Melissa Matthews' EDTL Blog

I have completed another full week in the field and it was great! We actually focused a lot on math this week and diving deeper into long division. It is very nice to be in the classroom all day because I remain on the same page as my students when it comes to their ability levels. I learned a lot of new ways to represent division. I showed my students how to use base ten blocks to represent division. A lot of students had a misconception that when using base ten blocks you couldn’t represent a remainder in the drawing of the division problem. I showed them how to do this and that the extra remainder simply could not fit evenly into the groups.

I also used the base ten blocks to work a lot with showing what the remainder represents. I was quite disappointed that the math program “My Math” writes the remainder to a division problem as r 3 (for example). This has caused a big misconception in the minds of the students in my class. They think that this means that the remainder is in fact the number three, meaning three whole numbers. When in reality, the r 3 in the problem 18/5 is really 3/5. It took almost half a class period for me to explain this to some students in my class. When I used the base ten blocks to model the division problem it was way easier for me to model to the students what the remainder actually represented.

Another topic that we covered was interpreting the remainder in a division story problem. For example, we used the problem “If Sally was reading a book and could only read 6 pages in one night before falling asleep, how many days would it take her to read a 74 page book?” The answer is 6 and 2/6. However, she wouldn’t finish the book in 6 days because she would still have 2 pages to read. So the answer is that it would take her 7 days to finish the book. This is how I taught the students to interpret the remainder in a story problem. In order for the students to practice this skill, my CMT and I decided to let the students work in small groups to complete a number of these story problems where the remainder needs to be interpreted (rounded up or down). We chose this way because we thought that the students could formulate discussions about these remainders which would help their comprehension of the topic. We walked around the room guiding students, but still let them talk about the remainders themselves.

At the end of this week, I got to lead a study review session over division because they were having a test on Monday. I took half of the class and led the review session where I walked through the entire chapter with them so that the students were refreshed on the topics they studied a couple weeks prior, while my CMT took the struggling students at the back table in the room. This strategy of co-teaching allowed for the struggling students to receive extra help in the concepts that they are still confused on, and it let the students who are excelling to practice more example problems and explain their reasoning. Overall, this week was very rewarding and I feel that the students get a lot more opportunities to succeed when I am there co teaching with my CMT. I look forward to starting my unit next week!

I am getting ready to go into the field full time and I couldn’t be more excited. However, there are a lot of difficulties I face when working in a classroom with a lot of different learners. I am also under a considerable amount of pressure since the school I am placed at gets very high OAA scores in math and science. My CMT is working alongside me to prepare a unit that I will be able to implement with the necessary differentiation strategies.

In order to differentiate for my students on 504 plans for ADHD, I will be creating a lot of adapted word problems. A lot of time, I have seen differentiation done incorrectly, where students are simply given easier problems that don’t relate well to the topic being studied and aren’t in word problem form. I am working to create problems that allow the students with special needs to still develop the ability to analyze a word problem and solve it. I am doing this because all of my students will be taking the same OAA test. The test this year will align with the common core state standards. These standards focus highly on relating math topics to real life word problems. I want all of my students to have equal opportunity to do well on this test, so even though I am creating an adapted worksheet that is slightly easier, I will still align my problems to reflect the main topic being discussed and problem solving skills and strategies.

I have also been struggling to convert the topics in the “My Math” program to reflect word problems that align with the PARCC Assessment-like problems. In order to do this, I have studied the problems on the PARCC website. I noticed that these problems are quite complicated in the sense that they take one situation and formulate a question that essentially has three or four questions woven around it. If the students read this question and then get intimidated, that is four questions they just got wrong by not understanding one problem. In order to prepare my students for these types of problems, I have taken my unit which is on adding and subtracting decimals, and I have provided these types of problems as a summary activity of the skills that my students learned. This way, my students will become comfortable approaching and solving these problems.

I really feel as though I am so prepared going into teaching my unit. I have the “My Math” program as a guide, but I really feel as though I can incorporate some hands on materials into my lessons so that students become engaged in the mathematics. I learned a lot of strategies in EDTL 4460 that I can use to implement the SMP’s into my lessons. I am very passionate about my students not only learning math, but learning life-long skills within my classroom. This way they can take these skills they used through applying the SMP’s in lessons and use them throughout their entire lives and in all of the mathematics courses they take. I will also make sure that my students realize the SMP’s they are doing within the lessons I teach because I think it is important that they recognize what they are doing right in mathematics because I feel like students are consistently told what they are doing wrong in math. I want all of my students to reach their full potential.

The past couple Fridays that I have been at Green Springs Elementary, I have gotten to know the routine of my CMT and of the students. I have already taught a couple of science lessons, but this upcoming week I will be teaching math lessons as well. In order to prepare myself to teach these lessons, I have been watching the habits of my students very closely.

My CMT, Mrs. Harmon, prides herself on having extremely good scores on her OAA’s. She especially has a good value added score for her past few years of teaching. That is why I have been watching her teaching strategies very closely. When going over her standardized test score results from last year’s class, I asked her a lot of questions about what she does to get such good scores. Her answers were quite simple. She says that she is very picky and strict with students when it comes to terminology and verbal use of the terminology consistently all year. She told me that some teachers don’t start “talking the test talk” until February/March when it comes time to study super hard for the test. At that point it is almost too late for students to develop good math habits that help generate good testing skills. Mrs. Harmon consistently corrects student in how they word their explanations of mathematics. She also teaches them why math problems are done the way they are done and teaches them the reasoning behind it. She says that even though the students get annoyed with constantly being corrected, the test results consistently improve for her each year.

While observing and interacting with my students, I have noted a lot of patterns. While the students at Green Springs are very well behaved, I have noticed a lot of problems with students staying focused during class. I have noticed a particular student who is very good at math, but is kind of lazy when it comes to doing her work. She also loses focus very easily and often dozes off just during math lessons. Today after recess I asked her what her least favorite subject was, and she said math. I asked her why and she had a ton of reasons. The most predominant reason was that she said it was hard for her to concentrate and she often got distracted by other things.

I have been basing a lot of my lesson ideas around this student’s reasoning for not being focused in class. I believe that if I make the lessons a little more relatable to the students. When students can make connections to their everyday life, it would probably hold their attention more. My teacher follows a math program called My Math Plans. This limits the amount of freedom she has with most of her math lessons, but a lot of the comprehension story problems align right with the Common Core State Standards. These are good problems, but they don’t really relate to these students everyday lives. Green Springs is a rural school, so I was thinking of coming up with some problems that relate to issues and everyday life predicaments. I could also relate some problems to pop culture in order to grab the students’ attention when it comes to redundant math concepts. For another methods course I had to develop a student interest survey. I decided to model my survey around math. I am asking my students questions about what makes them give up on math problems, strategies for solving math problems, and what their personal interests are. Hopefully, this will solve the problem of students not focusing during math lessons.

Hello EDTL 4460! This is the first official post on my blog and will be the start of my exploration and analysis of how my field placement experiences coincide with my methods discussions. Within Mr. Bostic’s class on Mathematical Pedagogy, we have dived into a lot of key topics. Very recently, we have explored the Common Core State Standards, Standards for mathematical practices, and assessment strategies that were modeled in Dr. Brahier’s text book reading. All of these topics I kept in mind as I visited my field placement last Friday. Here is what I have explored!

My field placement is at an Elementary School named Green Springs Elementary. This school placed in the top 10% for highest scores on the state standardized testing. My Cooperating Mentor teacher also had excellent value added scores within her mathematics class. I was also lucky enough to be paired with a teacher who has had years of experience with fifth grade math and science. I am used to being in an urban or suburban setting, so I feel very blessed to be able to experience a close knit community, rural school setting. When I first entered the school for open house I was extremely impressed with the upkeep and modern feel that the school had. I then soon came to find out that this school was built only three years ago! There are many computer labs, as well as an awesome science laboratory that students use within their classes. Every room is also equipped with a smart board and the latest technology.

On my first day, I was blown away by how well the students behaved. Everyone knew the routine, and they really listened to the teacher (Mrs. Harmon). Whenever Mrs. Harmon asked a question, almost every student raised their hand to answer. When everyone didn’t volunteer she would find ways to allow opportunities for everyone to participate, without embarrassing them. Mrs. Harmon always had the students busy doing something productive. She never had down time and the students were constantly engaged in math or science. I was even allowed to teach a lesson and go over the lesson as well! She was very encouraging of having me interact with the students so they became comfortable with me in the room.

In her math class, my teacher uses a program that the entire building uses called “My Math Lab”. This is a math program that aligns all lessons, checkpoints, lesson practice, and assessments to the Common Core State Standards. I got the chance to explore this program and it is very thorough. The assessments are interactive and not only provide practice for the students, but they are engaging as well. The beginning of each lesson also maps out which Common Core State Standards they will be covering, as well as what Standards for Mathematical Practices they will be covering as well. My teacher said this is very helpful for older teachers who are now going through the transition into common core. I also thought the checkpoints for assessment were very useful for a teacher.

At the end of the day, I got to help students with their math homework about place values. It was very interesting to observe their mathematical misconceptions. When we talk about misconceptions in classes, it’s hard to understand. However, when in the classroom it is very easy to identify student misconceptions. This makes it much easier to adapt your teaching strategies and assessment strategies to accommodate these misconceptions. I learned so much at my first day at Green Springs Elementary and look forward to going back!

Hello everybody! I am so excited to begin my methods block and explore all that goes into being a Middle School Educator in Mathematics and Science. I am an avid supporter of the STEM subjects and look forward to learning as much as possible.