Fran Julien Macro Cycle Lesson Reflection December 10, 2013 Lesson plan is attached to get an overview of the

lesson

I would say my math macro cycle shows strength and growth of my teaching as an elementary math teacher. My focus for this lesson was to implement what I have learned through research. In the beginning of the year, I noticed that that my CT or I were the ones who spoke most of the time during a lesson. Although I love to explain things, I found myself thinking that it was the students who needed to be speaking more. I envisioned a class where students spoke to one another without us, the teachers, as middlemen. My research question was, What is my role as a teacher to create an environment around mathematics that involves student led discussion? With this question I conducted some research and developed some goals for myself as a teacher in order to try and create this environment. My first goal was to set expectations for my students as we led the lesson into discussion. I was planning on doing this by explicitly stating that I expected my students to be listening in order to agree, disagree, or add to their classmates thinking. As I watched my video back, this was not an expectation that I explicitly stated at the beginning of this lesson, but that does not mean that the discussion that I wanted to occur did not happen. Although I did not go over the discussion expectations at the beginning of this lesson, it has been part of my math goal for many weeks prior. My students know that they can raise their hand and reply to a student whether they agree, disagree, or want to add to. While I

did not state this expectation at the beginning of this particular lesson, the expectations have been previously set and my students were able to contribute to the discussion with these expectations in mind. Evidence of this is present when one student disagreed with the response of another student to question 41 ( How many pieces did you have when you shared it with four people?), and when one student agreed with the response to question 8 (What do you think about the way they shared their cookie?). While I feel I implemented this portion of my research plan previously so that it was present within this lesson, I have taken a deeper look into what my students are discussing when they are speaking to each other. My questioning played a major role within this lesson and the implementation of my research plan. While my students were able to use accountable talk, which also displays SMP 3, the questions they were responding to did not allow them to provide a rich and meaningful conversation. As I planned this lesson, I made sure to include discussion points after each part of the activity that we were doing. Although thoroughly planned, I can say that following a lesson plan while trying to tailor to the learning of the students is a challenge, and I know mastery of this only comes with experience and time. As I review the questions that I planned to ask throughout the lesson, some of them need to be reworded so that they are more open ended and encourage the student to explain their thinking more. For example, although I asked many whys to my questions, I have realized that just because I am asking why doesnt mean that I am capitalizing on the students thinking. With the help of a recent training, I have learned that two things contribute to effective questioning. Not only does it matter in the way we word a question, but the way the student has to think and the way they respond to the question also contributes to the

effectiveness of as well. With this in mind, I think I would further my research on effective questioning in mathematics. In order to contribute to a student led discussion, it was also in my plan that I would have students share their work to the class. We started the class discussion off with an example from my CT and I, which allowed students to develop an explanation for their work, but then I asked groups and individuals to share throughout the rest of the lesson. I learned that displaying students work allows those students to have ownership of their work and discuss their way of solving. With this in mind, it was my goal for students to begin a discussion around the product that they see represented and their own representation. There was one point in the lesson where I think would have been a good discussion moment, but it veered completely left from where I had planned the lesson to go. As we were dealing with fractions, I asked the students to find a way to split their one cookie between two people. My anticipated response to this scenario was that students would split the cookie in half consisting of two pieces. What occurred at this time with some groups was a different result. Some groups split the cookie into quarters. Looking back on this situation, I think I would have pushed the discussion in this direction instead of flow over some groups thinking. I think this plays into allowing a child to be heard. As a teacher this teaches me that I have to be willing to take that left turn when it comes up. Sometimes things arent planned, but what I am finding is that these are the moments that can produce the most ah-ha moments in students. It would have been interesting to listen to the discussion students would have had about the half pieces and the quarter pieces. Lastly, not only do I have to be aware of the questions that I ask and be willing to take the lesson in the direction the students guide it, but I also have to be patient. Watching

my video back, I dont think I implemented my plan of wait time very effectively. Overall, throughout my lesson, I asked a total of 67 questions, meaning that I pretty much asked one question a minute. Just by thinking about these terms in this sense, I know that I did not provide enough wait time for my students to think. If I were to do this lesson again, I would make sure to keep myself aware of allowing wait time during discussion. Although an uncomfortable silence, research discussed that really, this silence is for students to gather thoughts and think of a way that they can present them. The great thing about this lesson is that this was many of my students first time in directly dealing with fractions so they were all at the same level of understanding and each student had the potential to contribute to the discussion during the lesson. There were only two students who did not speak whole group once during this lesson. Both of these students are ones who do not regularly contribute to discussion. Both students are very different in personality, but both are at different levels of understanding than many others in the class. As I relate this to my SMP 3 reflection, I think I would like to try breaking my students up into differentiated groups so that all students can feel more comfortable in contributing to the discussion because discussion is occurring at their level of understanding. Overall, this lesson was stimulating for many. Although two students did not contribute to the whole group conversation, as evidence shows within the video, every student was present in conversation with their partner. Discussion did not quite occur the way I wanted it to happen, but I would say I have come a long way as a math teacher and my students have come a long way within our math community since the beginning of the year. What started as a wondering on student led discussion, soon became a process of trial

and error implementations within multiple lessons including this one. I would have to say that I was not completely successful in implementing my full research plan, but I have been able to reflect in my practice in order to make the implementation of my research plan next time that much more effective. Teaching mathematics is a challenge when there are so many levels of understanding and facilitating student led discussion is another challenge that is affected. It is my goal as an educator to have all lessons in all subjects have some involvement of student led discussion. As I continue on my journey in elementary mathematics, I would like to refine my goal in questioning and guiding discussion based upon student responses.

Math Macro Lesson Plan: Objective: SWBAT explain how to fairly share a whole between two people and four people. Essential Question: How do you know when you have shared a quantity fairly? Intro: EQ Discussion norms o Accountable talk (located on table) o Ask questions of each other o I will be asking you what your partner said, so make sure that you are listening o At any point, I can ask you what your classmate has said and for you to repeat it or restate that in your own words, so make sure that you are listening Pose cookie problem: Between you and your partner, you have one cookie. How can you share your cookie fairly? While you divide your cookie, I want you to think about why you shared with your partner the way that you did. Be ready to provide an explanation to the class. Students are given 3 minutes to share their cookie equally with their partner. Once they are done they give a thumbs up. Model sharing equally CT and I show how we shared the cookie. Cookie will be divided unequally. Would you agree or disagree with how Mr. Reyes and I shared our cookie? Why? (AR: its not shared equally. Even though you shared the cookie, you did not share it equally) Discussion about how students solved cookie problem Segue into the ideas of how students shared their cookies equally Maybe by showing us the way you guys divided it, you can give us some advice on how we should share our cookie so that it is fair How did you decide to divide your cookie? Why? Would anybody like to add to, agree or disagree? Why? Did any group divide their cookie differently?

Fill in first two columns of table with drawing In the first column draw how your cookie looked before you shared it with your partner. In the second column, draw how you shared your cookie with 2 people a. How much of the cookie did each person in your group receive? b. Why did you choose to divide the cookie this way? Pose the next cookie problem with four people (students fill in third column) Now two more people joined your group and you have to make sure that everyone gets an equal piece of the ONE cookie that you began with. How can you equally share your cookie between the four of you now? (If we actually group into fours then one group will have to leave their cookie behind. If we dont group them then we will just hand them 2 more napkins to pretend two more people joined the group) 3 minutes to divide and draw. Thumbs up signal when done.

Discussion about how it was solved What does your drawing look like now that you have divided the cookie amongst four people? o How many pieces is the cookie divided into now? o Why did you choose to divide the cookie this way? o How much of the cookie did each person in your group receive? Label the table using vocabulary: whole, halves, fourths Lets look at the first column in our table. o What does our first drawing represent? (AR: one whole cookie/before we shared the cookie) o How can we label our first drawing? (How much of the cookie did you start with?) o We would label this 1 whole Lets looks at the second drawing in our table. o What does our second drawing represent? (AR: when we shared the cookie between 2 people) o What label can we give to our second drawing? (How much of the cookie did each person get?) o We would label this picture halves Lets looks at our third drawing in our table. o What does our third drawing represent? (AR: When we shared the cookie with four people) o What label can we give to our third drawing? (How many pieces did you divide from the whole cookie?) o We would label this drawing fourths

Discussion about pattern between parts and sharing Take a look at your pictures: Do you notice a pattern? Do you notice a pattern between the number of people you have to share with and the number of pieces you divided the cookie into? How many pieces represent your halves? Fourths? Would you say that you have more than what you started with or less after sharing from your whole? What can we conclude about halves and fourths? PowerPoint problems in notebook Discussion Based on problem solving Multiple strategies used Answer essential question in notebooks: (sentence, drawing, example) List some vocabulary that should be used within response: o Whole, halves, equal, sharing, fraction, part, fourths, greater than, less than

The following are questions documented from the lesson along with a reflection on the implementation of SMP 3 and my research plan of student led discussion. Questions 1. How do you know you have shared a quantity fairly? 2. What is quantity? 3. What did we use when we were talking about quantity 4. How are you going to share one cookie fairly with 2 people? 5. What did you do with your cookie and why? 6. What do you guys think about the way I shared my cookie? 7. Why do you say it has to be equal? 8. What do you think about the way they shared their cookie? 9. How many of you broke your cookie up this way? 10. What can say (conclude) about sharing fairly? 11. What is the word? (half) Has anybody heard that word before? 12. Why would you call this part half? 13. How many pieces did you split this cookie into? 14. How could we draw our cookie when we shared it equally with 2 people? 15. How did those parts look? 16. How many people did we share with? 17. How many parts did we break our cookie into? 18. How many people would you have in your group mow? 19. How can you fairly share your cookie with four people? 20. Talking to group (what would you draw on this? why

SMP 3 implementation/ Reflection Partner work figuring out how two students shared one cookie fairly Discussion and sharing of ideas from each partner Think about what you did with your partner, and why? Did not preface partner discussion with clear expectations of how to speak to each other. Created an argument for students to provide their thinking (Look at how Mr. Reyes and I shared our cookie) 1. What do you guys think about the way I shared my cookie? Using student example to clarify our example (can we look at how you shared yours and you can help Mr. Reyes and I share ours fairly?) Students come up: show and explain to the class how they shared their cookies with four people? Notice that students are not talking to class; they are talking to board or me. I want that to change Was unsure about the saying that when we talk about fractions we use fourths instead of quarters Question 42, students begin to disagree, I asked for a hand raised and for the proper way to respond when in discussionI agree/I disagree because

did you break it like this? What makes it a fair share?) 21. Can someone explain how they shared their cookie and why they did it that way? 22. What did you and your partner discuss? 23. Can you explain what you did when you shared it with four people? 24. How many pieces do you have altogether 25. How did you make sure that this was a fair share? 26. How did you make sure that each part was equal 27. Can anybody else help us understand what equal means? 28. Does anybody know another name for quarters? 29. Gilbert, what did you call these? 30. What could we call our four pieces? 31. We took a fourth of a 32. What did we start with 33. What could we label this first picture? 34. How many whole cookies did you have? 35. So a whole would be equal to? 36. Can you share what you called these 2 parts of a whole? 37. What could we label this? 38. How many pieces did you get when you shared the cookie? 39. What did they do with their halves? 40. How many pieces would you have here? 41. Juan called them quarters but we also called them? 42. How many pieces did you have when you shared it with four people? 43. How many people were sharing the pizza? How do you know that? 44. A whole is equal to? 45. Who can share how much of the pizza each friend

Should have introduced another WHOLE shape to them to break the misconception of a whole being a circle. Luckily my students did not pick up on it, but we should have used another shape Some groups first broke the cookie into fourths. I would have loved to bring that into the discussion, but I was intimidated about how I would guide that discussion. I think it would have been a really valuable discussion and learning moment. It would have pushed the students thinking. Elias shows how he broke his up differently and he explains Turn and talk for question 62

would get? 46. Why would you say equally? 47. How much does each friend get? 48. One what..? 49. What did you call each part? 50. How much does Omar get? 51. One what? 52. How much would Omar get? 53. How many of you had that? (That each friend gets one half) 54. Did anybody break it up differently than just halves 55. What do you mean by that? 56. How did you cut it first? 57. When each person has two pieces, how much do they have? 58. How many pieces did you break it into? 59. What was the fraction name for quarters? 60. What would this part represent? 61. How much would Maurice get? So what would we call this part? 62. When Elias broke up the pizza did Maurice and Omar get more than when Debora broke up the pizza? 63. Did the friends get more, less, or the same amount than when Debora split it? What do you mean by that? How do you know they still got the same amount? 64. What do you notice about this part? What you mean by that? 65. Did they get the same amount either way we split? 66. How do we know that we share fairly? 67. What does equal parts mean?