Methods of Math Teaching and Learning

Counting Collections with Preservice Teachers September 30, 2019 This week's blog discusses my PST experience with Counting Collections. Counting Collections is a practice in mathematics where students count objects presented in a bag. The goals is to practice oral counting and to develop more sophisticated methods in counting. Through this practice, students develop oral counting skills, develop efficient counting strategies, group objects strategically, and record their thinking behind their strategies (Schwerdtfeger & Chan, 2007) . Like any open-ended task, students are doing the math instead of passively counting without purpose. Two of my PST were challenged to count Family Counters. These are counters in the form of men, women, and pets of various colors. I wanted to ease them in the counting ritual. I asked PST to count the objects to determine the amount contained in the bag and to record how they counted. At first, they contented by ones and recorded their find