Student Work Blog #7

These pictures show two worksheets that were given to the class at the same time. The students were instructed to solve each of the problems using whatever they needed. They had unifix cubes and their individual boards with beads on them. One worksheet had vertical addition problems and the other worksheet at horizonal subtraction problems.

My questions:

1.     Do the students really understand that both ways to write problems (horizontal and vertical) mean the same thing?

2.     Do they have a deeper mathematical understanding of addition and subtraction besides putting blocks/beads together and taking them apart?

3.     What is the point of having a worksheet with a bunch of problems on it without really talking about why they are doing it?

I noticed that many of the students would just go through the procedure of moving beads to one side of the board and then moving beads away from or to that side according to whatever number was being added or subtracted. It seemed as though most students were rushing right along with these problems, moving beads back and forth and moving on to the next question without stopping to think about what was actually happening in the problem.

            I might try to answer these questions by talking to the students and asking them what 8-6 means. I would like to see if the students respond using examples of real life things to show that these numbers can represent actual objects. I would also ask them why some questions were written up and down while others were side by side. I would ask them to explain if it matters or not and if how they solve each is the same or different. I could also ask my mentor teacher what other activities she does (if any) that leads up to or follows these worksheets that might help answer my questions. Since I am not there every day, she might go through a bunch of other activities and actually talk to the students about the ideas in these questions I have.