Goerke_Post#2

 

1.) This task was done individually but led by my mentor teacher. She would write on the projector and then the children would follow along and write in their book. After my mentor teacher guided their addition story problem examples several times, they were able to complete the task. The task was to listen to the problem and then solve using direct modeling such as drawing the pictures. The problem was as follows; Billy has two blue cars but gets two more red cars for his birthday from John, how many cars does Billy now have? My mentor teacher directed the students to draw two blue cars and put the number 2 under it to represent two cars. Then she instructed them to draw two other cars of different colors and to put a 2 under those cars. Then she instructed the class to draw one line coming from the 2 and another line coming from the other 2. Then she asked the class what does 2+2= ? The class said 4. Then she instructed them to write a 4 in the middle. Next she instructed them to write out the expression 2+2=4. The learning goal of this task was to learn how to represent a simple addition problem. This task is designed to show student thinking by allowing the children to map out the story problem. Throughout the steps you can see the student's thinking based on what they write down.  This task complies with the K.OA.1 common core standard: to understand addition as putting together and adding to, and understands subtraction as taking apart and taking away from.     

        There are other ways in which this could be task could be represented. First the students could use their fingers to help them with this story problem. Another way could be just number facts. While doing this task I remember hearing a student say, from their heard that 2+2=4. 

            One way that a student might approach this problem is by just simply remembering that 2+2=4. Another way could be that anticipated that the students will get the answer wrong because perhaps they are focused on other things and not drawing.

            First the student must start by representing the number with a picture. This will help with children who need direct modeling. Once they have drawn the picture, then they will need to complete the addition problem by counting in their head and writing out the expression.

            If a student is timid or shy about doing this then perhaps he or she needs math help. Another way to detect a students’ correct thinking is to analyze how they are treating the math problem. If the student is messing around or avoiding the problem than perhaps they really don’t understand math and are not willing to try because the task is too difficult.

            Two ways to advance student’s thinking is to stretch the addition further. For example the numbers could be higher then the ones that were originally here. The other advance for students’ could be to add multiple dimensions to the addition problem.