finally

I am finally done with that stupid online hw from the summer. I took like a month's break from it... heh. I laugh in the face of anyone who thinks teaching is easy!!!!


It was tedious. Look at the questions I had to answer[[[ Don't read all of this crap.. SKIM]]


1. What do you think students will learn by completing the lesson's main activity? (pg. B-27)



The students will learn the concept of part-part-whole by completing the domino activity. They will also learn fact families, the commutative property, and hopefully inverse operations. Students will get the opportunity to construct their own thoughts and answers. Students will need prior knowledge in addition and subtraction, as well as the understanding of part-part-whole and fact families.

A teacher concern in this lesson would be the students not gaining the understanding of part-part-whole and the relationships between addition and subtraction. Students may also struggle with the concept of the commutative property. The teacher will need to make sure to review the commutative property ahead of time. It is important to discuss the terms before going into the lesson. Students may also have a difficult time seeing the inverse operation of addition and using subtraction in their true equations.



TASK: Analyzing the Lesson Plan (7/29)



1. Comment on Ms. Pittman's pre-lesson interview. (pg. B-29)



Yes, the lesson will accomplish all of Ms. Pittman's goals for her students. The students will gain a deeper understanding of part-part-whole relationships. She begins with simple concepts and builds upon these concepts using prior knowledge. They will be looking for patterns in equations. When they swap addends, they should notice that part + part = whole. After working with their dominoes, they will analyze equations they write on the board. The teacher will tell what she sees for numbers, that even though they only see 2 numbers on the domino, there is a third number that comes from adding or subtracting the 2 numbers on the domino. If the students only think of adding the 2 numbers, the teacher will give more examples.



TASK: Analyzing the Lesson's Introduction

1. Is this an effective way to introduce part-part-whole relationships?

Using the dominoes to show students the relationships between part-part-whole was a good introduction to Ms. Pittman's lesson. This allowed students to gain a deeper understanding of the relationships between numbers. Ms. Pittman modeled for the students the parts and then showed the whole. She then allowed the students to practice whole group to come up with fact families on their own. It is important to model for the students to then allow them to complete the activity independently.



2. Comment on the students who saw fractions on the dominoes.

The first student saw the domino as a fraction because of the line. The teacher explained that's how the domino is made, which is a good, simple explanation that I would have used as well. Although incorrect with the domino, the student does have some knowledge of how a fraction can be written. The second student saw a fraction of one fourth because of the colors. If this student was thinking one out of four, that goes along with fractions, too. The teacher handled it as I would have.


3. Comment on the teacher's explanation of the activity she asks students to complete.



I agree with the teacher in explaining the task and then having the students who were unclear get help from their partners. Some students do not get the directions auditorially as well as they do visually, so when their partners start writing, that should help them to understand the task better.



TASK: Analyzing the Students' Pair Work

1. Comment on teaching strategies and student understanding as students complete their work in pairs.



00:20:00 In this part of the lesson, the student has a misconception that on a domino, one number is always going to be even and one will be odd. I marked this as a misconception, because the student is making a generalization about dominoes based on insufficient data. He is probably looking at a domino with an even and an odd number on it and then stating that a domino will always have an even and an odd. To rectify this misconception, I would make sure the student looked at many more dominoes to test his theory so he could see that some dominoes have 2 even numbers, some have two odd, some have even and odd. I would also have the student write the numbers down from a group of dominoes in order from least to greatest and then have him look at the list and see that domino numbers include both odd and even in different combinations.



00:26:41 In this section of the video, the student makes a discovery about the equations and numbers he is working on. He tells the teacher that when you subtract, you always start with the biggest number. He also has a misconception, when you add you start with the smallest number. To rectify the misconception about adding always starting with the smallest number, I would have him try some more examples and talk about the fact that the order of the addends does not change the answer.



00:21:23 In this section of the video, the teacher uses effective questioning as she talks to the students. She begins by asking if they notice anything about these equations and the student replies that they keep adding or subtracting. The questioning and discussion continues to lead the student on a path of discovery, and the teacher also suggests that the student "write that down" so the student can reflect on it later. This seems to guide the student in the right direction.