Ashleigh Bunten Student Work # 2

In my Kindergarten classroom, they are currently learning how to write number sentences. My teacher has given them counting books where they will practice solving word problems. By drawing the pictures, like the four cars above, they are able to use visual cues to help them solve the problem until they can do the math in their heads. This specific problem was copied from the smart board to help the students get practice solving these problems. The purpose of this project is to show a way how students can solve word problems they cannot complete in their head. By drawing the cars, the students are performing a type of direct modeling because they can count the number of cars to get the final answer. The task is also designed to help students get practice in writing number sentences because they get more complicated as they get older. By having the teacher model the task on the board, all students received the same type of instruction and had the same understanding.

            My mentor teacher did not give the students other strategies to complete this task. She just had them copy this example from the board and put it into their counting books. This causes the students to not think about how this relates to math; and just copies from the board to finish the assignment. To make this assignment more effective for the students, the teacher should have explained that this is not the only way to solve a word problem. Students at this age should be told that everyone thinks of math in different ways, and that is a good thing. Also the assignment could have included using counters to help solve the problem and the student could draw how many counters they needed.

            The type of anticipated response that the teacher could expect is if the student copied the teacher’s example from the board. The problem of this is that it does not show if the student knows how to solve the problem. The example does not give the student an opportunity to think about math and learn more. The other type of response is that a student forgot to draw all of the cars or did not write the number sentence correctly. The negative aspect of these responses is that they do not show the teacher that the students know how to solve number problems.

            The student is supposed to listen to the word problem, and then draw pictures to model how many items are needed to solve the problem. The drawing should help students to visually represent the problem and not solve it in their heads. This math task does not show the student’s math knowledge, because they were not solving the problem on their own. This page in their counting book only shows the teacher that the student can follow directions and nothing else. I believe that the students should be able to solve the problems the way they feel most comfortable and put that in the book. Students could use counters and then draw circles showing how many they needed to solve the problem. Or the students could use the same strategy the teacher taught them, but the page is not on the board for students to copy. I think this is great practice for the students, but their math knowledge needs to tested, and not their ability to follow directions.