Teaching Length Measurement to Year 3 Students: An Interactive Approach

This article discusses an interactive approach to teaching length measurement to Year 3 students. It covers the best teaching methods, resources, and assessment systems for effective learning outcomes. The article also reflects on the challenges of working with limited resources and the importance of using formative assessment techniques.

Unit 3
Context
Age group: Year 3
Gender: Girls and boys
Group size: 25
I do not have children with special needs in my class.
Evidence of learning
We agreed with the observer that at the end of the lesson, the learners
should have achieved the following outcomes:
I. Learners should be able to estimate and measure length in millimetres
and centimetres.
II. Learners should be able to apply measurement in millimetres and
centimetres in real life situations.
Discussion
I chose to use an interactive teaching method by incorporating the
participation of the learners throughout the lesson. An interactive learning
approach is the best since it gives the learner an opportunity to express
themselves and hence as a teacher I can address the unique needs of each
student. I started off by revisiting the previous lesson in which learners
impressively gave the right responses implying that the majority understood
the lesson. To lay the foundation for the day’s lesson, I asked the learners to
measure the objects around the room.
To support teaching and learning, I made available some measuring tapes,
strings, and rulers. I allowed the learners to measure all the objects in the
classroom both individually and in groups and upon completion to write
down the length for each object that they measured.

I employed a formative assessment approach to address the needs of the
students as they went about with the assigned activities. I asked questions
to individuals and groups as they used the various measuring instruments to
make sure they are doing the right thing (Clark, 2014). One student was
particularly disturbed for he was unable to measure the length of the class
window since the ruler was not long enough. I made sure I give specific and
detailed feedback to each learner or group whenever they asked questions
regarding the assignment. I also asked questions of each learner to gauge
what they had achieved from the activity. The formative learning and
assessment approach proofed to be effective in the most case since every
learner was able to have their needs addressed. Formative assessment is an
effective and efficient way to gauge a learner’s progress and performance
when teaching since it enables the adoption of teaching that is based on
results, making of changes and advancements that ultimately produces
instant benefits for the student (Fisher & Frey, 2015). Besides, I incorporated
peer assessment by requesting the learners to check on their friends to see
whether they had measured the blocks.
Since I wanted to know whether the lesson had been effective, I prepared a
series of questions regarding the class activity. I requested for a class debate
in groups on which items in the class exceeded the other in length and why
the learners thought so. The feedback I received from the learners was
overwhelmingly correct, and hence I rightfully concluded that the lesson was
effective. Questions proved to be great learning tools in conformity with Paul
and Elder (2006) statetements that thinking is not merely directed by
answers, but instead it is guided by questions to phenomena. If no questions
were asked by the individuals who put up a field’s foundation, there is no
possibility that the filed would have been established in the first place.
Teaching Methods
I basically used an activity-based approach to the lesson. Besides, each

learner taking part in measuring the objects in the class, I allowed learners to
check on the friends to compare their answers. I also encouraged the
learners to work in twos with one doing the measurement as the other
recorded and to reverse the roles on completion of the first round.
I made sure that I was using the VAK style of learning by making sure that
the learners employed their visual, auditory and Kinesthic elements to learn.
On Visuals, I used pictures, diagrams, and charts to show the length of each
object in the classroom in millimetres and centimetres. I also made sure that
the class was quite as I loudly read the correct measurements to them. I also
requested each learner to come in front and write their answers on board for
everybody else to see. VAK theorists suggest that teachers should conduct
lessons and present content by using or incorporating all three styles. Using
all the styles gives the learners the opportunity to be participants in the
discussion regardless of what their preferred learning style may be (Gholami
& Bagheri, 2013).
I also ensured that I used the AFL learning strategy as advocated by
Borich(2016), by allowing students to do thumbs up and thumbs down to
show whether they agreed or disagreed with the answers given by their
peers. The learners were also allowed to ask their fellow students questions
to arrive at the correct answer.
Resources and assessment system
I used both audio and visual aids including pictures, objects, worksheets and an interactive board
to help the students learn. I also made available basic tools that are used to measure including
measuring tapes and rulers. Besides, I used the learners as examples by getting them
to measure their height and other body parts such as fingers for them to get
an idea of length and height. I encouraged the students to measure the objects in the
classroom including, books, desks, walls, windowpanes and rulers
I used questions throughout the class dicussion to help learners develop their measuring skills.
The questons also served to challenge the learners on their accurarcy and conversion ability. I

marked each student’s work to access progress and also encouraged peer marking to ensure the
learners get the concept at their levels. At the end of the lesson, I put up a short quiz to the
learners to gauge whether the learners had fully grasped the content.
Evidence of reflection
Since in the previous lesson, my mentor had observed that my lesson was
lacking on learner- teacher interaction aspects, I decided to use an
interactive leering approach in this particular class. I also even got an
opportunity to conduct an outdoor lesson in which the students had a lot of
fun while learning. I was particularly impressed by the manner in which the
students noted down their observations in the table, and skilfully made
graphs from observations in the field. The plenary was also quite a
fascination for the children as they got an opportunity to use ipads to play
quizzes. My only challenge was the lack of basic resources which meant that
we had to share the little with each other leading to unnecessary crowding. It
would have been better if One of my Ell children had more basic resources.
My objective was to make the learners understand how to use measuring
tapes to measure in cm, but I believe simpler resources could have shown
progress. It could have been better if I had taken five same blocks for all the
groups to measure. It would have helped in peers assessing their work
quicker. However, according to Grossman, Hammerness & McDonald(2009),
working with limited resources is amongst the many problems educators

face in the current world.

References
Borich, G. D. (2016). Observation skills for effective teaching: research-based practice.
Routledge.
Clark, I. (2014). Equitable learning outcomes: supporting economically and culturally
disadvantaged students in ‘Formative Learning Environments’. Improving Schools, 17(1), 116-
126.
Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2015). Checking for understanding: Formative assessment techniques for
your classroom. ASCD.
Gholami, S., & Bagheri, M. S. (2013). The relationship between VAK learning styles and
problem solving styles regarding gender and students' fields of study. Journal of Language
Teaching and Research, 4(4), 700.
Grossman, P., Hammerness, K., & McDonald, M. (2009). Redefining teaching, re‐imagining
teacher education. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 15(2), 273-289.
Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2006). Critical thinking: Learn the tools the best thinkers use, concise
edition. Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.