Assessment reflection

I'm amazed and how much we have learned over such a short time. It was really evident when we did the assessment. It's hasn't been very hard to remember all the different strategies and word problem types because it had been something that we have been doing since we were five. It's just really giving a name to the methods. I am paying more attention in my P2 when stduents are doing math and it is exciting to see the different strategies. Today my teacher gave a challenge question to the kindergarteners. She asked them if we have been at school for 170 days and there are 180 days in the school year how many days are left in school? One stduent said 10 when she asked hjow he knew that he said because when you count by tens it goes 60,70, 80 and 80 is after 70 so there is 10 more days. I was amazed. It really has opened my eyes to how much I under estimnate knidergarteners.

Writing Word Problem

I started thinking about a few things while I was writing the math problems this weekend. First, can you use the word divide in a problem. I know most times I hear if each person were to get the same number, or share equally, or got as many as her classmates, or give each the same, etc. It's very naturally for me to say divide among, divide between. Although then I am assuming that thhe stduent knows that divide is equal. I guess with more practice writing word problems it will be more natural to say share equally or give each the same.

Math Interm Assessments

My students just took their math interms yesterday. Today I looked at the scores of the six students I am working with on graphs. I was excited to see that four of the students got all of the answers correct. One student missed one question, which row has the least, and one student got them all wrong. I usually pull the student in two groups of threes. I am going to pull her tomorrow to work one on one. She will be gone all week next week so I am not going to have much time to work with her before the end of the semester. Last week we graphed candies, this week we graphed dinosaurs, any suggestions for next week?

Math Centers

The connection between the three boxes that I saw was measurements. All the boxes had something that you had to measure. They all also naturally incline themselves to be Incorporated with science standards. For example, scientific measurements, instruments, and making estimations. Although these are math as well it is a good concept to be Incorporated into science concepts. The whole two birds with one stone thing. The centers were a very open activity and some of the direction unclear. I'm sure if a teacher was introducing the lesson to younger students they would give examples and model. I guess teachers needs models sometimes too : ) The lesson also related to derived facts because in some boxes you used what you knew about one object to arrive at the solution to another.

Chapter 7

"Since subtraction is the inverse of addition,reversibility concepts (as defined by Piaget) may be the most important prerequisites."

I found this section very interesting. I am particularly interested in learning abilities and how student's cognitively develop. It make sense that if a student can't reverse then they will not be ready for subtraction since subtraction is just the reverse of addition. The book says that they normally introduce addition and subtraction at the same time which can lead to confusion. I think that students should be tested individually according to Piaget's standards. However this would be in the perfect school of course. This would be very hard to do as a teacher of 30 plus students along with all the other demands put on teacher however it is the ideal. This would save a lot of frustration if we only knew the reason they are not doing well on their test is not because they can't focus, have ADD, or some other delay. It's just because they are not ready yet!

Small Group Frustrations

So I am still working with a small group of student. We are working on math, specifically interpreting and addition. So today there was a question "How many bears does Sarah and Joe have?" The teacher says the key word is "AND" and the students should be learning to add together those two groups. However when I asked the students the question only 1 out of 7 got it right. Two students wrote down 2 (which was how many Sara had) and 5 (how many Joe had) then when I asked them how many they said 25?! I could see where they were coming from so now I am rewording the worksheet and making it gave so it will be easier for them to see an action. I hope they will be able to do better on this one. We'll see tomorrow :)

Multiplication/Division

I really enjoyed the lesson on Monday already going through the classifications of the 11 addition and subtraction word problems made multiplication and division much easier. After the videos we were quickly able to see the differences. It's so eye opening something that you thought was one way all your life as been completely redefined. It's amazing! I wish every CCSD teacher could take this course. Although I know not everyone would agree and be so inspired by it. I'm glad we are taking this class as a pre-service teacher before the school district, policies, lack of funding, and other things (just go in the teacher's lounge you'll hear them all) break our spirits and ideas. Of course I'm not saying that this happens to everyone but just looking at the number for a majority of us it will. Sometimes I find teachers who are not willing to change or try anything new. I feel sorry for their student.
In other new I am starting to work with six student who need help in graphing. There are kindergartners so it is a simple bar pictograph. When I gave them their assessment they didn't do so well, but when I pulled three of them to work with me in the hallway they did much better. I had them write on white boards to show me their answers to the problem how many blue and red candies are there and it was interesting to see how each individual solved it differently. One girls just wrote a number sentence 5+2=7 while another drew dots and inserted symbols between her dots.