I always turned to the alligator (he likes to eat the bigger number!). I thought it was brilliant and I thought my students would too. I thought that all I needed was the alligator analogy and whamo-bamo: Comparing Numbers Fluency!
But, It never worked out that way. It was always a struggle… until recently. Last week I read a post by the Math Coach’s Corner and it changed the game.
The post suggested using dots instead of gators. Two dots for the big number, one for the small. After just ONE lesson using this teaching model my student’s comprehension skyrocketed. It even works with the equal sign as both numbers have the SAME number of dots.
I cringed at the obviousness of it. Face. Palm. (and then gave myself a pat on the back- because I now have a better teaching tool!).
I infused all of my lessons (direct, guided and independent) with the 3 dot model. My two favorites are Guess My Number and the Comparing Number Task Cards.
Guess My Number is pretty self-explanatory. I, or a student, will
write down a number between 1-100 and hide it from the group. The class
then tries to guess the number based on responses such as “My number is
greater than X”, or, “My number is less than X”.
The hundreds chart is always projected on the board,the <> symbols move with each new guess.
This is a great whole-class math warm up and can also be used in math
centers once the students have better mastery of their numbers 1-100
(and more independence!).Comparing Number Task Cards
I love these because of all the different possibilities. And my
students love them because: fun pictures, an obtainable challenge and
of course, dry eraser markers!Some of the ways they can be used are as:
- A problem of the day
- An independent math center
- A guided math center
- An exit ticket
- A quick formative assessment
Get your copy here!
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