Math lesson

Last Wednesday, I gave my mini-math lesson to my third grade class at W.A. Young Elementary. This was the last lesson that we were required to teach. We had planned to teach our measurement and estimation lesson to the average math class as soon as we arrived. However, due to the car accident on the way to school that morning, we did not arrive at W.A. Young Elementary until the very end of the average math class. Since this did not leave us any time to teach our lesson to the average math class, we had to make arrangements to teach it in another class. We had already taught a lesson to the high math class, so we decided to teach the lower ability math class.

One of the first things that Mr. Rader told us when we first arrived in his classroom was that he did not advise us to teach to the lower math class. From speaking with Mr. Rader and observing this class, we have learned that this class contains a wide variety of learning disabilities. Most of the class had been diagnosed with severe A.D.D. This causes problems for Mr. Rader because their medicine has usually worn off be the end of the day, creating stress in classroom management. Katherine and I were a little apprehensive as to whether we should teach this class or not. However, we felt that the worksheet and the amount of manipulatives we were going to use would be very beneficial for them. I also looked at this as a challenge. When I become a teacher, I know that there will be students like the ones in the low math class that I will teach. Teaching these students can be stressful a lot of the time. However, when these students begin understanding what is being taught, a teachable moment occurs. I was not expecting to teach this lesson, and for it to go perfectly. There is always room for improvement.

We split the class into two groups. I took one group, and Kathryn took the other group. We each had between five and six students, which was enough considering their learning disabilities and behavioral problems. Students used different objects as measuring tools to measure the length of the objects/manipulatives that were provided. Students used paperclips to measure the length of their desk, pencils to measure the height of their desk, string to measure the length of their smile, and their shoes to measure the length of the room from one side to the other. While one student read the directions to a problem, other students were cutting up, and talking with one another. I had to stop what I was doing to deal with these individual students, which took away from valuable learning time. Mr. Rader warned me before my lesson that I had two students that had the worst behavioral problems in the class. Throughout the lesson, he kept a close eye to make sure they were behaving. As they worked on the individual problems, I noticed that the students worked better together in partners. The two boys with the behavioral problems worked in partners and with Mr. Rader. Both boys were very respectable towards me throughout the activity. I could really tell that they were eager to solve the problems, and eager to impress me. Another boy worked by himself, and tended to be the last person to finish the problem each time. Rather than answering the problem right away, he played with the manipulatives at his desk. I spent a lot of time with this student since he did not have a partner, which took away from help I could have been giving other students. When we did the problem where they had to count the number of steps it took to cross the room, I had them go one at a time. I felt that if they were to tall walk across the room at the same time, I could not effectively asses each student. Before I let them walk across the room, I modeled the proper way to walk with one foot in front of another (the heel of one foot touching the toe of the other foot). I felt that this was very beneficial rather than explaining what they were supposed to do verbally. To maintain class management, I had them stand on the back wall shoulder width apart, to ensure that they would not be touching eachother. While one student walked across the room, we counted how many steps he/she was taking together as a class. This also helped maintain classroom management because they did not have the opportunity to talk with one another. Although most of the group counted together, the two boys with the extreme behavioral problems were messing with manipulatives on the side. From observing this, I now understand how much attention these students need. If you are not talking to them directly, or giving them one task after another, they will act out inappropriately. After I took notice of that, I pulled them aside and made them aware of what they were supposed to be doing. With each boy, I walked across the room with them to make sure they were performing the task correctly. With one boy, he performed the task correctly at first, but the closer he got to the other end of the class, the farther his strides became. I reminded him of the correct way to walk, and we tried one more time. Again, he formed larger strides the closer we got to the other end of the room. I could tell that he was trying hard. He was counting softly to himself, and staring at his feet as he walked across the room, but he just could not do it. I did not want to push him any more and congratulated, and sent him back to his seat to record his result.

The outcome of this activity was successful in my mind. This lesson ended with a smile on my student’s faces and my own. I learned a lot from these students, and I believe that they learned a lot about measurement and estimation based on the assessment that I gained from observing. It is so important to incorporate a lot of manipulatives in math activities, especially for younger elementary students, and students with disabilities and behavioral problems such as A.D.D. Students are more likely to stay on task, and interested in an activity with manipulatives rather than a worksheet that only requires your pencil. Using manipulatives also helped me teach a more effective lesson. I found it a lot easier to use these manipulatives to explain a concept, rather than just verbally explaining it. Prior to teaching our two math lessons, I was pretty intimidated. I understood math, but I did not feel confident in myself to teach math to students. However, after teaching these lessons, I am eager to continue with math lessons, and get gratifying results from my class.