Lab Assignment 9:
- Watch this video (Multiplying Whole Numbers & Fractions) and list your concerns and positive critique of the work that you see in this short clip. Watch it twice before you start reflecting on what you would recommend and what you would not to a teacher. Please offer clear rationale for your critique based on what was taught, learned and discussed in EDCU 4553 this semester.
Lab Assignment 8:
- At your site classroom, make copies (with the teacher’s permission) of children’s written work using algorithms to solve problems. Identify the errors made and any patterns in those errors. Discuss what you might do if you were their teacher to enhance the children’s understanding. Please collect two samples, either form the same child, or from different children.
Video-Based Observation 1: Iditarod and Math
In this video, the lead teacher developed an integrated curriculum based on social studies and math by studying elapsed time, as a unit of measurement. In addition, this teacher skillfully adds a variable while differentiating the curriculum for all students: technology.
- What would you do take advantage of this technology today?
- What was the single, most effective strategy used in this video and why did it work so well?
- Please be specific in your answers offering rationale from what we have studied so far. Recounting what you saw in the video only is not an acceptable way to answer these questions. You can describe what you saw only in support of an answer or to describe your point.
Video-Based Observation 2: Geometry on the Playground
In this video, students are learning a variety of concepts related to geometry in very specific ways.
- How would you adapt this lesson to be taught in a fifth, third and first grade classrooms?
- Playgrounds offer countless opportunities for the children to learn about geometry in a real-world context. What specific strategies would you use for each grade? Be specific in your descriptions and include at least one strategy that was discussed in the book. Be especially aware of Van Hiele’s statges of geometric thinking. You have a brief summary of this theory in the book and you can access a more complete summary here.
Lab Assignment 7:
While observing a full math lesson at your site, answer the following questions, based on what you know and have studied in EDUC 4553. The focus is to note what teachers have included in their lessons to meet the needs of all learners. Students’ needs are quite diverse and the levels of understanding English as well. Please sit by a child who struggles during math class and closely observe him/her through behavior during the lesson, activities he/she completes in class, and what was and was not addressed.
- Did your focus student learn the mathematics the teacher identified in his/her objectives? How do you know?
- What instructional strategies enabled your student to be successful? Respond with specific strategies for each type of diversity.
- Did the lesson communicate high expectations for ALL students? In what ways did you notice this?
- What would you have done if you were the child’s teacher and why?
- Please support your answers with valid information that we have addressed in class, or via readings.
Video-Based Observation 1: What Fraction of This Shape is Red?
- Why does the teacher structure this lesson to include multiple entry point to the study of fractions – geometrically, verbally and in writing? Please support your answer with content from EDUC4553;
- How would you extend this lesson?
- What would specifically do if one of your students could not quite understand how read fractions through the comparison of shapes that use part of a whole?
Video-Based Observation 2: How do They do it in Hungary?
- From this video, how does the teaching of mathematics compare to the one you have observed at your site?
- What have you noticed that contradicts with what we have studied so far?
- What strategies do you notice are being used to develop a strong number sense?
Lab Assignment 6:
Lower Elementary (1st – 3rd grades):
At your site classroom, make copies (with the teacher’s permission) of children’s written work using algorithms to solve problems. Identify the errors made and any patterns in those errors. Discuss what you might do if you were their teacher to enhance the children’s understanding. Please be specific in your answer, citing examples from class, or your readings in preparations for our class times.
Higher Elementary (4th – 6th grades)
Observe incorrect statements students make when computing with fractions (or solving problems for lower elementary classrooms). List two of those statements, identify the incorrect rule(s) she/he is applying, speculate how she/he may have developed the rule, and describe how you might help her/him develop a deeper understanding of the concepts introduced in class. Please be specific with examples and explain your reasoning using arguments from your textbook and/or class discussions.
Video-Based Supplemental observations:
Video 1: By watching this video, please answer the following questions (you don’t need to answer them as an ordered list and use a narrative format if you’d prefer that – as long as you answer the questions completely):
- The students and the teacher are engaged un number talk. What would you do differently? What seems to be working and what is not working? What is missing during this session?
- How does this teacher celebrate errors/mistakes? How would you create an atmosphere of learning that celebrates those elements in a learning process?
- Children are constructing knowledge through this lesson. What are the most valuable points to consider? How is the teacher formatively assessing these students? Which strategies is she using and why?
Video 2: You have recently been hired as a student-consultant to observe this lesson and completely change it. Which strategies would you use, how would you go about teaching this basic fractions lesson and what would you NOT repeat in your recommendations? Please be specific and remember to offer clear rationales in your answer.
Lab Assignment 5:
You have spent valuable time reflecting on teaching practices in your observations, our discussions in class, video analyses, readings and your own account of what you have observed and recorded during your visits.
Please choose one event that has inspired your teaching of mathematics at the elementary level and one that has raised questions. Please be specific and support your answer with material that we have discussed this semester. For example, if a method that a teacher uses to solve a problem in class with children, in groups, or individually, you need to name and describe that interaction and provide clear rationale as to why you would support this type of pedagogy.
If it involves tangible work, you might be able to add a before and after image, with the appropriate permission – just to keep in mind as you can’t really retrieve the “before moment” at the end of an activity.
When you determine that one event has left you with questions, please be specific about what kinds of alternatives you would offer, based on what you have learned in this class.
Lab Assignment 4:
Look at the example below:
In this activity, students and parents will build and predict using estimation, how many tiles can fit on cards of different shapes and sizes.
Take-Home Kit (in a ziploc® bag), including the following:
1. Detailed, kid-friendly instruction card. In the instructions, students and families will first predict how many tiles they can fit in the cards of different shapes and sizes you have in the kit. Then, they will be instructed to create their own. The parent can create the first card and model making an estimation regarding the number of tiles he/she used to fill up a card;
2. Cards of different shapes and sizes;
3. 1/2 inch square paper tiles;
4. Small note pads and writing tools. The instruction cards will ask parents to draw two lines dividing the paper in three columns: Shape Card #/Estimated#/Actual#.
3. Around 100 square-shaped tiles.
Given the example above, please develop your own take-home kit that you would use to help children and their families spend time practicing a concept at home without relying on worksheets. When finished, post your example on your site. If you do develop a prototype for it and want to upload a picture, all the better, but adding an image of your actual kit is optional.
Very Important!: please use a child in the classroom you are currently observing who has been challenged by understanding a topic recently taught by the classroom teacher. First, define the topic and then, create one take-home kit. If you haven’t yet had enough time in your placement, use a child you have interacted with in the past, or a child you think could use your kit to reinforce mathematical concepts shown in a video that we have used for this class.
Lab Assignment 3:
A. If you are placed in a classroom for your required observations, please use the tasks below.
- Describe evidence of counting opportunities in the classroom (i.e.: charts, posters, number talk, games, etc). Please be detailed in describing about what you see;
- Explain one account of problem solving using math in this classroom: which strategies did you observe? Which materials were used? What was the problem? Who solved it and how?
- If you could have intervened, how would YOU have solved a word/story problem for a student in the classroom you are observing. Please remember to offer at least one rationale in your answer (why would you intervene this way?).
B. If you have not yet started your observations, please connect with your placement as soon as possible to apply your lab assignments in a timely manner. This should be the last video available for labs:
Skip Counting with Counting Collections
Question 1: Please list all strategies that you observed being used to encourage children to count;
Question 2: Please list all strategies that the teacher used to intervene when misconception/misunderstanding led children to count wrongly.
Question 3: If you could intervene in Ms Latimer’s classroom, what strategies would you offer (name at least two) and why? How would your strategies add value to the child’s learning process (the focus of this sub question is on assessment – how would you measure success in this case?)?
Lab Assignment 3:
This will be taken in class.
Lab Assignment 2:
Watch this video, or take direct observations, before you upload your entry to your website. If you watch the video, answer one of the questions based on what you observe and try to avoid inferences.
Choose from the list below and use one entry to your lab online journal on your website:
- At your elementary placement, interview a teacher. How does the teacher assess children’s mathematics understanding and achievement? What is missing that you would like to add? Characterize the assessment according to the types discussed in chapter 4.
- Visit your assigned classroom and ask for samples of the written work of at least two children in mathematics. How would you assess the children’s understanding based on that written work? What is missing that you would like to add? Please add samples of this. For video watchers: on minute, 15′ 05″, you can find a brief evidence of student work that might help you answer this questions.
- Interview a teacher who uses either performance tasks or portfolios as part of a mathematics assessment plan. How does the teacher employ performance tasks or portfolios in assessing the children? For video watchers: How can you tell that this teacher is being effective, or ineffective?
Lab Assignment 1:
Watch this video and answer the following questions:
Problem Solving and Strategies – Please post your recordings on your site.
- During this video, observe solution strategies that are being used to solve math problems. Describe these strategies and the follow-up lessons you might plan if you were the teacher in that classroom. Which model was mostly used during this video? How can you tell? What would you offer instead and why? Please substantiate your report with material from chapter 2 in your textbook and 9/22/15’s class.
- Post your report in a new tab in your website.
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