to see a symmetrical shape

Look around the house for different geometric shapes, such as triangles, squares, circles, and rectangles

Use household items (such as toothpicks, marshmallows, straws, twist-ties, sticks, or paper) to construct shapes

Help your child recognize and identify real-world examples of right angles (the corner of a book) and parallel lines (railroad tracks)

While driving together, direct your child to look for objects with the same size and shape

Measurement:

Teach your child how to set the kitchen timer when you're cooking

Draw an analog clock face with the hour and minute hands showing eight o'clock. Ask your child to write the time shown

Arrange various objects (books, boxes, and cans) by various size and measurement (length, weight, and volume) attributes. Talk with your child about how they are arranged using comparison words like taller, shorter, narrower, wider, heaviest, lightest, more, less, about, and same

Use a standard measuring tool (a ruler, a tape measure, or a yardstick) to measure objects located in the house

Gather a tape measure, a yardstick, a ruler, a cup, a gallon container, and a scale. Discuss the various things you and your child can measure with each

Review equivalent names for measurements. For example, "How many cups in a pint?"

Encourage your child to incorporate such terms as whole, halves, thirds, and fourths into his or her everyday life

Statistics, Probability, Graphing:

Open a pack of Skittles® or M&M's® and make a bar graph showing the number of each color found inside the pack

Look through your science textbook and find three examples of different types of graphs

Find the coordinates of places on a map

Watch the news for a week, write down the temperatures for each day, then graph the weather temperatures for the week

Track the scores of ball games played by your favorite team, then graph these scores over a period of several weeks

Have your child make a list of things that could never happen, things that might happen, and things that are sure to happen

Problem Solving:

Encourage your child to figure out answers to real-life situations: "We have one can of tuna, and we need five. How many more do we need to buy?"

Ask questions that involve equal sharing. For example, "Seven children share 49 baseball cards. How many cards does each child get?"

Help your child look up the population and land area of the state and city in which you live and compare these facts with those of other states and cities

Visit the web site for the U.S. Bureau of the Census at cgov and have your child write three interesting pieces of information that he or she learned from the web site

Algebraic Concepts:

Encourage your child to count and recognize pattern and color in the environment by discussing what they see:

What color is the wall in the hallway?

What color is your math textbook?

What is the number on the house across the street?

How many objects are left on the table if I take one away?

How many exits are there from the school building?

How many swings are on the playground?

Have your child look for patterns on building, rugs, floors, and clothing

Parents play an integral role in education, and these tips can help move your student along in their learning. If you have other math tips, please share them on Twitter with us @NWEA.

Kara brings 15+ years of marketing communications experience to her role as the Senior Manager of Digital Content at NWEA. She is passionate about learning and creating opportunities to share NWEA partner stories on a variety of platforms. For the past year, Kara has been creating content for Assessment Literacy.org, working on the NWEA-Gallup assessment perceptions study, and collaborating with the Task Force on Assessment Education for Teachers. Prior to that, Kara held communications and consulting roles in a variety of industries. She completed her undergraduate work at the University of Notre Dame and earned a master's degree from Northwestern University.

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Parent Strategies for Improving Their Child's Math

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In a previous blog, we shared some parent strategies for improving a child's reading and writing with some tips that they can use throughout the school year. In this post, we'll share some strategies that parents can use to help their child with math.

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Reading passage with visuals and 2 steps

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Reading passage with visuals and 2 steps

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6th Grade

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Grades 5-6

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Short reading passage with a map and diagrams

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Short reading passage with a map and diagrams

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4th Grade

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4th Grade

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Grades 3-4

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Lesson focused on Comprehending Nonfiction Text on the Web

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Lesson focused on Comprehending Nonfiction Text on the Web

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Integrates visuals and multiple graphics

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Grades

3 - 5

Lesson Plan Type

Standard Lesson

Estimated Time

Three 30-minute sessions

Lesson Author

Publisher

Student Objectives Extensions Student Assessment/Reflections
STUDENT OBJECTIVES

Students will

Identify text features within a webpage format (contents in form of menu, hyperlinks which serve as headings, graphics and illustrations, italics and bold print)

Search for specific information within nonfiction text

Generalize information to related topics

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Introduce the Missouri Botanical Gardens/Evergreen Project website. Explain how this website is similar to text features in nonfiction texts. These text features include clues to help the reader understand the information that is presented. Students then complete the Text Features chart as you describe each feature. Space is provided for additional features if desired.

Define keywords that appear on the chart, such as:

Hyperlink—mouse control turns into a hand when rolled over the link, then the user can click and move to another page.

Menu—words or phrases that appear in a list format

The completed chart below explains the text features to be discussed.

Table of contents

Menu with hyperlinks (Sometimes marked with a home icon that looks like a house. If I see this, I can click on it and return to the menu anytime during my reading.)

This provides me with a list of information included in the text.

Headings

Headings (no difference)

I can read a brief phrase that tells me what information I will find in the paragraph below it.

Bold or italicized words

Bold or italicized words (sometimes these are hyperlinks)

These are important terms that I must be able to define so I can understand the information.

Graphics/illustrations

Graphics/illustrations (sometimes hyperlinks that explain more or enlarge picture)

A picture, graph, or chart that provides me more information OR arranges the information in a visual format so I might understand it better.

Pages

Navigation buttons (often look like arrows)

In a book I must turn between pages to organize the information; on a webpage I click on buttons to determine how I view the information.

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You can complete this chart as a whole-class activity or provide some information on the chart and allow students to identify features in a guided practice format.

Students can work independently or in pairs to complete the Scavenger Hunt handout. The focus of the activity is for students to locate specific information within the text. Questions begin very simply where only one link must be clicked to locate the answer and progress to where three links are required to arrive at the page with the answer. A teacher's key is included to provide not only the answers, but also the hyperlink icon labels that create the path leading to where the information is in the text.
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Use the Connecting Concepts Organizer (bubble chart) to guide students in generalizing the biome information and comprehending how human interaction impacts the environment. Students should identify two facts that illustrate destruction or endangerment to the biome and then synthesize how human interaction is causing this. Then they should develop an action that could help to solve the problem. Have students use the facts they wrote in the appropriate bubbles to write two paragraphs. (Rainforest, grassland, wetlands, and shorelines are the best biomes in the site for accomplishing this task.)
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EXTENSIONS

Use this same format with different subject area websites. Be careful to ensure text is presented at the reading level of your students.

Continue investigating other forms of information by viewing videotapes that support the Missouri Botanical Gardens/Evergreen Project.

You may also want to check your media resources for videos that were created to accompany the Missouri Botanical Gardens/Evergreen Project site. These videos are currently being repackaged for marketing and are unavailable but have been previously sold since the early 1990s. The video education quality is excellent for this grade level band.

Compare information found on the website with that in a textbook, checking for accuracy and observing what information was included in each. (Was it the same or different? If different, how?)

STUDENT ASSESSMENT/REFLECTIONS

Session 1 - Text features. Review the Text Features chart created for understanding of text functions. Observe utilization of text organization to locate specific observation.

Session 2 - Locating information. Chart at which levels student was successful in locating information.

Session 3 - Generalizing information. Utilize a rubric to assess student's ability to generalize:

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Traveling Terrain: Comprehending Nonfiction Text on the Web - ReadWriteThink

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Grades 3 - 5 Lesson Plan Type Standard Lesson Estimated Time Three 30-minute sessions Lesson Author Publisher Student Objectives Extensions Student Assessment/Reflections Students will Identify text features within a webpage format (contents in form of menu, hyperlinks which serve as headings, graphics and illustrations, italics and bold print) Search for specific information within nonfiction text Generalize information to related topics back to top Introduce the Missouri Botanical Gardens/Evergreen Project website.

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Includes some recommended text sources

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One would have to search far and wide these days to find a single informational text written for a K-6 audience that does not contain one or more graphical elements. Graphical elements - labeled diagrams, timelines, tables, and so forth - are increasingly ubiquitous. There is also evidence that graphics in children's texts are increasing in their diversity, complexity, and importance. As a case in point, a recent analysis of 276 science and social studies textbooks, leveled readers, and trade books appropriate for second and third graders revealed that 60% of the 12,238 graphics in these texts provided additional information not included in the written text (Fingeret, 2012). Numbers like these leave little room for doubt that students who know how to decode and interpret graphical elements have a distinct advantage over those who do not.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS; National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010) have recognized the importance of graphical comprehension via explicit reference in several of its anchor and grade-level standards. However, despite the prominent role that graphical literacy plays in the CCSS and the nearly universal inclusion of graphics in texts created for young children, there is surprisingly little published research on instructional approaches to teaching children how to comprehend or produce graphics.

Although we certainly favor the use of research-tested practices, we cannot wait to begin instruction in this important area until published research catches up. Instead, for the moment, we should rely on research related to instructional interventions with written text and the research on children's graphical literacy development to inform our instruction on graphical literacy. In this article, we first discuss what we need to teach students about graphics, particularly graphics in informational text, and then discuss how we might teach them effectively.

What do students need to know about graphics in written text?

The CCSS, adopted by 45 states, place considerable emphasis on visual texts. The anchor standards, for example, call for students to do the following:

"Integrate and evaluate content... visually and quantitatively, as well as in words" (Reading: 7)

"Make strategic use of... visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations" (Speaking and Listening: 5)

Apply the reading anchor standards to texts that include "information displayed in graphs, charts, or maps" (Range, Quality, and Complexity of Text: 10)

In addition, 30 individual grade-level standards explicitly mention graphics, illustrations, or the role of illustrators. Here we identify some fundamental concepts and specific understandings about graphics that are entailed in these standards.

Concepts of graphics

When children are learning to read, they develop concepts of print, or foundational understandings of what written texts are and how they work (e.g., a word is a discrete unit of language; readers of English usually read from left to right and top to bottom). At the same time, children may also be developing a parallel set of concepts related to understanding graphics (Duke et al., 2009). These concepts of graphics appear to include, but are not necessarily limited to, the concepts of action, extension, importance, intentionality, partiality, permanence, relevance, and representation (see Table 1 for an explanation of each). Our work with pre-K through third-grade children suggests that most children acquire many of these concepts quite early.

Table 1: Concepts of graphics with definitions

Action

Static graphics can be interpreted as dynamic action.

Extension

Some graphics provide additional information that is not present in the written text.

Importance

Some information in a graphic may be more important than other information.

Intentionality

Illustrators (who are sometimes also the authors) choose to create graphics to accomplish a communicative purpose within a larger text.

Partiality

Not everything in written text must be represented in the graphics.

Permanence

Graphics in printed texts are permanent and do not change.

Relevance

Graphics and written text are related.

Representation

Illustrations and photographs represent objects, but do not have the same physical properties as those objects.

Note: From Duke, N.K., Norman, R.R., Roberts, K.L., Martin, N., Knight, J.A., Morsink, P., et al. (2009, December). Visual literacy development in young children: An investigation with informational texts. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Literacy Research Association, Albuquerque, NM.

Figure 1 depicts the grade level at which all or nearly all of the children with whom we worked appeared to demonstrate an understanding of each concept. As this figure shows, there is some indication that even most preschoolers understand that a photograph of a child with his leg raised in front of him and a ball in the air depicts the action of kicking, not a tableau scene (concept of action).

Figure 1: Grade at which all or nearly all children demonstrated understanding of each concept

Similarly, while in the primary grades, the majority of children develop an understanding of most of the other concepts, such as the concept that authors and illustrators choose pictures intentionally and not solely because "they look fun," as Eric (age 4, all names are pseudonyms) suggested (concept of intentionality). These understandings are essential because, just as concepts of print provide the foundational understandings that children need to effectively engage with written text, we believe concepts of graphics provide the foundational understandings needed to engage with the graphical elements of text.

Importantly, two concepts of graphics do not seem to develop fully in the primary grades, even by the end of third grade: extension and importance. Children who have acquired the concept of extension understand that graphics can provide information that is not stated in or cannot be inferred from the written text alone. For example, when shown an illustration depicting the necks and heads of several different birds, each eating a different type of food (Sill, 1997, p. 25) and read the words "Birds use their bills to pick up food," Xander (age 5) explained that a child could also learn that "Birds are different colors. Their eyes can be different. Their beaks can be different colors, too, and long or short and wide or skinny. They can eat all sorts of things: fish, leaves, seeds, pollen, bugs...."

However, children like Xander are the exception rather than the rule. Few children (only about one third of preschool through third graders with whom we worked) seem to fully understand this concept, often reporting that there is nothing new to be learned from extending graphics. This is particularly problematic given the likelihood that graphics carry important meaning unavailable through the written text (Fingeret, 2012) and CCSS that expect students to glean that meaning (e.g., Reading Informational Text [RIT], 2.7: "Explain how specific images... contribute to and clarify a text.").

Figure 2: Excerpt from Germs Make Me Sick! illustrating the concept of importance

A second concept that appears to develop later than most is the concept of importance. For instance, when studying page 11 in Germs Make Me Sick! (Berger, 1995; see Figure 2), students who fully demonstrate the concept of importance identify the girl sneezing on the boy as the most important part of the picture. Children who do not demonstrate an understanding of the concept of importance typically report that no one part of the picture is more important than any other, or they identify other objects depicted in the picture, such as the fish tank in the illustration as most important. Only about one fourth of the children in pre-K through third grade with whom we have worked appeared to demonstrate full understanding of this concept. Again, this is problematic given expectations of the CCSS, as in the first-grade standard: RIT.1.7: "Use the illustrations... in a text to describe its key ideas."

Knowledge of graphical devices

To gain full access to the content of informational texts, children also need to be able to decipher particular types of graphical devices, such as captions, cross-sectional and surface diagrams, flowcharts, graphs, insets, maps, tables, and timelines (please see Table 2 for definitions and examples of each). Research examining children's abilities to read and use these graphical devices, however, suggests that mastering these skills is no easy task. Although children's abilities to comprehend and use these kinds of graphical devices seem to improve with age or experience, in our work, even most third graders did not yet have a firm grasp of them. This finding is generally consistent with what little other research exists on the subject.

For example, although there is some indication that children can identify and understand certain aspects of maps, there is also evidence that many young children (kindergarten through second grade) have trouble understanding scale (Blaut & Stea, 1971). By the same token, research on readers' understandings of graphs has found that both children and adults have trouble reading and interpreting them (see Shah & Hoeffner, 2002 for a review of this research), with young children often reading graphs as literal pictures (e.g., Kerslake, 1981).

Even among children in the same grade, there appears to be a great deal of variation in children's knowledge and understanding of graphical devices (Duke, Roberts, & Norman, 2011). For instance, when first grader Ali was shown a table depicting several bugs, their number of legs and body parts, and whether they qualified as insects (Ripley, 2008) and asked what the table showed, he responded, "Different kinds of bugs and how many legs they have. The daddy long legs has one body part. It shows the number of body parts and if it's an insect." In contrast, another first grader, Malcolm, gave a much more simple response: "Insects." This contrast in apparent depth of understanding was fairly consistent for these two boys across all devices.

The differences found among children at the same grade level, such as those illustrated by Ali and Malcolm, highlight the need for teachers to be prepared for considerable variation in how much and what types of support students need. Specific strategies for managing this variation are included in the following recommendations.

Table 2: Graphical devices with definitions

How can we teach about graphics in written text?

As noted earlier, there is very little research on how to teach elementaryage children to comprehend or compose graphics in or for informational text (for an exception, see McTigue & Flowers, 2011). We expect that this will be a burgeoning area of future research.

In the meantime, based on our experience as classroom teachers and the available research on young children's interactions with written text and graphics, we have compiled 12 recommendations for teaching comprehension and composition of graphics in informational text at the elementary level. When applicable, we have also included one example of a standard from the CCSS that the recommended practice addresses (although many recommendations address more than one standard at more than one grade level).

Help children see that good readers read the graphics

Some children are under the impression that good readers do not need to look at the graphics to fully understand a text and thus avoid doing so (Norman, 2009), when, in fact, use of graphics is actually a mark of good readers (Hannus & Hyona, 1999). However, struggling and beginning readers do sometimes over rely on pictures to support word recognition (Beck & McKeown, 2001; Samuels, 1970), and in our experience, parents and teachers sometimes inadvertently discourage looking at graphics during reading in an effort to get children to attend more closely to the words. In light of these tendencies, it seems important that teachers seize every opportunity to comment explicitly on the value of graphics in constructing meaning from text and to model extracting and constructing meaning from graphics. (RIT.3.7: "Use information gained from illustrations [e.g., maps, photographs] and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text.")

Talk about graphics during read-alouds and shared reading

The techniques you use to explicitly teach about concepts of print or other literacy knowledge as you read with children (e.g., those described by Duffy, 2003; and Zucker, Ward, & Justice, 2009) can also be applied to teaching about graphics. Thinking aloud is one such technique that seems to improve comprehension of written text (e.g., Kucan & Beck, 1997).

For example, to draw attention to the purpose of a particular graphic, you could say something like, "Hmm. I'm noticing that the person who made this book put a diagram here. The words over here [running text] don't talk about the parts of a bike, but this diagram tells me what they are called and where to find them. I'm learning something from the picture that I couldn't learn from the words." Later on, you might ask students to look carefully at the graphics in a text and reflect in similar ways. (RIT.K.3: "With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.")

Emphasize the concepts of importance and extension in talking about text

Given research indicating that some children struggle to identify the main ideas in print text (e.g., Schellings & Van Hout-Wolters, 1995) and our own research that doing so with graphics is also difficult, you will want to not only introduce but also reinforce the concept of importance. For example, you might take on the role of an "uninformed reader" (Duke, Caughlan, Juzwik, & Martin, 2011) by saying something that blatantly contradicts one of the concepts, such as insisting that, in a photograph of the African savanna captioned, "Savannas have a lot of grass and very few trees to block the sunlight from hitting the ground," the most important component is a zebra standing in the background.

Similarly, to reinforce the concept of extension, when looking at a picture that clearly provides additional, interesting information about a given topic (beyond what is contained in the written text), you might say, "I think I'll skip this picture and keep on reading because the words are where I'll find all of the information." Many students will jump at the opportunity to correct a teacher! However, be aware and adjust for those for whom this is culturally uncomfortable. (RIT.1.6: "Distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations and information provided by the words in a text.")

Have students read and write graphics for the same reasons people do outside of a schooling context

Students should read and write graphics not just to learn how to read and write them, practice reading and writing them, or satisfy a teacher's assignment, but also because they actually want or need to obtain information from or convey information through them (Purcell- Gates, Duke, & Martineau, 2007). These kinds of literacy tasks can make reading and writing more compelling for students (Guthrie, McRae, & Klauda, 2007; Teale & Gambrell, 2007).

For example, a group of kindergarten through second-grade boys with whom Kathryn worked made detailed diagrams of animals' body parts not simply because they were assigned to do so but because they were providing the diagrams and other information in field guides to be displayed for patrons at the city zoo. Similarly, to address both the CCSS on graphical literacy and content area standards, students could improve on an existing historical text by, for example, adding a timeline to help highlight key events (Duke, Halladay, & Roberts, 2013). (W.5.2: "Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly... include formatting [e.g., headings], illustrations, and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.")

Use books with clear, persuasive, and engaging graphics

Show students that graphics can effectively support comprehension when the relationship between the written text and graphics is clear and synergistic (Dimino, 2007; Sipe, 1998) and that these texts can be models for their own composition. For example, you might share the flowchart and surface diagram from the book Honeybees (Heiligman, 2002), talking about how these vivid graphics draw the reader's attention and convey meaning through their details. Children might then create their own lifecycle flowcharts or diagrams of insects or animals of their choice, as Shea (age 5) did (Figure 3).

Figure 3: A child's diagram of a caterpillar

Using high-quality "mentor" texts provides clear models of what quality writing looks like, ripe for analysis and emulation by students and teachers (Galda & Cullinan, 2003; Kern, Andre, Schilke, Barton, & Mcguire, 2003), and can increase the quality of children's own writing (Dressel, 1990). For suggestions for books with strong examples of specific kinds of graphics, see Table 3. (W.4.9: "Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.")

Table 3: Possible texts to use when introducing each graphical device

Discuss why the illustrator chose to include some specific graphical devices and not others

Just as we should talk with children about how the author's word choices can make writing clearer or more interesting (e.g., Newman & Fink, 2012; Paquette, 2007), we should talk with children about how the illustrator's graphical device choices can have an impact on text effectiveness. For example, when reading "What's inside a wolf?" in Scary Creatures: Wolves (Clarke, 2004, p. 15) to fourth graders, Rebecca asked, "Why did the illustrator include the cross-sectional diagram of the wolf? What can you learn?" One student responded, "The heading goes with the picture... you can learn how an inside of a wolf's body looks." (RIT.4.7: "Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively [e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, timelines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages] and explain how that information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.")

Have students plan the graphics in their own compositions

Research indicates that teaching students to plan for writing improves written products (e.g., Graham, Harris, & Mason, 2005). An important aspect of writing that students can plan for is the purposeful use of graphics. One planning strategy is to have students create tables of the information they want to convey and indicate the most appropriate device, if any, for each item. For an example of this type of table, see Figure 4. (W.4.2: "Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly... include formatting [e.g., headings], illustrations, and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.")

Figure 4: A child includes graphical devices in planning her writing

Provide students with opportunities to give and receive feedback on the graphics they create

Just as providing opportunities for children to share their writing with peers and receive constructive feedback during conferences and "author's chair" sessions can improve writing (e.g., Graham, Harris, & Mason, 2006; Stevens, Madden, Slavin, & Farnish, 1987), so too can providing opportunities to share graphics. As with peer feedback on written text, you will need to model this in advance and provide a good deal of scaffolding. For example, you might provide a list of questions for students to ask themselves about the graphics on which they are providing feedback (e.g., "Do the graphics appear to be accurate?" "Can you tell what meaning the author was trying to convey?"). (W.2.5: "With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.")

Pair students to read texts that include rich graphical devices

Partner reading, in which children discuss text with others and engage in asking and answering questions, leads to the social construction of meanings that are more in depth than any one reader could construct alone (e.g., Dole, Duffy, Roehler, & Pearson, 1991; Englert & Mariage, 1991) and can also improve overall independent comprehension (e.g., Mathes, Howard, Allen, & Fuchs, 1998). A logical extension of this practice is to include discussion of graphical elements. During reading, encourage children to discuss the information they are gleaning from the graphics, how they are constructing that meaning, and why the author chose to include particular graphics and not others. (RIT.3.7: "Use information gained from illustrations [e.g., maps, photographs] and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text.")

Group children by their graphical development needs

As noted earlier, there is likely to be a considerable amount of variation within grade in children's acquisition of concepts of graphics and understanding of graphical devices (Duke, Roberts, & Norman, 2011; Duke et al., 2009). Research on other literacy skills suggests it is advisable to group children with similar instructional needs (e.g., Connor et al., 2011). Just as you might work with a small group of writers who all need to work on using cohesive ties or a small group of readers who all seem to need support with making inferences, so too might you work with a small group of students who, for example, all demonstrate an incomplete understanding of how to determine the most important part of a graphic or how to read a table.

Fill the classroom environment with graphics

Researchers have long recommended surrounding children with meaningful print at home and at school (e.g., Allington et al., 2010; Neuman & Roskos, 1992). Similarly, we believe it is important to surround children with high-quality graphical devices and to help children use those graphical devices in meaningful ways (e.g., preparing for recess by consulting a table that indicates ranges of outside temperatures, whether recess will be inside or outside, and appropriate clothing) and generally incorporate graphics into your classroom and daily routines as much as possible- not as decoration, but as frequently used resources.

Develop a schoolwide plan for teaching students to comprehend and compose graphics in text

This might include developing a common language to be used with students across grades (e.g., it is likely to be confusing to children if what some teachers call a table, others call a chart) and talking about what teachers will do with specific graphical devices at specific grade levels (e.g., kindergarten teachers might have students make timelines of their own lives, whereas fourthgrade teachers might engage students in making timelines of their state's history). Strong evidence supports the idea that schoolwide, coordinated efforts to improve literacy instruction are an effective way to support literacy growth, particularly if those efforts are sustained for at least two years (Taylor, Pearson, Peterson, & Rodriguez, 2005).

The road ahead

For better or worse, the texts that young children encounter on a regular basis are likely to include a multitude of graphics, many of which carry meaning that cannot be gained from the text alone (Fingeret, 2012). However, many students have not acquired all concepts of graphics or developed a high level of proficiency in interpreting graphical devices, even by third grade. This makes it important for us to emphasize the value of graphics and to provide thoughtfully planned instruction in how to make meaning from graphics.

Preparing children to interpret graphical devices is challenging because the canon of devices that they are expected to interpret is a fast-moving target. Children are being presented with more and more digital, Web-based informational texts, which contain a myriad of new graphical devices, ranging from the fairly simple (e.g., captioned pictures that contain hyperlinks to additional information) to the dynamically complex (e.g., animated, interactive charts and graphs that allow the viewer to explore and transform presented data). We know very little about children's abilities to understand and use such digital devices. More research is urgently needed on all types of graphical devices. In the meantime, we should use the research we do have to offer informed and engaging instruction.

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One would have to search far and wide these days to find a single informational text written for a K-6 audience that does not contain one or more graphical elements. Graphical elements - labeled diagrams, timelines, tables, and so forth - are increasingly ubiquitous.

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Word and concept lists by RIT range

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Grades K-12

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Suggested Grade 2 but you can see the possibilities for higher grades

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Grades 3-5

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Grades 2-3

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STEM Grades 5-8

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Graphing Sea-Level Trends Activity | NASA/JPL Edu

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In this activity, students will use sea-level rise data to create models and compare short-term trends to long-term trends. They will then determine whether sea-level rise is occurring based on the data.

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STEM Grades 4-8

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Students learn the metric units engineers use to measure mass, distance (or length) and volume. They make estimations using these units and compare their guesses with actual values. To introduce the concepts, the teacher needs access to a meter stick, a one-liter bottle, a glass container that measures milliliters and a gram scale.
This engineering curriculum meets Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

Pre-Req Knowledge

Students should have some prior experience with the terms mass, distance, length and volume.

Learning Objectives

After this lesson, students should be able to:

List which units of measurement are used for different properties.

Estimate simple measurements of distance and length.

Explain how engineers use measurement and understand the importance of accuracy and precision in engineering design.

Educational Standards

Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem. (Grades 3 - 5 ) More Details
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Science & Engineering Practices

Disciplinary Core Ideas

Crosscutting Concepts

Generate and compare multiple solutions to a problem based on how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the design problem.

Research on a problem should be carried out before beginning to design a solution. Testing a solution involves investigating how well it performs under a range of likely conditions. At whatever stage, communicating with peers about proposed solutions is an important part of the design process, and shared ideas can lead to improved designs.

Engineers improve existing technologies or develop new ones to increase their benefits, to decrease known risks, and to meet societal demands.

Know relative sizes of measurement units within one system of units including km, m, cm; kg, g; lb, oz.; l, ml; hr, min, sec. Within a single system of measurement, express measurements in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Record measurement equivalents in a two column table. (Grade 4 ) More Details
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Convert among different-sized standard measurement units within a given measurement system (e.g., convert 5 cm to 0.05 m), and use these conversions in solving multi-step, real world problems. (Grade 5 ) More Details
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Introduction/Motivation

You are probably familiar with units such as pounds, feet, inches and gallons, but engineers also frequently use units of meters, grams and liters. These units are a part of the metric system. What kinds of things do you think engineers might need to measure? (Have students brainstorm "measuring" situations. Possible answers may include: height of a roller coaster, volume of a large aquarium, weight of a rocket, or distance across a bridge.) As young engineers, we should practice using the metric system also.

Let's start out by thinking about distance. How far away do you think I am from the back of the room? (Students will probably reply in units of feet.) As an engineer, we would use a unit called a meter to discuss this distance. This is how long a meter is. (Hold up a meter stick.) One meter equals about 3 feet. So, knowing this, how many meters from the back of the room do you think I am standing? Excellent guesses! Does someone want to use this meter stick and find out the correct measurement? (Select a student to measure the distance and write it on the white/chalk board.) Can you estimate how far from school you live in meters? Does this seem like a long way away (similar to saying I live 2,000 feet from school)? A much better unit of measurement for this is a kilometer. There are 1,000 meters in one kilometer and 0.62 miles in one kilometer. This means that one mile is longer than one kilometer. How far from school do you think you live in units of kilometers? (Take a few student estimates and write this value on the chalk/white board.) How far away do you think the sun is in kilometers? (Again, write several students' guesses on the board.) The sun is nearly 150,000,000 kilometers (about 93 million miles) away! (Write this figure on the board also.) This distance is enormous!

Let's look at something smaller. Think about the distance from your heel to your toe? Would we use a kilometer? (Answer: No) How about a meter? (Answer: You could, but that is still not the best measurement.) Actually, there is an even better unit than a meter - a centimeter. There are 100 centimeters in one meter. Look at your ruler and notice that one side has inches, and the other side might have centimeters. Can you estimate the length of your foot in centimeters? (Take a few student guesses and record this value on the chalk/white board.) Great job! Did you notice on the ruler that the centimeter is broken down into smaller parts? These are called millimeters. Between each centimeter there are 10 millimeters. Can anyone tell me how many millimeters there are in one meter? (Answer: 1,000) What would an engineer measure using millimeters? (Answers may include: the size of a bug, the length of a small piece of wire for a household appliance or even the thickness of a piece of metal.)

Do you wonder if there are even smaller units? Yes, there are (the picometer and nanometer, among others). What are some possible things you imagine might need to be measured that are smaller than a millimeter? (Possible answers: size of cells or bacteria, tiny circuits for computers and other electronic devices.) To measure in micrometers, you would need a microscope for this!

Many engineers need to measure length of distance as part of their work. For example, a civil engineer might want to measure the length of a bridge in meters or kilometers, and a biomedical engineer might want to measure the length of a small bone in centimeters or millimeters.

All of these things we have talked about so far are measurements of distance or length. There are other quantities of an object we might want to measure, also. For example, we can measure the length of a text book, but we also might want to measure its mass. Remember that mass is the amount of matter in an object. (Remind students that mass is different than weight.) What do you think the mass of this text book is? (Students' answers will probably be in pounds.) Great! These are all good guesses. As scientists and engineers, we use a unit called a gram. One pound is equal to about 454 grams. (Write this relation on the board and then ask students which unit is smaller.) A green pea, for example, has a mass of about one gram. What do you think the mass of an apple is in grams? (Record a few students' estimates on the chalk/white board.)

How about something more massive, such as a stack of dictionaries? There is a better unit to use for massive objects: a kilogram. One kilogram equals about 2 pounds or 1,000 grams (write this relation on the board). Now think of an object with very little mass, such as a grain of rice. Would you use kilograms to measure its weight? (Answer: No) How about grams? (Answer: No) We would use an even smaller unit called a milligram. There are 1,000 milligrams in one gram.

Do you notice a similarity between kilogram and kilometer? These two words have the prefix kilo (underline this portion of both words). Kilo means 1,000 in the metric system.

Can anyone think of another quantity you may want to measure? How about liquid? No, it's not temperature in this case (although temperature is a very important quantity that engineers need to measure). Let's assume you wanted to measure how much of a liquid you had. What units might you use? Think of a jug of milk. Your mom or dad may often purchase a "gallon" of milk from the store. A gallon is a unit of volume, but like inches and pounds, it is not the scientific unit of measurement. Instead, engineers use liters. This is a liter. (Show the students a one-liter bottle.) Just like meters and grams, liters are divided into larger and smaller units as well. The most common of these is a milliliter. Is a milliliter larger or smaller than a liter? (Answer: Smaller) Correct! There are 1,000 milliliters in one liter, so the milliliter is smaller. (Show the students a milliliter with a glass measuring cup. Fill the cup with a colored liquid.) Can you estimate the volume of liquid in this cup? (Have students record this guess.) What might an engineer measure in liters? (Answer: An environmental engineer might design a water storage tank to hold a certain number of liters, or a biomedical or chemical engineer might measure medicines or chemicals in milliliters.)

Now that we know how and why engineers measure different things, can you think of a reason why it would be important for an engineer to make an accurate measurement? What would happen if an aerospace engineer designed a rocket to carry humans to Mars and they made a mistake when measuring the size of the fuel tank? The astronauts might not have enough fuel to make it back to Earth and not only would we lose the rocket, we would lose the lives of the astronauts and all the hard work and money that went into the space mission! Can you think of another example of how a small mistake in measurement could result in a big disaster? (Example: If a chemical engineer measured the volume of a solution incorrectly when they were creating a new medicine, they might make people much more sick, rather than enabling them to get well.)

Let's measure the quantities that we estimated earlier. (Measure the mass of the apple, and the volume of the liquid in front of the class. Have the students measure the length of their foot.) Now that we have measured these values, compare them to your estimates. Were you close?

Lesson Background and Concepts for Teachers

Table of metric units.

Imperial to Metric Conversion (approximations):

1 pound (lb) = 0.454 kilograms (kg) = 454 grams (g)

1 foot (ft) = 0.305 meters (m)

1 mile (mi) = 1.61 kilometers (km)

1 inch (in) = 2.54 centimeters (cm)

1 gallon (gal) = 3.78 liters (l)

1 ounce (oz) = 29.6 milliliters (ml)

Metric to Imperial Conversions (approximations):

1 kilogram (kg) = 2.21 pounds (lbs)

1 meter (m) = 3.28 feet

1 kilometer (km) = 0.621 miles (mi)

1 centimeter = 0.394 inches (in)

1 liter = 0.265 gallons (g)

1 milliliter (ml) = .0338 ounces (oz)

Vocabulary/Definitions

imperial units: A system of units first developed by the British Weight and Measures Act. Also referred to as foot-pound-second units.

mass: The amount of matter in an object.

metric units: A decimalized system of units devised around the number 10. Also referred to as the International System of Units, or SI units.

Associated Activities

Lesson Closure

It is very important for engineers to know what units to use to measure certain quantities. Why? This is critical when an engineer presents data or when s/he needs to recreate an experiment or rebuild a device. It is also important for communication with engineers in other cities or countries. For example, think about how hard it would be to bake a delicious cake for the first time without a recipe. How would we know how much flower or sugar to add? Knowing how to measure accurately assures that we have just the right amounts of all the ingredients.

So, as we have discussed, there are many different units of measure. It is important to have an understanding of the metric system, as it is used all over the world. It is especially important for engineers to have knowledge of units of measurement so that they can develop the safest and most effective products.

Worksheets and Attachments

Assessment

Pre-Introduction Assessment

Brainstorming/Prior Knowledge: Have students list some quantities that engineers might need to measure along with their corresponding units. Also, have them list reasons why measuring is important.

Post Introduction Assessment

Estimation: Have the students estimate the following quantities in metric units:

1. The distance from their home to school (km)

2. The length of their foot (cm)

3. The mass of their favorite pet (kg)

4. The mass of an apple (g)

5. The volume of liquid in the container (mL)

Afterwards, tell the students the actual mass of the apple and the actual volume of liquid in the container and have students measure the length of their foot. Have the students compare their estimates with the actual values and comment on their predictions: "My prediction for the mass of the apple was too big," or "I thought the mass of the apple was less than the actual mass."

Lesson Summary Assessment

Class Discussion: List several types of engineers on the Board. (Possible examples could include: civil engineers, mechanical engineers, aerospace engineers, chemical engineers, environmental engineers, etc.) For each type of engineer, have students think of at least one measurement that would be important for that type of engineer's job and the units they would use. Also, have them think about the disasters that could occur if the measurements are not accurate. Encourage the students to share their answers with the class.

Homework: Have the students complete the Practice Your Units Worksheet; review their answers to gauge their mastery of the subject.

Lesson Extension Activities

Have the class measure several of the objects in the room (teacher's desk, students' desks, book cases, chalk/white boards, closets, windows, etc.) by assigning a group of students a task (for example, one group would be in charge of measuring and counting the total number of desks and tables, another group would be in charge of measuring the width of doors, windows, and chalk/white boards, etc.) After all of the objects have been measured, have each group pretend they are an architectural engineering team working to create a layout of the classroom. Students should make a scaled poster or drawing to present to the class.

Contributors Lesley Herrmann; Malinda Schaefer Zarske; Janet Yowell

Copyright © 2010 by Regents of the University of Colorado.

Supporting Program Integrated Teaching and Learning Program, College of Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder

Acknowledgements

The contents of this digital library curriculum were developed under a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation GK-12 grant no. 0338326. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the Department of Education or National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.

Last modified: April 11, 2018

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Students learn the metric units engineers use to measure mass, distance (or length) and volume. They make estimations using these units and compare their guesses with actual values. To introduce the concepts, the teacher needs access to a meter stick, a one-liter bottle, a glass container that measures milliliters and a gram scale.

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STEM Grades 3-5

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Pre-Req Knowledge

Students should have some prior experience with the following terms: mass, distance, length and volume.

Learning Objectives

After this activity, students should be able to:

Explain why accuracy in measurement is important to engineering.

Describe how to read a meter stick or ruler using the units in the metric system.

Use the correct metric system units to measure different distances.

Educational Standards
Suggest an alignment not listed above

Materials List

Each group needs:

To share with the entire class:

2 or 3 meter sticks

3 pieces of string of different lengths

3 text books, labeled #1, #2, and #3

Introduction/Motivation

Do you know how tall you are? Can you estimate how tall I am? Estimation is a guess that is often done before an actual measurement (Write some of their estimations on the board. Answers will probably be in English units such as feet; encourage estimations in metric units.) How can we figure out how tall we actually are? That's right, we could measure our heights. What would we use to do that? Maybe we would use a ruler, or a measuring tape, or even a meter stick. These are some devices that engineers use to measure distances and sizes of objects.

What is a measurement? A measurement for our activity today is a number value given to a property of an object, such as distance, mass or volume. A system of measurement is a group of units that are used for measuring something, such as meters or pounds. The metric system is the most common system used for measurement in the world so it is important that engineers know the units of this system in order to communicate with people in other cities or countries!

Today we are going to practice using the metric system to measure distances in the classroom. The unit used for measuring distance is the meter. There are 1,000 meters in a kilometer, so a kilometer is used to measure larger distances. There are 100 centimeters in one meter, so a centimeter is used to measure small objects and small distances. An even smaller unit of measurement is the millimeter; there are 1,000 millimeters in one meter!

How would you measure my height? [Allow students to respond. Have two students each measure the height of the teacher using a meter stick and write their results on the board; remember to label the units (meters). Discuss the methods the students used to arrive at their answer and also acknowledge if the measurements were the same or different.] Why might these two measurements be different? (Possible answers: There were small differences in how the students each took the measurements; there were small differences in how the students read the meter stick.)

Can you think of some distances that engineers may measure using kilometers, meters, centimeters or millimeters? (Possible answers may include: Environmental engineers may measure the distance of a river in kilometers, a civil engineer might measures the height of a building, an aeronautical engineer may measure the height of a rocket in meters, biomedical engineers may measure the size of a cell in millimeters or the length of a bone in centimeters.) These are all great examples!

We just talked about why two measurements of the same object might be slightly different. Do you know why it is important for engineers to make accurate measurements? Think about what could happen if an engineer were to make a mistake when she designed a bridge to stretch across a river. If the engineer measured the distance across the river and her measurement was too short, the civil engineers would not be able to reach the other side of the river with the bridge and it would have to be designed again. A lot of time and money would be wasted

Also, what would happen if a biomedical or chemical engineer working on developing a certain type of medicine was using a recipe from an engineer in another country who was not accurate in measuring the amounts of the chemicals? What might happen if they added a little too much of a certain chemical to the new medicine? Instead of that medicine making people well, it might actually make people even sicker. This is why it is important for engineers to practice good measuring techniques and be able to share their results with other engineers. Are you ready to practice your measurement skills? Let's get started!

Vocabulary/Definitions

estimation: An educated guess.

measurement: An estimation of a certain property of an object.

meter: A fundamental unit of distance measurement in the metric system.

Procedure

Background

There are many useful prefixes and conversions of units; knowing these units will help students understand measurements.

Table of metric units.

Imperial to Metric Conversion (approximations):

1 pound (lb) = 0.454 kilograms (kg) = 454 grams (g)

1 foot (ft) = 0.305 meters (m)

1 mile (mi) = 1.61 kilometers (km)

1 inch (in) = 2.54 centimeters (cm)

1 gallon (gal) = 3.78 liters (l)

1 ounce (oz) = 29.6 milliliters (ml)

Metric to Imperial Conversions (approximations):

1 kilogram (kg) = 2.21 pounds (lbs)

1 meter (m) = 3.28 feet

1 kilometer (km) = 0.621 miles (mi)

1 centimeter = 0.394 inches (in)

1 liter = 0.265 gallons (g)

1 milliliter (ml) = .0338 ounces (oz)

Before the Activity

1. Make four copies of the Secret Partners Worksheet, so that after each worksheet is cut into strips (as indicated by the separate boxes on the worksheet), the same strips can be given to either four individual students or two specific student pairs.

2. Gather enough rulers with metric units for each student.

3. Collect several meter sticks (students can share).

With the Students

1. Distribute the Secret Partners Worksheet strips so that there are two of the same strip of worksheet among four random students or two specific students pairs. The strips can be identified by the pictures.

2. Allow time for students to make the measurements specified on their worksheet strips. Make sure the measurements are in metric units and that all measurements are properly labeled with kilometer (km), meter (m), centimeter (cm), or millimeter (mm). Instruct them to wait to answer the last question on their worksheet strip.

3. Once all of the students have made their own measurements, tell the students to find their "secret partners" by finding the students or pair with the same worksheet strip (that is, the worksheet with the same picture).

4. Once the partners have been located, allow students to compare their answers. Have them answer the questions at the bottom of the page about why it is important for engineers to make accurate measurements.

5. As a class, create a class tally of the measurements. (Note: A Class Tally Template is provided as an overhead; attached.) Discuss the results. How similar were the measurements for each object?

6. (Optional) If time allows, have the students complete the Engineering Design Post-Assessment in which they are asked to think about what products might need to use the measurements they just made and create a sketch of an example product.

Worksheets and Attachments

Troubleshooting Tips

If not all of the items on the worksheets are available in the classroom, provide the students with alternate items to measure in meters or centimeters.

Assessment

Pre-Activity Assessment

Estimation: Have the students estimate the height of their teacher (in meters). Have students estimate the length of their foot (in centimeters). Share answers with the class.

Brainstorming: Have the students engage in open discussion to think of the different distances and sizes of objects that engineers measure. Remind students that no idea or suggestion is "silly." All ideas should be respectfully heard.

Activity Embedded Assessment

Secret Partners Worksheet: Have the students complete the Secret Partners Worksheet taking all measurements in metric units; review their answers to gauge their mastery of the subject.

Post-Activity Assessment

Communicating the Measurements: Have students compare their answers with their partner and answer the questions at the bottom of the Secret Partners Worksheet. Discuss the following as a class.

Where their measurements the same as their partners for each item?

Why is it important for engineers to take accurate measurements?

Engineering Design of Products: Have students think of reasons why an engineer would have to make the particular measurement that they just made on their Secret Partners Worksheet. For example, an engineer may need to measure the height of a person in order to design a spacesuit. It may also be important to measure the length of a book in order to create a new type of backpack. Have the two partners share their ideas with the rest of the class; or have them expand on one of their ideas and design a new spacesuit or backpack using the measurements they have recorded.

Estimation Revisited: Have students measure the actual distance of the foot they estimated before the activity. How close was their estimation to their measurement? When might an estimation be used in engineering design?

Worksheet Revisited: Have students convert their measurements to meters. Discuss how measurements can be expressed in larger units in terms of smaller units and how it is often helpful to do so for certain circumstances (e.g., for larger objects, expressing in meters might be more useful, however for smaller objects centimeters are more useful).

Activity Extensions

Have students learn more about the prefixes used in measurement. Engage the class in a discussion of metric system prefixes and ask them to list the following units in order from smallest to largest: meter, centimeter, kilometer, millimeter.

Activity Scaling

For upper grades, include more measurement of the object in addition to distance, such as mass and volume (if appropriate).

Contributors Lesley Herrmann; Malinda Schaefer Zarske; Janet Yowell

Copyright © 2010 by Regents of the University of Colorado.

Supporting Program Integrated Teaching and Learning Program, College of Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder

Acknowledgements

The contents of these digital library curricula were developed by the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program under National Science Foundation GK-12 grant no. 0338326. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.

Last modified: March 16, 2018

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Students practice measuring techniques by measuring different objects and distances around the classroom. They practice using different scales of measurement in metric units and estimation. Also, students learn how measurement is used in engineering and why accuracy is important to the design of new products.

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Activities for Teaching Unit of Length Measurement

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Why do we need standard units of measurement? What jobs require measuring skills? What does a thirteen-foot alligator look like? How far can I throw a cotton ball? How tall is my friend? How big is my foot? Students will get out of their seats to do hands-on activities for teaching unit of length measurement.

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3rd Grade

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2nd Grade

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Measurement (with connections to data analysis)

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Measurement (with connections to data analysis)

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First grade teachers, I implore you: Do not start off teaching time the traditional method. Yes, I know that Common Core gives you a sequence which has been used way before Common Core even existed. The sequence goes like this:

1. Tell and write time to the hour.

2. Tell and write time to the half hour.

3. Tell and write time to the quarter hour.

4. Tell and write time to the nearest 5 minutes.

5. Tell and write time to the minute.

Makes sense, right? Start off easier, work your way up the ladder of difficulty. Here's the thing: It's going to confuse a lot of kids. I taught middle school special ed for 8 years in an inclusion program. I worked with students with and without IEPs. You'd be surprised at how many older students simply couldn't tell time on an analog clock. These days it's even worse, because they rely on digital clocks through their phones. So I wondered, what was the reason for this?

We're teaching kids incorrect information.

This is what traditional lessons would look like:

You might be thinking, well what's wrong with that? Kids should start off with easier concepts.

This is a wrong approach because we're teaching kids that the hour is whatever the short hand is pointing to. They get that notion stuck in their heads, and every time we try to teach a new skill, such as time to the half hour or quarter hour, students have to readjust their misconceptions and realize what they learned before was wrong.

While some students make this adjustment quickly, there are many students who take longer to unlearn the wrong ideas. For some students, this sticks with them for years.

By the time students are learning how to tell time in 5 minute intervals, many will say 9:55 is 10:55. Why? Because the short hand is closer to the 10. They learned this in 1st grade! They were good at telling time in 1st grade!

Ok, ok... so then what? How should we introduce telling time?

Show kids that each hour has an area or space that belongs to them. I tell my kids that each number has a room. Later on, they will realize the hour hand moves, but in the beginning they won't get the concept. However, you can show them that when the short hand is in the number's room, that's the hour.

I use a clock that separates the face of the clock into the areas by color so it's very clear where the hour hand lies.

Kids will realize from the beginning that the hour hand is different from the minute hand. The minute hand points to a specific number as indicated with the little marks. The hour hand has a space.

When giving practice, your visuals should look like this:

General guidelines:

1. Vary the times as much as possible.

2. Ask them ONLY to identify the hour. Fill in the minutes for them.

3. You have to teach them that the number's room comes AFTER the number. So if the short hand is pointing right at a number, then the number's room is the space after it.

4. Begin with the introduction visuals. Then remove the numbers within the colored areas. Then remove the colored areas.

5. Continue practicing without the visual supports until they have mastered finding the hour no matter where the minute is point to.

6. Now you can teach telling time to the hour!

By introducing time in this manner, you will save teachers in 2nd grade and beyond the headache of having to reteach this concept. Not to mention, the kids will not have to relearn the ideas that were drilled into their heads for months!

For a free PNG file of a colored clock face, head over to my store. You can use it make your own worksheets.

If you want to save time, I have a kit to get you started, with posters and worksheets.

Cindy Lee runs Ainslee Labs at TpT. She is currently teaching K-3rd grade in Chicago, a mixture of special education resource and inclusion. Cindy loves looking at new ways to teach old concepts. You can read more about her education adventures on her blog, Ainslee Labs. You can also find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.

*This post was originally written as a guest post on Teacher Approved. I was given permission to repost it to my own blog. Thank you!

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Avoid the biggest mistake teachers make when teaching time

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First grade teachers, I implore you: Do not start off teaching time the traditional method. Yes, I know that Common Core gives you a sequence which has been used way before Common Core even existed. The sequence goes like this: Tell and write time to the hour.

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Grades 4-6 reinforcing time measurement and data analysis skills

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Grades 7/8 get ready for high school and careers with time management skills

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Grades 3-5 Reinforce time and data analysis skills

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Grades 2-5
Reinforce time measurement skills

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Time (with connections to data analysis)

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Time (with connections to data analysis)

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This is a work in progress Padlet to support the integration of measurement and data across the curriculum and to reinforce skills with activities at home.  Teachers and school leaders are encouraged to email Sherry at sherry.bushre.lukes@nwea.org with additional content to add to share across many schools.

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To access a resource - click in the center of the post especially if there is a picture.  If the link goes to another website, it will open in a new tab.  If it is a document that is attached to the post, you can choose to download or print by clicking on the appropriate icon in the upper right corner.  To return to the Padlet, click on the return arrow in the upper left corner.

# data[].attributes.subject
To access a resource - click in the center of the post especially if there is a picture.  If the link goes to another website, it will open in a new tab.  If it is a document that is attached to the post, you can choose to download or print by clicking on the appropriate icon in the upper right corner.  To return to the Padlet, click on the return arrow in the upper left corner.

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Support for drawing evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research and CCSS with emphasis on visuals and data embedded in text.  

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Support for drawing evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research and CCSS with emphasis on visuals and data embedded in text.  