Before beginning the lesson, I talked to my PRT (Partnership Resource Teacher) about the lesson and what would happen in the lesson. She gave me a few strategies that I could incorporate in the lesson. One of these strategies would be used to save time in the classroom and give my students a sense of responsibility. The strategy involved giving some of my students a check mark on their sticky note for the beginning of the lesson assessment. Since I planned on incorporating white boards into the lesson, instead of me passing them out or having the students get them individually, the student with the check mark would go get them marker boards for their table. Since my students have never done this before, my PRT informed me that I would have to model this process for my students and tell my students what the meaning of the check mark was.
When my students walked in the room, the first thing they noticed was the check mark and I informed them that I would tell them what it meant when it was time. In the beginning of the lesson, I wanted give my students a quick assessment on the material we learned yesterday, to give them a refresher and to see who needed extra support. I gave them the problem and they solved it and put their sticky note on the board, like always. From this, I found that some students solved the problem correctly, with correct regrouping and all. Some students got the right answer but failed to do the procedure correctly, just using tens and ones to solve the problem. Furthermore, some students got the problem wrong all together. This told me that I had to review the concept. I did so, using the anchor chart I made for the steps to solve addition regrouping problems. However, I did not explain the check marks at the appropriate time. I was thinking that I did not want them to get distracted by the marker boards before the right time, but this was a mistake. After they put their sticky notes on the board, I then explained the check marks, which was too late. Some of the students forgot who had the check marks and then there was a mass of students going up to get the marker boards after I modeled getting the marker boards. It was a mess. From this experience, I learned to introduce procedures, especially new ones, in the beginning, at the appropriate time, not after the fact.
After the quick assessment, I went on to teaching the strategies. I started with the make-a-ten. I took a more guided practice approach then a model approach. First, I wanted to make sure that the students understood how to make a ten before teaching them the strategy in a new context. I did not put this portion in my lesson plan because it was a quick addition, but I was struggling to think of a problem for my students. Here, I realized the importance of actually thinking about ALL potential parts of the lesson, even reviews and how important it is to come up with the correct problems in the lesson so I am not struggling to come up with a problem. However, I went on and reviewed making a ten with one digit addends before moving onto two digit addends. I solved the problem with the students and then gave them a practice problem and told them to solve it using the strategy on their marker boards. I then went around the class and watched the students as the solved the problem. And then, one student asked "what if you can't make a ten?". I panicked. I looked at the problem, and sure enough, the problem I came up with did not allow for the students to make a ten. I just told them to solve the problem like normal. Again, I experienced the importance of coming up with the correct problems for the strategies being taught. I then went over to the board and came up with two problems that allowed for the use of the make-a-ten strategy.
I allowed my students to use their marker boards to solve the next few problems which proved to be quite problematic. When I was reviewing the problems on the board with my students, they were shouting out the steps and not waiting for me to call on them. They were distracted with the boards, wanting to play with the markers, even though we went over the procedures. At this point, I was struggling to have control over the class, and my PRT saw this struggle. Here, she introduced another strategy to me. For the next problem, she modeled the strategy for me. After I gave anther problem to my students, we walked around a saw the work that the students were producing. We looked for a student who solved the problem correctly to model for the class. She chose a student and asked him if he would like to show his problem on the board. When we went up to write his problem, the students were to put their marker boards down and think of a question to ask the student. I was astonished at this request, and amazed. I wondered what kind of questions my students would come up with. While the student was putting his problem on the board, my PRT and I went around enforcing marker board procedures, taking markers away for students who were playing with them. When the student was done, the other students in the class raised their hands and the student at the board picked one and answered the question. I was impressed with their questions. They asked relevant questions that elicited the student's thinking and steps for problem solving. The questions also corrected a mistake in the students problem, helping him realize what he had forgotten to include. I think that this was an awesome technique! The students were engaged in the process, diligently thinking of a question, listening to the students thought process, and there were minimal behavior issues. This process also allows the students to see any mistakes that were made and understand how to correct them in a non-threatening environment. I believe this will make the student more likely to understand the mistake and not do it again. My PRT even said that I can pick students who solved the problem wrong to allow them to realize their mistakes and for the students in the class to help them solve it correctly and understand their mistakes.
We continued this process for another problem and it had the same effect on the students. I absolutely loved this strategy and I plan on using it for the rest of my teaching career.
It was nearing the end of math time and I still had another strategy to teach them, top-to-bottom. For this, my PRT said that I could just tell the students how to use this strategy because of the time restraint. She modeled the strategy for my students and told them to move to independent practice. She told them to do two problem from the Go!Math packet and to pick one to use as an exit ticket. My students have never done this before, so they were a little flustered and confused. They are used to completing the packet in order and we gave them 2 problems out of order and choice in picking what problem and strategy they wanted to use as an exit ticket. We told them to do problems 7 and 10. They wanted to start on the first page, or do all of the problems 7-10. But we clarified the issue and my students completed the exit ticket.
After the lesson, my PRT and I reviewed the exit tickets. Only 2 students used the strategies correctly. The other students used the standard way of adding, used the strategy wrong, forgot to regroup, or just got the problem wrong all together. This frustrated me. I was frustrated because they did not use the strategies, they solved them they way they wanted. This told me that they need more practice using the strategies.
Overall, this lesson seemed like a struggle, but I learned some valuable teaching lessons.