First Graders Create Math Story Problems with Video
We know there are ways to help students gain deep mathematical understanding.
But what do they look like in the first
grade classroom, where the students
are still learning basic math skills?
By working with first graders to
create videos illustrating math story
problems, we gave some of our young-est students the chance to show
what the world looks like from their
perspective. We got the idea from a
federally funded project called Math
Pursuits ( www.uc.edu/mathpursuits),
which helped fifth graders gain mathematical problem-solving skills by
creating story-problem videos.
We wanted to see if we could
adapt the project for the first grade
level. It would be a great opportunity
to show how young students meet the
ISTE Standards (formerly the NETS),
especially Standard 1.b.: Create original works as a means of personal or
group expression, and Standard 2.b.:
Communicate information and ideas
effectively to multiple audiences using a
variety of media and formats.
We knew that with the proper scaffolding, the first graders would rise to
the challenge. As things turned out,
their video-production skills exceeded our expectations.
Introducing the Project
We embarked on this project as a
collaborative effort between Elm Elementary School in Wyoming, Ohio,
and the University of Cincinnati.
On the first day, we introduced the
weeklong project by showing the first
graders some of the videos from the
Math Pursuits website (located under
the Classroom Connections tab) and
discussing the math questions raised
in these videos. We then challenged
the first graders to make similar videos. These students had written story
problems for lessons earlier in the
year, and they quickly understood
the goal of creating new problems for
this project. They were excited by the
prospect of making videos to illustrate
their story problems.
We placed students in mixed-ability
groups of three to four students and
provided a list of suggested topics that
included playing a game (such as a
video game or a board game), shopping, selling things, trading items (such
as candy), or comparing measurements
(such as people’s heights). The children
in each group then selected a general
topic for their video. Despite the variety of choices available to them, all the
groups decided to make their videos
about video games or shopping.
Creating Math Stories
As anyone familiar with 6- and 7-year-
olds knows, coming up with a focused
plan is not easy for first graders, especially when all group members have
their own ideas, because the concept
of collaboration is still new to them. So
to create math stories, we took things
step by step.
Step 1: On the morning of the second
day, we gave the children in each group
the criteria to guide them in forming
number sentences for their stories. For
example, we requested that the Green
Group make a number sentence where
three numbers were added to equal a
sum between 10 and 20. To keep things
interesting, we gave each group different criteria. Some groups had addition
number sentences, some had subtraction, and one had multiplication.
Step 2: On the afternoon of the second day, the students turned these
number sentences into stories. We
knew that this creative piece could be
difficult for the students, so we structured the activity and offered plenty
of guidance. The groups rotated
through 15-minute stations so that
each group could meet individually
with one of us. We used brainstorming sheets to jot down the groups’
