Abby Karpik
Monday @ 8:00
For the purpose of this assignment I observed a second grade math lesson. The lesson consisted of two parts. First, the students were given a short worksheet to complete entitled, "Nature Hike." The worksheet consisted of word problems that required student to use their addition, subtraction, and number sentence skills. After students completed this worksheet they were worked on their math centers. Basically, the centers consist of ten activities that students must do for each number 1-10. Students must complete a worksheet and have their progress chart initialed by a teacher before moving onto the next number or activity. The content standards that this lesson addressed were under the number and operations standard. Understand numbers: ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, and number systems; count with understanding and recognize "how many" in sets of object. Understand meanings: of operations and how they relate to one another; understand various meanings of addition and subtraction of whole numbers and the relationship between the two operations; understand the effects of adding and subtracting whole numbers;
The first part of the lesson was the only time when the teacher was formally addressing the class. The worksheet seemed to be practice on concepts that the students were already familiar with. Although the teacher did not go over the general concepts of the worksheet, she did do the first two sample problems on the board. She did encourage students to ask her about any problems that they were having before she sent the students off on their own to complete their task. It seemed that the students were used to this kind of activity and the majority of them understood the problems and it only took them a few minutes to finish. There were some students that needed assistance and the teacher and student observer were actively helping those students work through the worksheet. Some of the students remarked on the theme of the worksheet; but for the most part the students seemed to view the worksheet as something that they just had to get done. I think that they were getting some much-needed practice on the concepts; however, I do not think that the students were engaged duringh the first activity. One thing that I would have done to make the lesson more beneficial for the students would be to go over the entire worksheet together. I think that the students needed to see some more modeling so that they could better grasp the material.
In order for the students to get a chance to do some hands-on activities and actually visualize the idea of adding and subtracting, the teacher created math centers. There were some really creative and engaging activities in the centers and the teacher used a lot of different manipulatives so that all different kinds of learning would be represented. Some of the activities used things such as Unifix Cubes, Geoboards, blocks, colored beads, and even handkerchiefs. By far the most interesting activity to me was the, "magic handkerchief." In this activity students used beads and a handkerchief to do a "magic trick" that modeled change-take-away subtraction. Students put all of the beads under the handkerchief and then slid their hand under the cloth to take away the number of beads that the worksheet asked. Next, students said the "magic words" and pulled the handkerchief away leaving the solution to the problem on their desk.
When I realized that I was going to be observing math centers I was very excited. Mainly, I wanted to see how productive the students would be when they were given the freedom to work on their own without having a detailed assignment to turn in. The students that were being productive were definitely engaged. I overheard some of the conversations that the students were having and noticed that the students were actually using each other as a resource. The majority of the students were legitimately doing the activities and trying to understand the concepts behind the activity. However, there were students that were using the math center time as play time. If I were to utilize math centers in my own classroom I would focus on alleviating unproductive workers. I would be sure to go over the expectations that I had for the students when they were working on their own before I set them off to work. At the same time, I think that the teacher did do a good job of walking around the classroom and adding close proximity to the students that were getting off task.
All in all, I really enjoyed watching the students work through the different math centers. I think that students liked getting the opportunity to get out of their seats and move around during their math lessons. I definitely noticed that the students’ attitudes became more positive when they were told that they were doing math centers. I think that the students do not really think that they are doing work when they are doing the math center activities when in actuality they are working hard. Thus, I would definitely use math centers in my own classroom someday. I think that the teacher I observed implemented some very innovative ideas quite effectively.