Week 5: Rounding with Number Lines!
Hello, again! Welcome to Week 5 of my blog entry.
This week, we capped our unit on Rounding by including the number line.
Using a number line is daunting for students. They must understand place values to do this correctly. So, I invented the Round O'Meter to help aid their understanding of using a number line.
Students often ask me if they will be incorrect if where they plot the number they are rounding to is not in the exactly correct position. I try to reinforce that in this case, being exact doesn't matter. They simply must understand that because 77, 129 has a 7 in the thousandth place, that means it will be rounded to the nearest ten thousand, 80,000.
Sometimes, I think using the number line clouds their understanding because I see most students getting the answers correct without using the number line. I think this is an example of a tool getting in the way of what students already know. I think moving forward, we will pivot to asking students to round numbers without the number line.
Students will struggle with rounding, but I tell them that this is a concept that will never go away, meaning that we will always review it through the year. For some, that is a comfort, for others, that is bad news. Regardless, I believe that simplifying the language by using the rounding poem and the Round O'Meter will ultimately help students over time.
Hi Kevin,
ReplyDeleteMy third graders have been working on rounding to the tens place and we have been using the number line, also. I have personally never seen number lines used vertically before, so I thought that was interesting. Also after going back to your previous post to look at the poem I had to say I love that poem! The teacher in my class has been using O-4 Hit the floor 5-9 Climb the vine. Your poem is great though, because it reminds them where they need to look and what place they need to round to. I definitely will be using that when I’m working with students!
Hey Kevin,
ReplyDeleteI just want to comment on how you approached teaching rounding to your students. I think you did an amazing job at trying to differentiate the lesson for each students. I have never seen a vertical number line before and I though this was really neat. The notion of simplifying the language by using the rounding poem and the round o meter is a great way to help students build more connections to the topic and the concepts.