Kindergarten, Measurement and Data

 

Opinion – Back to school, catch me if you can

The challenges within K-12 education are immense in the best of times (i.e., in the absence of pandemics), but in the coming school year, beginning in the Fall semester of 2020, they will be greater than ever. In addition to the uncertainty surrounding whether and how instruction will be delivered – in traditional or modified classrooms, in “normal” or staggered sessions, on-line (synchronously or asynchronously), or some combination of these various options – course content will also be less predictable. It is common knowledge that not all students were able to receive, let alone master, all the intended lessons of the Spring 2020 semester. However, the prevailing wisdom of the education community at present is that course content should reflect the current grade level, rather than remedial lessons, and that any needed “catch-up” material will be provided “just in time.” How well will this work? Time will tell.

What do these observations imply for parents and children? If at all possible, keep up with the grade level. Assume that we want our children to master to the full range of K-12 CCM. No matter how comprehensive (or sparse) the in-class instruction might be, as coaches, we need to assure that our children learn the standards of the current grade level. If they are able to “keep up,” there will be no need to “catch up.”

CCM Lesson of the Day: Measurement and Data (K.MD)

Describe and compare measurable attributes.

Describe measurable attributes of objects, such as length or weight. Describe several measurable attributes of a single object.

Comment: Again, I am struck by the extent of the vocabulary used to describe these K-level lessons. Be sure to take a look at the definitions below, but I leave it to your judgment when it will be most helpful for your children to learn a word such as “measurable.” Having said that, measures and measurability are distinguishing characteristics of mathematics. As mentioned in an earlier post, measurable attributes allow us to compare objects “objectively;” for example, we should be able to agree on which of two children is taller. On the other hand, attributes not so easily measured, such as beauty, might find us in disagreement over whether one fabric is more beautiful than another.

Directly compare two objects with a measurable attribute in common, to see which object has “more of”/“less of” the attribute and describe the difference. For example, directly compare the heights of two children and describe one child as taller/shorter.

Comment: I suggest that you ask your K-level student to do this exercise. If there is only one child around, compare the heights of adults, or the lengths of pieces of paper, etc. By performing the exercise, your child will acquire the concept of measurement and an ability to measure.

Classify objects and count the number of objects in categories.

Classify objects into given categories; count the numbers of objects in each category and sort the categories by count.

Comment: apples and oranges?

Definitions

Object: for our purposes, an object is a thing, such as a table or a dog, that has attributes.

Attribute: an attribute is a characteristic of an object.

Measure/Measurable: an attribute is measurable if we can ascribe a quantity to it. For example, a table has the attribute of height, which can be measured, normally using units of length such as feet and inches or meters.

Compare: We can compare to objects with respect to a common attribute, for example the number of apples in a bowl.

Less/more: In comparing the amount of oatmeal in bowls 1 and 2, when there is more in bowl 1, there is less in bowl 2.

Category: a category is a set or a logical grouping. For example, when counting trees, we may want to put them in two categories, such as deciduous and evergreen.