Video #2:
Number Operations (4th Grade)
1.
Planning
A
video that corresponded to this lesson in which the involved teachers explained
their planning process was not included for this lesson. Therefore, the written
reflection of the planning process was the only insight the viewer could
receive for the planning of this lesson. The goal of the lesson was to teach
how to work through and solve story problems involving division through the
Singapore Bar Model. The Singapore Bar Model provides a visual representation to
aide students in working through the problem, especially those who are
struggling. The teachers planning this lesson decided to teach similar lessons
in two separate classrooms simultaneously. The other lesson, not shown on the
video, was taught with the traditional “direct style” lesson format and the two
were going to be compared after each was completed. The teachers wanted to see if presenting
students with an alternative method of solving a story problem (i.e. the
Singapore Bar Method) would increase their understanding.
2.
Lesson
The
lesson was introduced through the idea that “a picture is worth a thousand
words”. The teacher wanted her students to represent story problems using
pictures so that someone who did not know the problem could view the picture
and understand what the story problem was about and how the student arrived at
his or her answer. The teacher also introduced students to the goals of the
lesson and the protocols for appropriate behavior in the classroom.
The
teacher asked her students to form a bit of background knowledge before solving
story problems by describing to her what they knew about multiplication and
division. Students were able to tell her that multiplication was like addition
as well as the relationship between multiplication and division but were highly
confused when the teacher began discussing the idea of equal groups. The
teacher attempted to force the idea of equal groups by providing more examples
but students continued to solve the problems using their own strategies
instead. This posed a problem for the teacher once students were introduced to
the Singapore Bar Model. Students were asked to solve a problem using this
method. Unfortunately, only a few of the students in the class ended up
providing the correct answer to the problem with this strategy.
Students
were given the following information: Maria saved $24. She saved three times as
much as Wayne. They were asked to think about how they might determine how much
money Wayne and Maria have using this information. The majority of the students
inaccurately calculated that Wayne had $72 after multiplying 24 times 3. Only a
handful of students divided 24 by 3 and determined Wayne had $8. The teacher
wanted the students to use the equal group strategy (Singapore Bar Model) to
aide them in solving the answer to the problem. They were to draw a math
picture that told the complete story of the information that they were given.
The students who used the grouping strategy or who calculated the correct
answer often drew pictures that were incomplete or that did not tell the entire
story. The majority of the students used their own strategies to solve the
problem and still arrived at the wrong answer.
Finally,
the teacher attempted to get students to use and understand the bar model
strategy by asking students to copy and solve the problem using a fictional
“Charlie’s way”. The students were provided with the basic structure of the
problem and were asked to fill in the empty boxes with the appropriate answers.
Again, the majority of the students were confused and calculated Wayne’s total
money as $72. Only a handful of students provided the appropriate answer and
filled in the boxes accurately.
3.
Faculty
Debrief
After the completion of the
lesson, the teachers discussed several issues that caused the lesson to not be
entirely effective for the students. First, the idea of equal groups did not
come readily to the students. The teacher had to press the issue and chose to continue
to roll with the idea throughout the lesson even without the students fully
comprehending what equal groups actually meant in relation to the story
problem. Next, students were able to describe to the teacher that
multiplication was like addition but could not verbally describe why division
was related to subtraction. Thirdly, students’ pictures to represent the
provided story problem often did not match the story problem or were
incomplete. Students generally forgot to label the individual parts of their
pictures so that the reader could fully understand the process the student went
through to solve the problem. Finally, there was a problem with students
changing their answers due to peer pressure. Many of the students originally
wrote down the correct answers but after discussing the problem with their
peers, changed their answers.
4.
Overall
Reactions
Many
of the ideas and strategies discussed in ETE 339 at Bradley were included in
this lesson. The teacher did not simply present the Singapore Bar Method to the
students and then ask them to work through several story problems with the
method. Instead, the teacher sought to incorporate all student ideas and
methods into the lesson. She emphasized that the Singapore Bar Method was only
one way to solve the problem but other methods were just as valid.
Additionally, there were no worksheets for this lesson. The teacher provided
much of the practice problems and examples on the white board rather than a
worksheet. Students were given a sheet of paper with the story problem written
out on the top just for easier visibility. Overall, the lesson was presented
well by the teacher even if the students did not fully reach the objectives of
the lesson by its conclusion. Additional lessons on this subject will be
necessary for this group of students to fully grasp the Singapore Bar Method
and to solve story problems involving division.
Very nice! Thanks Sara:)
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