I am never present during direct Math instruction in my placement, but this week, we played a board game that used a spinner, and I was able to see where different students were with the math skills. I was instructed to pull aside groups of 4 children to play a SuperWhy! literacy board game with them. While the objective of the game was to improve letter recognition spelling, and rhyming skills, the students had to use a spinner, when it was their turn, to move about the board. I worked with a range of students with varied skills. Some anecdotes are listed below.
Student A: Student A spun the spinner which landed on the number 4. She said, "4!" Then, she picked up her piece, and moved the character four spaces ahead. The student did not count aloud nor did she touch each space. She picked up her piece and and placed it down on the space four spaces ahead of the one she was on.
Student B: Student B spun next, his turn landed on the number 1. He said "1. I only get to moved one space." Then he picked up his character, touched the next space on the board, said "one" and then placed his piece on the space.
Student C: Student C spun the spinner which landed on the number 3. He looked at the spinner, and then looked to me. We had the following conversation:
RB: Do you know what number that is?
C: No
RB: Would you like a hint?
C: *nodded*
RB: It comes after the number 2. Count with me. One...Two...
C: Three!
RB: Yep! That is the number 3, it comes after the number 2.
Then, the student picks up his character and begins to count. He touched his character to each space as he said the number, and landed three spaces later.
This group showed me the range that is present in the classroom as far as math knowledge and counting. The first student, student A, showed me the teacher and I may need to have some activity extensions available for those who are more advanced. Student C showed me that he is still struggling with number recognition and could use some practice in that area.
A very interesting example involving a group of students and their interactions. As a rule, try to remember to post a picture of the artifact (an actual visual of the game itself would have been very interesting). You do provide a short transcript here, but it would be enlightening if it would also be provided for the other interactions you describe.
ReplyDeleteAlso make sure that your analysis draws on your math content knowledge. E.g., what do you mean by a student being "advanced" or "needing more practice". Again, part of our practice here is to begin to identify and describe the specific strategies that students might be using and what that tells us in terms of their current mathematical understanding.