Christen Lawicki
EDU 327 – Teaching to the Standards
Facilitation Comments for a Classmate’s Peer Review
March 29, 2012
Counting Coins
Chelsea Ventura
Relation to Learning Standards
Warm:
 In the purpose/rationale for the
learning experience, you
included how the lesson relates
to the standards, as well as the
students’ own lives.
 Overall, your lesson is very well
aligned to the math standard
you included.
Cool:
 Please consider adding a math
standard for identifying both
ways to write amounts of money
(with dollar sign and cents sign).
Intellectual Challenge
Warm:
Cool:
 Having the students use a
 The choral counting could
magnifying glass to examine a
potentially be a problem, as
quarter and its characteristics is
some students may only be
fantastic! It brings crosscopying what others are saying
curricular connections into the
or pretending to take part in the
lesson with Social Studies by
count, and may not really
discussing the history of the
understand the concept or the
quarter and the president, as
content.
well as ELA by reading the
 Please consider having the
words on the quarter.
students write the answers on
 Allowing students to use the
dry erase boards instead, so
number grid enabled all students
that you can easily see which
to be able to successfully
students know the answers and
complete the activities. It was a
which do not. This, then, will
semi-concrete tool that gave
help guide your instruction.
extra support to those students
that required it.
Assessment Plan
Warm:
 Pulling individual students for an
interview style assessment was
a wonderful idea. It allowed you
to really see how much
information the students
absorbed from the lesson.
 Your flexibility in changing your
Cool:
 Please consider giving the
students an interview before the
lesson as a pre-assessment,
asking what the names of
different coins are and how
much they are worth (using
manipulatives).
original assessment plan at the
last minute due to a drastic
decrease in the amount of time
allotted for the lesson is to be
commended.

For the post-assessment journal
page, please consider making
all of the problems include
working with quarters and
simplifying the problems.
Engagement/Inquiry
Warm:
Cool:
 Your learning experience
 Please consider using round
included a lot of games and fun
robin counting in place of the
activities for the students – very
choral counting, as all students
engaging!
may not really understand the
content of the lesson, and may
 Your heads and tails chart was a
simply be counting along,
wonderful tool to include to help
without attaching meaning to the
the students understand that a
counting.
quarter is still a quarter even if
the back is different (with the
state quarters).
Adaptability
Warm:
Cool:
 Your flexibility with the decrease
 Please consider administering
in the allotted time for the lesson
the pre-assessment before the
from one hour and fifteen
lesson to save time.
minutes to only twenty-five
 To help the students count coins
minutes.
by 5’s, please consider marking
 The adaptations you provided
the coins with dots, where one
throughout the lesson, including
dot represents the value 5 (one
proximity to the teacher and
dot on nickels, two on dimes,
giving breaks to those students
five on quarters, and five
that need them, were very
pennies equaling one dot).
appropriate.
 Providing a number grid for the
students with disabilities in this
lesson proved to be a very
helpful tool.
 The lesson’s closure was strong,
providing reinforcement for coin
values.
Technology Integration
Warm:
Cool:
 You did a great job incorporating
 Please consider allowing the

the very limited amount of
technology you had access to
(the overhead projector).
You provided an online link to a
website for additional
investigations of the content
presented in this learning
experience.
students to use cash registers
and/or calculators during the
lesson as a way to check their
work after they have completed
it mentally/by hand.