Base Ten Interview

In considering which questions to ask and who to ask them to for my base ten interview, several things came to mind. At the present, my first graders are learning about place value and the "tens" and "ones" spots/places. They have recently been learning about trading 1o ones or singles for 1 ten stick and then counting the tens and the ones separately to get the final number. My CT has told me several times that place value is one of the hardest concepts that these students will be faced with throughout the entire school year. For that reason, she must spend several weeks building the concept of place value and base ten.

I plan on doing my base ten interview next Wednesday, February 20 and will interview two of my first grade students. I plan on interviewing one student who seems to be catching onto the concept of place value and base ten rather quickly and one who is not catching on so quickly. In interviewing two students with different levels of abilities, I will be able to more effectively compare the data I collect.

I do not have my specific questions planned out just yet, but I know I am going to design my interview questions around the idea of trading ones for tens. Even though the students are currently working on this in the classroom, it is a very difficult concept for them to grasp. For this reason, the more reinforcement of the idea they receive, the better they will understand. Not only am I using this interview to find out what they know about base ten and place value, but I will use it as a sort of assessment as well.

I am greatly looking forward to interviewing my first graders on base ten and place value!