Shea Hestmark

Grade 5
TITLE/TYPE OF ACTIVITY

Metric Measurements

CONTEXT OF ACTIVITY

This activity will introduce the metric

system and metric system conversions.
CONCEPTS TO BE COVERED
This activity uses Brainpop,
whiteboard tables, and kahoot to
investigate the metric system and metric
conversions.
RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING
5.8

The student will

c) identify equivalent measurements within the metric system;
e) choose an appropriate unit of measure for a given situation involving measurement
using U.S. Customary and metric units.

LESSON PLAN OBJECTIVES

1. Students will identify the appropriate base unit for measuring
volume, length, and mass and weight.
2. Students will identify equivalent metric measurement through
conversion.
3. Student will demonstrate their understanding of the metrics base
ten system.
ASSESSMENT PLAN
4. Objective 1: Students will choose the appropriate base unit for
measuring length, weight, and volume on a computer
assessment.
5. Objective 2: Students will convert equivalent metric
measurements on a computer assessment.
MATERIALS NEEDED
3 Meter sticks
Meter Unit blocks
Smart board
Kahoot assessment
25 chrome books
25 whiteboard markers
8 white board erasers
100 Metric Charts
25 paper protectors
Extension Tools

A Brief Introduction to the Metric System:

http://express.smarttech.com/?
url=http://exchangedownloads.smarttech.com/public/content/47/47ad5
1e7-dda5-4dc6-96a7-991ea1717836/math.notebook
Dawson, L., & Rivard, L. (n.d.). Dradnats and the Metric Measurement
Kids.
ARTICLE REACTION
I chose the article Some Dos and Donts For Teaching the Metric
System because it was a simple, easy to read, and concise compilation
of simple directives to help teachers teach the metric system. The dos
and donts were complied by a group of educators following a
workshop on measurement and metrics. Like most math concepts, the
metric system can be tricky to teach because as the adult you already
understand the concept and can apply it. For the students who are
used to working with the U.S. customary system, the metric system
can be confusing and overwhelming. I wanted to know how to best
introduce both the concept of the metric system and conversions
within the metric system without overwhelming the students. The dos
and donts provided in this article changed how I planned to do my
lesson. Before reading this article I was going to focus solely on the
conversion process of the metric system, but after reading I realized I
needed to include concrete representations and to demonstrate on a
ruler what a centimeter, millimeter, and meter is. These representation
and investigation of the length unit will provide the foundation I need
to better explain metric conversions. This article also affirmed my
decision to explain the rational behind the metric system and to give
real life estimations as examples of the various units to the students.
MODIFICATIONS
Challenge:
For students/groups who finish early and need an additional challenge,
I will provide rulers and objects for them to measure. They will then be
given a worksheet where they will measure the objects in a specified
unit and then convert it to an equivalent unit.
Link to challenge work:
http://www.sciencespot.net/Media/metriccnvsn2.pdf
Remediation: For students who are struggling to convert
measurements to equivalent units I will provide them with a worksheet
that asks them to measure different objects around the room using a

rule. They will be asked to measure using millimeters, centimeters, and

meters. I will also provide a worksheet were the student use their new
knowledge of the metric system to select the larger and smaller units,
measure objects to the nearest millimeter.
Link to Remediation work:
https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/measurement/worksheetmm-cm.pdf
PROCEDURES
Before
These students have used rulers and scales before, but never to
measure using the metric system. Ask the students if they know the
two systems of measurement used most commonly around the world.
Then explain the two systems. First introduce the U.S. customary
system. Explain that in the U.S. we use the customary system, which
includes units of measurements such as inches, miles, and ounces.
Question 1: Why do you think we still use the U.S. Customary
System?
Possible student answers
I think most people are used to the
U.S. customary system and dont
want to change.
I think people are in the habit of
using the customary system. If we
switched I think people would like it
but at this point its just something
everyone is used to using.
It would cost a lot of money to
change all of the signs, tools of
measurement, and textbooks if we
changed to the metric system.

Teacher follow-up questions

Thats
understandable.
Everyone
already knows how to use the
customary system so they dont want
to change. What do some other
people think?
Thats true too. Can anyone think of a
reason related to cost?

Thats true! The U.S. is a huge county

and we produce a lot of goods, if we
changed every road sign and every
measurement on food labels, it would
cost a tremendous amount of money.

Question 2: Think back to the video, why did the rest of the world
change to the metric system?
Possible student answers
The video said that the customary
system was messy.

Teacher follow-up questions

Thats right it did say that. What do
you mean by messy?

It means that the conversions are

harder to do.

Thats right. Conversions are messy

because they often involve fractions.
Fractions can be difficult to work with
and hard to use when you are doing
mental math. What makes the metric
system easier?
Correct! Because the metric system
is based on units of ten, conversions
are much easier. Instead of using
fractions the metric system uses the
decimal system, which is much
easier.

The metric system is based on units

of ten so it is easier to convert.

During
Activity 1: If I were going to convert 15 inches to feet it would be 1
feet (1.25)
Demonstrate using a ruler.
If I were to convert the same length from centimeters to
decimeters it would be 38.1 centimeters to 3.81 decimeters.
Demonstrate on ruler. Say, See how easy that is. The digits dont
change and there are no fractions involved. All we have to do is
multiply by .10 (which is what deci means), which meant we moved
the decimal.
Activity 2:
Lets take a closer look at the metric units.
Here is a meter stick. We want to know how many decimeters are in a
meter.
Question 3: How many orange decimeter rods will it take to cover 1
meter?
Possible student answers
I think it is going to take 13
orange rods to cover the meter
stick.
I think it will take 10 orange rods
to cover the meter stick because
you said the metric system uses
units of 10.

Teacher follow-up questions

Okay good guess. Does anyone
else have a guess?
Okay good guess, lets see how
many it takes!

It takes 10-decimeter rods to cover 1 meter. This means: A decimeter

is a unit of measurement that is 10 times smaller than a meter.

Question 4: Here is another metric unit. It is called the centimeter.

How many centimeters do you think we would need to cover the
orange decimeter?
Possible student answers
I think it is going to take 20centimeter blocks to cover the
decimeter rod because the
centimeter block looks really
small.
I think it will take 10-centimeter
blocks to cover the meter stick
because you said the metric
system uses units of 10.

Teacher follow-up questions

Okay good guess. Does anyone
else have a guess?

Okay good guess, lets see how

many it takes!

After demonstrating say it took us 10 centimeters to cover the

decimeter.
So we know 10 decimeters make up a meter, and 10 centimeters
make up a decimeter
Now lets use what we know!
Activity 2
Now lets use what we know!
Question 5: If you have 4 decimeters, how many centimeters do you
have? How do you know?
Possible student answers
I think there are 40 centimeters in
4 decimeters.
Well I knew there were 4
decimeters and each decimeter is
made up of 10 centimeters so I
just multiplied 4 x 10= 40
centimeters.

Teacher follow-up questions

Okay, explain your reasoning.
Yes you are correct! Can anyone
draw a picture to demonstrate
this?
Or
Teacher demonstrates this using
rods.

Question 6: If there are 400 centimeters in 4 meters, can we figure

out how many millimeters are in 4 meters?
Possible student answers
Teacher follow-up questions
If there are 400 centimeters in 4
Yes you are correct!
decimeters and there are 10
millimeters in a centimeter, you

just multiply 10 x 400= 4000

millimeters in 4 decimeters.
Write on board: 4 meters
40 decimeters
400 centimeters
4000 millimeters
Question 7: What do you notice about these numbers?
Possible student answers
Teacher follow-up questions
A zero is added every time you
Thats right as we move from
move to the next smallest unit.
decimeters to millimeters we
move the decimal point, or add
zeros. This is because the metric
system is based on units of 10.

Question 8: Lets look at another example. If I told you 3.47 meters =

34.7 decimeters =347.0 meters =3470.0 centimeters. Do you notice a
pattern with these numbers?
Write on board:
3.47 meters
34.7 decimeters
347.0 centimeters
3470.0 millimeters
Possible student answers
Teacher follow-up questions
I noticed that the decimal point
Thats right as we move from
moved over one place each time
larger to smaller units we are
the unit of measurement gets
multiplying by units of ten. When
smaller.
we do this the decimal point
moves.

Transition
Question 9: Lets say you are building a wooded birdhouse and the
instructions say you need 12.7 decimeters of wood. When you get to
Wal-Mart you realize they only sell the wood by the meter. You dont
have your rods to figure out how many meters you need. What do you
do?
Say, There is an easy way to convert. Instead of using the rods we can
simply move the decimal point. Let me show you using a metric chart.

Kilo

Hecto Deka

Unit
Meter
liter
Gram

Deci

Centi Milli

Say To figure out how many meters make up 12.7 decimeters we are
going to look at our chart. To move from decimeter to meter you make
one jump to the left. Whatever we do on our chart, we do to the
decimal point in our number. So if we move one place to the left on our
chart, we move our decimal point or one place value to the left in
number. (12.7 to 1.27)
This means there are 1.27 meters for every 12.7-decimeters. So when
you go to Wal-Mart you will need to buy 2 meters of wood.
Lets try some more conversions
Lets convert 1.25 meters to centimeters:
Question 10: If we were converting a 1.25 from meters to
centimeters, how many jumps are we moving to the right?
Possible student answers
Teacher follow-up questions
Moving from meters to
Thats correct. What are we
centimeters means you move the
multiplying the number by if we
decimal point to the right two
are moving the decimal point two
places.
places?
You are multiplying by 20.
No we arent multiplying by 20, we
are multiplying by 100. Think
about place value. We have
hundreds, tens, ones, tenths,
hundredths, and thousandths.
Next I will demonstrate by converting 12.54 kilometers to centimeters.
I will say:
Question 11: Which direction will I move the decimal point if I am
converting from kilometers to centimeters?
Possible student answers
Teacher follow-up questions
Moving from kilometers to
How many jumps is it from kilo to
centimeters means you move to the
centi?
right.
Five jumps to the right.
When I move the decimal point five
places to the right, what do I do with
the extra spaces?

You fill in the extra spaces with zeros,

making the answer 1254000.0
centimeters.
How many jumps is it from "kilo-" to "centi-"? Five, to the right

.
So I move the decimal point five places to the right, filling in the extra
space with zeroes:

Make loops to help you keep track of the steps that you're counting,
and make it really easy to see where to add the zeroes, if you need to.
In this case, after moving the decimal point and adding the zeroes, I
get: 12.54 km = 1 254 000 cm

After
Now lets tests what we learned. Everyone is going to open their
chrome books and go to kahoot.it. When you get to the webpage type
in the PIN that is written on the board and write your first name and
last initial in the box that says nickname.
Start the Kahoot assessment. Once the Kahoot quiz is complete have
the students rate their understanding of the metric system on the
results page.
NCTM Process Standards
Problem Solving/Reasoning & Proof
Students demonstrate reasoning and proof when I ask the them to demonstrate and
describe their process for converting the different problems. Also when I ask the students
how to find how many centimeters are in a meter without counting the ticks, I am
requiring them to problem solve and then justify their thinking.
Communication

Students use communication skills when they are sharing ideas with their small groups
about why the size of an object affects how we measure it. Further with the larger class
students discuss how they solved the conversion problems and demonstrating their
process on the front board.
Connections
Students connect what they know about the U.S. customary system and measurement
when I explain the difference between the customary system and the metric system. We
compare and contrast the differences between these two systems. Also in my lesson the
students are asked to come up with ideas of why the U.S. is one of the only countries that
still uses the customary system. This connects their prior knowledge to the lesson.
Representation
Representations are used to help the students visualize the various units of measure. This
allows them to conceptualize what the different units of measure look like and how they
can be used to measure in real life situations. I use this when I compare metric units to
real life objects and when I represent the different units of metric length with rods and
blocks.
References
Donald Zalewski. Some dos and don'ts for teaching the metric system.
The Arithmetic Teacher Vol. 26, No. 4 (December 1978) , p. 17.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41191552

This is the hard copy of the Kahoot assessment.

Name: ____________________
Teacher: ___________________

Metric System Quiz

1) Why was the metric system created?

A. The customary system was incorrect.
B. King Hector didn't like the customary system
C. The customary system involved messy conversions.
D. To measure larger objects.
2) What is the basic unit of length?
A. Gram
B. Meter
C. Liter
D. Ton
3) The metric system is based on units of ____________.
A. 1
B. 100
C. 10
D. 20
4) What is the base unit used to measure volume?
A. Liter
B. Meter
C. Gram
D. Ton
5) What is the base unit used to measure weight or mass?
A. Liter
B. Meter
C. Gram
D. Ton
6) Convert 890 m (meters) to mm (millimeters).
A. 890000 mm
B. .890000 mm
C. 8.9 mm
D. 0.00089
7) Covert 3 g (grams) to cg (centigrams).
A. 0.003 cg

B. 30 cg
C. 0.03 cg
D. 300 cg
8) Convert 4 mm (millimeters) to m (meters).
A. 0.004 m
B. 400 m
C. 0.0004 m
D. 4000 m
9) Convert 590.43 cm (centimeters) to m (meters).
A. 590.430 m
B. .590439 m
C. 5.9043 m
D. 59043.0 m

Shea Hestmark
Math Lesson Reflection
Math 533

So that I would not forget or skip a question, I created a smart

notebook slide show to prompt my lesson. This helped to remind me
how to transition from one question to another, and also provided the
students with a visual of my questions to remind them what we were
discussing. This was extremely helpful, especially once we moved to
questions about specific conversions.
Since I taught this lesson four times I includes student responses
from all four classes. Two of my classes are very high, one class is a
mixture, and I have one fairy low class. This meant that depending on
the group of students, the questions I asked were answered differently.
I will provide a mixture of responses from each class to show both
understandings and misconception. Classes A and B are my high
classes, Class C is my mixed class, and Class D is my lowest class.
After BrainPop video:
Question 1: Why do you think we still use the U.S. Customary
System?
Possible student answers
Class A: Well we learn about both so
that we can know more about
measurement.
Class A: Everyone already knows it
(customary system) so its just easier
to keep it.
Class D: The customary system is
easier to learn so thats why we still
use it.

Teacher Response
Thats a nice thought, you think
because we learn about both
systems, its okay that we still used to
customary system.
That could be true, using the
customary system is a habit.
Think back to the BrainPop, Toby
explained that the customary system
is actually more difficult to use than
the customary system because its
harder to make conversions when
using the customary system.
Think about the signs we see on the
highway or the nutrition facts we see
on food labels. What would happen
to all of these things if we switched
from the customary system to the
metric system?

Class A: I think it would take a long

time to change everything.
Class A: It would cost a lot of money
because there are thousands of signs

Thats true it would take a lot of time

to change everything, especially
because the U.S. is so big. Can you
think about how much it would cost?
Youre right; it would cost a
tremendous amount of money! So

on the highway.

the cost of switching systems could

also be a factor.

Analysis: For this question I was trying to get the students to think
about the impact the two systems of measurement have on this
country. I wanted them to think about why we are one of the only
countries in the world who still use this system, despite the fact that it
is a more difficult system to master. Also these students love to share
their ideas and questions so I thought asking reflective questions to
start the lesson would be a great way to engage the students. This
question would fall under Boaler and Humphries (2005) generating
discussion and establishing context.
Question 2: Think back to the video, why did the rest of the world
change to the metric system?
Possible student answers
Class A and B: The video said that
the metric system was messy.

Teacher Response
Thats right it did say that. Why did
the video say the customary system
was messy?
Class A: The metric system lets you
Youre right the metric system is
use your hands because its based on based on units of ten, which makes it
10 because we have ten fingers. The easier to use especially regarding
customary system doesnt use this.
conversions. The customary requires
us to memorize formulas and often
requires the use of fractions.
Class C: The king didnt like the
I like how your thinking back to the
customary system so he made a new video but I think you are a little
one that was more modern.
confused. Youre right that in the
video that talked about two kings
who used different systems of
measurement, and that the metric
king was much more modern. But this
was just silly way for the video to
explain that the metric system was
created to simplify measurement
conversion through the use of a
system based on units of ten.
Analysis: This purpose of this question was to check the students
understanding of the video and their understanding between the two
systems of measurement. I was looking for answers that mentioned
the customary system required messy conversions using fractions and
that the metric system was based on units of ten, which makes
conversions easier. Most of the students were able to recall what they
learned from the video and explain something like this. One student in

Class C didnt understand that the storyline about the two kings
mentioned in the video was not actually a correct history of the metric
system. This caused some confusion for him. Another student in Class
C confused the metric system with the customary system. She thought
that the customary system was easier because using fractions like
halves and fourths are easy to add. I explained to her that adding
fractions can sometimes be easy, but when you are working with
mixed numbers and harder fractions, conversions can be much harder
to solve. This question was helpful in clarifying any misunderstandings
the students had about the video. It also allowed me to further explain
what messy conversions are and why the metric system is based on
units of 10. In terms of Boaler and Humphries (2005) this question
would fall under linking and applying as well as establishing context.
This question was setting the scene for the break down of the metric
system.
Question 3: How many orange decimeter rods will it take to cover 1
meter?
Possible student answers
Class A, B, C, D: Students in all
four classes gave a variety of
answers such as, 15, 8, 20, 18, 9.
One student said, I think there
are 10 because you said the
metric system uses the number
ten.

Teacher follow-up questions

I allowed almost everyone who
wanted to guess to share with the
class. Then I lined the orange rods
along the length of the meter
stick. I instructed the students to
count aloud each time I added
another orange rod. When I was
finished I told the students that
this meant it takes 10 decimeters
to make a meter. Another way to
say this is a decimeter is 10 times
smaller than a meter.

Analysis: This question was designed to prove that the metric system
is based on units of ten through the use of a visual. By introducing a
decimeter as an orange rod and a meter as a meter stick, I was
allowing the students to make the connection that a meter stick can be
broken down into 10 equal parts. By doing this I am leading the
students through break down. Once they understood this, then I was
able to give the equal parts a name, decimeter. This insertion of
terminology through gradual release of information and student
discovery of the metric system seemed to be very helpful to reinforce
the idea that the metric system is based on units of 10. This strategy is

supported by Boaler and Humphries types of question from Connecting

Mathematical Ideas (2005).
Question 4: Here is another metric unit. It is called the centimeter.
How many centimeters do you think we would need to cover the
orange decimeter?
Possible student answers
Class A, B, C, D: Students in all
four classes gave a variety of
answers such as, 9, 13, 7, 12, 6,
15. 10.
Several Students in each class
guessed 10. When I asked one
student why he guessed 10, he
replied, because when we did the
decimeter we found out it was
ten, and since the metric system
uses ten I think its going to be ten
again.

Teacher follow-up questions

Again I allowed almost everyone
who wanted to guess, to share
with the class. Then I showed
them the orange rod I had covered
with the centimeter blocks. I
placed
the
rod
under
the
document camera and together
we counted how many blocks it
took to cover the rod.
Then I reminded the students that
the metric system is based on
units of ten. I also explained that
because it took 10 blocks to cover
one rod, we know that a decimeter
is 10 times larger than a
centimeter.

Analysis: The purpose of this question was to further test the students
understanding about the metric system. I wanted to see if the students
could apply what the learned in the video as well as what the
discovered when we covered the meter stick with the decimeter rods,
to see if they would make an appropriate guess. Linking and applying
is one of Boaler and Humphries (2005) question types from Connecting
Mathematical Ideas. I found it interesting that in each class, the
majority of the students guessed 10. This showed me that they were
applying what they learned. When I was planning the lesson I wasnt
sure if I wanted the students to write down their answers on the white
board tables or to share orally. Reflecting back I am glad I decided to
probe because some of them justified their answers, which allowed me
to assess their thinking. Further everyone wanted to answer, so my
level of student engagement was high.
Question 5: If you have 4 decimeters, how many centimeters do you
have? How do you know?

Possible student answers

Class B: I think there are 40
centimeters in 4 decimeters.
Well I knew there were 4
decimeters and each decimeter is
made up of 10 centimeters so I
just multiplied 4 x 10= 40
centimeters.

Teacher follow-up questions

Can you explain this to the class?
Yes you are correct! Another way
we can think about it is if we were
to set aside 4 orange rods, how
many tan blocks would it take to
cover all four rods? You know it
takes 10 blocks to cover 1 rod, so
if you were going to cover four
rods you would multiply 10 x 4.

Analysis: This was an application question. I knew when I asked this

question, not every student would be comfortable enough to apply
what he or she learned. I thought by having a student explain their
thinking, other students might make a connection and better
understand. Boaler and Humphries (2005) would categorize this
question a probing because it requires the students clarifying their
thinking which benefits the entire class. For this question I wish I had
the students answer on their white boards as well as probe for an
explanation. This would have given the students more time to think
and allow more students to figure out the answer before I asked for
student responses.
Question 6: If there are 400 centimeters in 4 meters, can we figure
out how many millimeters are in 4 meters?
Possible student answers
Teacher follow-up questions
Class A: If there are 400
This question overwhelmed most
centimeters in 4 meters and there of the students in Classes A and B.
are 10 millimeters in a centimeter, A couple students from each class
you just multiply 10 x 400= 4000
figured it out with no problem, but
millimeters in 4 meters
most of the class required me to
break down the problem for them.
Class C and D: I skipped this
To do this I showed a centimeter
question for Class C and D
block that I had drawn the
because I didnt want to confuse
millimeter lines on. I explained to
them. Instead I wrote it out on the them that a millimeter is 1000
smart board and we moved on to
times smaller than a meter. Then I
question 7 which was about
asked how many millimeters are in
identifying the pattern of these
4 meters if there are 1000
numbers.
millimeter in 1 meter.
When asked this way the students
were able to answer the question
much quicker.

Analysis: From reading the facial expressions from the students I

could tell that this problem overwhelmed them. It seemed to clarify
things when I broke the problem down and showed them the
millimeters under the document camera. When I realized my two
higher leveled classes struggled I decided to modify the question for
my next two classes. By moving straight into the pattern question, I
avoided a question that could potentially confuse my students.
Question 7: What do you notice about these numbers?
4 meters
40 decimeters
400 centimeters
4000 millimeters
Possible student answers
Class A: A zero is added every
time you move to the next
smallest unit.

Teacher follow-up questions

Thats right as we move from
decimeters to millimeters we
move the decimal point, or add
zeros. This is because the metric
system is based on units of 10.

Class D: There is a 4 in the ones

place.
Class D: That the number four
doesnt change, but the number
of zeros does.

Thats a great observation. What

does this mean?
Yes, the digit in the ones place
doesnt change when converted,
but the placement of the decimal,
or the number of zeros added
does.

Analysis: This question was designed to show the students the

relationship between conversions, which Boaler and Humphries (2005)
would call linking and applying. I wanted them look at the number and
the units and realize that the numbers increased by units of 10. This
problem also served as a point for clarification, because I was able to
explain with a visual that increasing by units of 10 means increasing by
10, 100, 1000, not by factors such as 10, 20, 30 40.
Question 8: Lets look at another example. If I told you 3.47 meters =
34.7 decimeters =347.0 meters =3470.0 centimeters. Do you notice a
pattern with these numbers?
3.47 meters
34.7 decimeters
347.0 centimeters
3470.0 millimeters
Possible student answers
Teacher Response

Class A, B, C: I noticed that the

decimal point moved over one
place each time. (All three classes
made the same observations).

Thats right as we move from

larger to smaller units we are
multiplying by units of ten. When
we do this the decimal point
moves.

Class A: The place value of the

decimal point moves over one
time.
Analysis: This problem is similar to question 7, except we are working
with decimals in this problem. I wanted the students to have examples
of both whole numbers and decimals so they would have a
comprehensive understanding of how conversions within the metric
system work. The students were comfortable identifying the pattern
with these numbers.
After question 8 I introduced the transition problem: Lets say you
are building a wooded birdhouse and the instructions say you need
12.7 decimeters of wood. When you get to Wal-Mart you realize they
only sell the wood by the meter. You dont have your rods to figure out
how many meters you need. What do you do? I introduced the
conversion chart and showed the students how to use it. I also
introduced the motto: whatever we do to chart, we do to the decimal
point. After we solved the conversion of 12.7 decimeters = 1.27 meters
I asked how many meters of wood would you need to buy to build the
birdhouse.
Question 9: How many meters of wood would you need to buy to
build the birdhouse, if you the instructions require 1.27 meters of
wood?
Possible student answers
Class A, B, C, D: The students
knew that they would need to buy
2 meters of wood and would have
some left over. (Every class
rounded up correctly).

Teacher Response
They recognized the need to round
up to the nearest meter.

Analysis: This question was testing their prior knowledge of rounding

up. It was also a way for me to include the students in my
demonstration of the conversion chart.
Question 10: If we were converting a 1.25 from meters to
centimeters, how many jumps are we moving to the right?

Possible student answers

Class A, B, C, D: Moving from meters
to centimeters means you move the
decimal point to the right two places.
(Every class answered this correct)

Teacher Response
Thats correct. Lets move our decimal
point to the right and rewrite the
number.

Question 11: If we move the decimal point to the right twice, what are
we multiplying the original number by?
Possible student answers
Teacher follow-up questions
Class A: We are multiplying by 10s.
When you say tens do you mean we
a multiplying by factors of tens like
10, 20, or do you mean we are
multiplying by units of ten like 10,
100?
Class A: you are multiplying by units
of 10 because the numbers dont
change only the place value.
Question 11: Which direction will I move the decimal point if I am
converting from kilometers to centimeters?
Possible student answers
Teacher Response
Class A: Moving from kilometers to
Thats right. How many jumps is it
centimeters means you move to the
from kilo to centi?
right.
Class A: Five jumps to the right.
Thats correct. When we rewrite the
number, you fill in the extra spaces
with zeros, making the answer
1254000.0 centimeters.
Instead of moving to the kahoot.it assessment I decided all of the
classes need more practice with the conversion chart. I used one of the
extension work sheets to pull questions from. The problems included:
2g=_______ mg
16 cm= ________ mm
198g=__________ kg
5.6m=_______ cm
50 cm=_________ m
For Class C I only use the unit meter because they were confused
with the idea of different units such as gram and liter. So that they
could focus on the process of converting from larger and smaller units I
only used meters in my practice problems.
For my lowest group, Class D I had the students rate their
understanding using thumbs up for feeling confident and thumbs down

for confused or needs more explanation. For the students who said
they felt confident I gave them the challenge extension problems. For
the students who did not feel comfortable I gave them the remediation
sheet. Then I walked around and helped individual students and groups
of students with their practice.
I did this because during the lesson I deduced from the students
answers, time needed to solve problems, and the questions they were
asking that they needed differentiation for their guided practice.
The next day I did a 15-20 minute review of the metric system
and conversions with each class, touching on all the concepts that are
mentioned in that kahoot assessment. In each class I modeled 3-5
conversion problems under the document camera. After this was
completed I had the students take the kahoot assessment on the
chrome books. I read each question aloud so that the students who
struggle with reading English were not at a disadvantage. I also
reminded students during the conversion problems, which way they
were moving on their conversion chart.
In one class there were two students who were not in school for
my previous lesson. I worked one-to-one with these students to explain
each question and tried to help them solve the conversions.
As a whole I think this lesson went well! By teaching it four times
I was able to implement my differentiation plans and see how different
leveled groups processed the new concepts. If I were to teach this
lesson again, I would probably split it up into three different lessons,
because I felt like some of the students were a little overwhelmed with
the amount of information we learned in this one lesson. I think the
best part of the lesson was the visual representations of the meter
stick, decimeter rods, and centimeter blocks. This allowed for a more
gradual introduction to the metric units.
Reference:
Boaler, & Humphries. (2005). Teacher Questions from Connecting Mathematical Ideas.

Lesson Plan Scoring Rubric

Points
Possible

Points
Earned

VA Math Standard(s)
Learning Objectives

1
2

1
1

(measureable)
Assessment (directly related to
objectives) You may not use Observation

1
1

1
1

as a form of assessment.

Childrens Book
Article from Teaching Children

Mathematics
Procedures
Challenge and Remedial
Problems

4
2

4
2

.5
1
1

.5
1
1

.5
5

.5
5

25

25

You may not simply state you will give extra

help or more problems. You must include
appropriate problems.

7 Mathematics Questions
You must include possible student responses
and teacher follow up for each.

SmartBoard Lesson
NCTM Process Standards
Lesson
Implementation/Observation
Form
References
Reflection
Total

Other Expectations (If not met, will result in deduction of

points.)
Free of spelling and grammatical
errors
Submitted on time

5
5/day

Shea,
You have done an excellent job writing and implementing your lesson
plan on measurement. I am always at a loss for how to help my
students when they are given the topic of customary and/or metric
measures. Not only did you undertake this difficult topic (without
hesitation), but you excelled with flying colors! Your CT commented, I
was very impressed with the differentiation of the lesson and how it
was planned to address all learning styles. That is a huge compliment.
I appreciated your supervisors comment, Used effective questioning
strategies to generate discussions of metric system vs. customary.
The questions we ask during instruction are so important; and although
we cant plan every one or prepare for all student responses, it
definitely helps to plan them in advance! Speaking of questions, you
did a nice job of analyzing the different questions you asked. I hope
you werent discouraged by your supervisors comment amount having

too much. Unfortunately, you didnt have 3 days to teach your lesson.
In order to accomplish everything you wanted (and needed based on
the SOL) you did just fine! I hope you were pleased.
Dr. Wallace