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REVISED LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

Your Name: Gina Vetere
Date: 3-18-16
Topic: Subtraction

Total Lesson Duration: 40 minutes

Grade: Kindergarten

Goal(s) (What is the most important thing related to the math topic as
envisioned in your lesson plan that your students will learn in this
lesson?)
Students will explore solving subtraction problems using a variety of
different methods and resources.
Materials & Resources Needed

Smartboard
Ten frames and chips
Unit cubes
Paper and Pencil
Worksheets with subtraction problems for each ceneter

Sequencing Group Work (List how your students will be working

throughout the different parts of your lesson, for instance: Whole
Group Pairs Whole Group. Explain how this sequence supports
any of the 5 practices to orchestrate math discussions.)
Whole group Centers (option to work with someone in their group,
whole group, or individually)
This sequence decision helps orchestrate math discussions because
the students will have the opportunity to participate or observe
different methods of subtraction based on their comfort level as a
whole group and then will have the opportunity to explore these
methods by themselves or with a small group of children.
Academic, Social and Linguistic Support (Provide 3 specific ways
in which you will use academic, social, and linguistic resources to
support the learning of your students. Locate these ways across the
three parts of your lesson (Launch, Explore, Discuss). These supports
should reflect ideas from our course readings)

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1. To support academic learning throughout my lesson, I will make

sure to do frequent checks for understanding to make sure all
the children are on the same page. I will do this by having the
children give me a thumbs up if they understand or agree with
the method and solutions were are coming up with on the board.
2. To support social learning throughout my lesson, I will make sure
students work with children who arent distracting to their
learning and support each others skills in math. I will do this by
making up groups ahead of time so I know exactly who will work
best together and be ready to change any of them if needed.
3. To support linguistic learning throughout my lesson, I will make
sure I have multiple visuals and representations of the problems
we go through. I will do this by talking, writing, and modeling
each problem that way many different representations are
supported to help all students learn best.

LAUNCH (5 minutes)
Assume I am your teacher substitute for this lesson. You want to
ensure that I understand what you want me to do in all three parts of
your lesson. So, for the Launch, describe what you will do and say in
order to (a) help students understand the purpose of this lesson and
(b) get them interested in the lesson. What are you going to show
them? Ask them? Tell them? How are you going to raise their curiosity?
What expectations are you going to communicate to them? How are
you going to activate their in-school and out-of-school experiences
related to this topic? Feel free to organize all these things that you will
do and say in some order (e.g., list, diagram, visual), so I as your
substitute can follow your plan easily.
Teacher: Mrs. Wilson told me that all of you have been learning about
subtraction this past week and everyone has been doing so well with it,
so today I want to see how smart all of you are and how much you can
tell me about subtraction. Does that sound good?
Students: Yes!
Teacher: To get out minds thinking about math and subtraction, can
anyone tell me anything they already know about subtraction?
Students: Subtraction mean take away.
When we subtract, numbers get smaller.
4-2 equals 2.
Subtraction is the opposite of addition.
Teacher: Well it seems like all of you know a lot about subtraction
already! Today we are going to continue to work on your subtraction
skills and see how we can solve subtraction problems in different ways.

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Can anyone tell me why subtraction is important for us to learn?
Students: It makes us smart.
Then we can do more math.
Teacher: Yes by learning about subtraction it will help everyone learn
more math and be able to do more math problems! Also today we are
going to look at different ways to solve subtraction problems and this
will help everyone because each of you can decide which way makes
the most sense to you and helps you understand subtraction the best.
Does this sound good to everyone?
Students: Yes!
Teacher: Okay, lets begin our lesson then!
EXPLORE (25 minutes)
Students will be working in small groups, after having a whole class
discussion on the following high-level task subtraction.
Insert your charts here displaying possible student solutions and
specific questions you will ask to assess and advance students
thinking). Specify how you will notice and record (monitor) the
students ideas that are at play.

1. Can you show me the 9, 5, and 4 in the ten frame?

2. Can you show this problem another way on the ten frame?
3. Now try the problem 8-6.

1. Can you show me the 9, 5, and 4 in this problem?

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2. Ask the question in another way: There are some balloons. 5 are
taken away from the set. How many balloons were there to start?

1. How did you use the cubes to write your subtraction sentence?
2. I could give students cubes that are all the same color instead of
having each part of the subtraction problem a different color.
What would you do to keep students engaged? What would you do if a
student doesnt understand the task at all (e.g., cannot seem to get
started)? What would you do if a student finishes early?
To keep students engaged I will make sure they dont spend too much
time at each center. I will also make sure to have activities for them to
do if they finish early that way they are not distracting to others who
are still working and have another task they can work on. I am
planning to divide the children up into groups where there is at least
one student that can help others out who are struggling. I will also
make sure my mentor teacher and I are constantly rotating around the
room to see if anyone does not understand or cannot get started on
the task.

DISCUSS (10 minutes)

Sequence the solution strategies that you anticipated in the previous
Explore part of this lesson.
1. Ten frame

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2. Drawing pictures
3. Unit cubes
In what order would you want these solutions to be shared/presented?
In what ways would this order contribute to develop students
understanding of the learning goal? What would you be doing during
this sharing time? What would your students be doing?
I want the ten frames to be presented to the students first because it is
what the students are most comfortable with. Since the first day of
kindergarten, they have been working with the ten frames, so I think it
would be most beneficial to start off with a method they are most
familiar with. Next I would want the drawing a picture method to be
presented because I think this model is a direct representation of what
subtraction is. The students will be able to see each object, when it
gets taken away, and how many are left. Children could rely on their
counting if they were still a little unsure of this method. The last
method I would want to present to the students is the unit cubes. The
students dont have a lot of experience with these so this method may
be a little complex or confusing for them right away. However it is a
direct representation as well and they will have physical objects in their
hand, so after some instruction the students should be able to move
forward with this method. All of these methods contribute to the
learning goal because they are all different methods the children can
use to solve subtraction problems. It allows them to become familiar
with multiple methods and then essentially chose one they are most
comfortable with.
During this sharing time, I am going to present the kids with three
different subtraction problems on the Smartboard. We will do one at a
time and each problem we will explore using a different method. I will
have the children walk me through each method and my job will just
be to guide the students along as they tell me what to do.
How are you going to ensure that everyone pays attention during this
sharing time?
I will ensure that each student is paying attention but doing checks for
understanding throughout the lesson. If a student doesnt give me a
thumbs up, I will ask if the agree or disagree with the solution provided
by another classmate. I also have the possibility to use the childrens
popsicles sticks to randomly call on students if it seems like many
children are not paying attention.
Write specific questions you would ask during this time so students
can: (a) expand on, debate, and question the solutions and ideas being
shared, (c) make connections across strategies presented, (d) begin to

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form generalizations. Finally, state specific ways in which you will invite
students to help you reflect about what they learned.
Looking at the problem 9-5 using the 10 frame:
Can anyone describe to me what 9-5 means?
What would be the first step to solving this problem using the ten
frame?
What do the 9 counters mean?
What would be the next step to solving this problem?
Why do the 5 counters mean?
Why are some counters red and some yellow?
How can you use the ten frame in order to come up with a
solution to this problem?
How did you know the answer was 4?
I would then move on to the drawing and unit cube method asking
similar questions that make the students really think about what
subtraction is, rather then just being able to tell me that 9-5=4.
After

looking at all three strategies, I would ask students:

What method did you like the best?
What method did you find easiest/hardest?
Did you notice anything similar/different about all the methods?

By asking questions to guide the students in solving each subtraction

problem, it allows me reflect if they are learning or not because now I
am able to observe or understand any misconceptions or confusion the
students may be having during the process rather than just giving
them problem after problem and not understanding why they may not
be getting it correct.