Colleen Kapsch March 26, 2014 ED12X

In the Classroom Reflection: Sticker Strips and Singles I. Background: In this clip, I am teaching a lesson called Sticker Strips and Singles from the Grade 2 Investigations curriculum. This is the third lesson in the unit that teaches place value using stickers that resemble base-ten blocks. In this lesson, students imagine that they are visiting Sticker Station, a store that sells stickers organized in strips of tens and singles. Thus far in the unit, students have represented two-digit numbers using the largest possible number of strips. A number like 37, for example, would be composed of three strips (tens) and seven singles (ones). Students have practiced reading numbers that are presented in the strip and single format, and they have also drawn strips and singles to correspond with a given two-digit number. I chose this clip for several reasons. First, I think the target knowledge is important because it asks students to grapple with a different way to represent place value. The learning goal for the lesson was: I can explain that different combinations of tens and ones equal the same number. Rather than just seeing a number as the greatest possible number of strips of ten, this lesson asks students to develop a more flexible understanding of concepts like tens and ones. Ultimately, I believe this flexibility may help students develop a deeper understanding of number. I also chose this clip because I felt the lesson was fairly successful in presenting a challenging concept. During the lesson, many students wanted to participate, suggesting a high

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Colleen Kapsch March 26, 2014 ED12X level of engagement with the question. I also thought the lesson successfully engaged some students who typically do not raise their hands to participate in math lessons. While I felt the lesson went well, my cooperating teacher believed that the concept was too advanced for some of the students in our class. She thought that some students should have had more time to investigate numbers using only the largest possible number of tens. When we discussed the lesson later with the special educator who works with us, she agreed that this lesson was introduced too early (only two lessons after the students began exploring sticker strips and singles). Im still not sure whether this lesson was wholly efficacious, as I write below.

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II. Subject Matter: In the lesson, students explore the idea that a two-digit number can be represented using different combinations of tens and ones. For example, the number 45 could be represented by four sticker strips (tens) and five singles (ones), or as three tens and 15 ones, two tens and 25 ones, one ten and 35 ones, etc. As mentioned above, the concept was presented in the context of stickers that are organized into strips of ten and singles (ones). This is the first relatively explicit introduction that students have to place value in the second grade Investigations curriculum. I say relatively explicit because the lessons do not transition the students from calling them strips and singles to using the more conventional terms, like tens, ones, and place value.

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Colleen Kapsch March 26, 2014 ED12X III. Student Thought and Action: I presented the students with the following problem in the clip: Carolina bought 32 stickers at Sticker Station. How many strips of 10 could she have bought? How many singles? I thought the students might find the problem more engaging if I told them that Carolina was a former student of mine who visited the Sticker Station. In so doing, I could pretend that Carolina had purchased a certain number of sticker strips and singles (but not three strips and two singles, which I knew would be the first combination students would consider). Unsurprisingly, one of the first questions a student asked after I read the problem was, Is she [Carolina] real? To maintain the conceit, I responded, Of course she is! I next asked students to consider how many strips of ten Carolina might have purchased, and how many singles, if she had 32 stickers. The first suggestion was three strips of ten and two singles, the greatest possible number of strips of ten in 32. Because we had been practicing this skill for the previous two days, I was not surprised that this was the first answer to come up. The challenge, I felt, would be encouraging the students to think about other combinations of tens and ones that could also equal 32. This was where the story of Carolina could help stretch student thinking. I told the students that Carolina hadn't purchased three strips of ten and two single stickers, but she still bought 32 stickers. I was curious to see how much direction students would need before someone suggested another combination. At this point, I was prepared to suggest two strips of ten, but I wondered if the students would come up with this idea on their own. To try to encourage their thinking, I read the learning goal for the lesson: I can explain that different combinations of tens and ones equal the same number.

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Colleen Kapsch March 26, 2014 ED12X There were some hands up at this point, so I called on Jaiden, one of the students who looked particularly eager to share his idea. He suggested that Carolina might have two strips of ten stickers. Admittedly, I was excited that the idea came up (relatively) organically. I recorded this idea and then tried to spread out the thinking by slowing down Jaidens response and thinking aloud about how many singles there would be if Carolina purchased two strips of ten stickers. Jaiden ended up answering the question (12 singles), and I recorded his idea on the poster in the form of a picture and an equation. The picture showed two strips of ten stickers each and 12 single stickers, and the equation that represented this picture was 20+12. I wanted to get more students involved, so I asked, Everyone think about it. Do not say anything. Would she still have 32? Several students nodded their heads, and two students called out, Yes! I was particularly interested in talking to JP, a student who usually does not participate in math discussions. He confirmed Jaidens earlier answer (2 strips of 10 and 12 singles) with an mhm or yes, but I felt this answer didnt give me much insight into his overall understanding. I decided to guide the discussion further, this time encouraging the students to think of a different number of strips and singles that could represent 32. I wanted to come back to JP, so I tried to give some wait time before asking, Did you think about it? How many strips could she buy, JP? He then responded that Carolina could have had one strip of ten, and I clarified by asking, One strip of 10. That would be 10 stickers, right? At this point, Deseree, another student who doesnt often participate in math discussions, raised her hand and said, 30. I responded quickly, Not thirty, cause she only had 32 stickers.

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Colleen Kapsch March 26, 2014 ED12X Jemeemah then responded that Carolina would have had 22 singles if she only had one strip of ten. After this response, I instructed the students to work on similar problems independently.

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IV. Teaching Response: One of the things I liked about this lesson was that several students who typically dont participate in math discussions contributed their ideas. Students like Deseree, JP, and Jemeemah often fade into the background during math lessons, particularly if they havent practiced extensively with a new representation like stickers. In this case, they all seemed willing to offer their ideas, which was encouraging. Overall, I felt I heard from a variety of students both directly and indirectly. I tried to offer students multiple ways to participate, from nodding their heads in agreement to providing combinations of tens and ones. However, I wish I had integrated more student participation into this lesson. While I was happy to hear from some students who dont always contribute, I also felt that there were a few students who didnt have a chance to participate or who were disengaged during the discussion. This didnt become as obvious until I watched the video of the lesson, but re-watching gave me the opportunity to observe student behavior and reactions. When I was teaching, I felt that the kids were really with me, that we were all moving toward this goal of finding different combinations of tens and ones that equal the same number. Obviously, this seems ridiculous now, particularly in light of some student behaviors in the video. Watching Danny floss his teeth with hair from the floor really drove home the point: there are always moments in teaching when its unclear whos actually with me.

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Colleen Kapsch March 26, 2014 ED12X In addition to involving more students in the discussion, I also wish that I would have pushed student thinking. There are several times throughout the clip when I was too quick to confirm correct answers or dismiss incorrect ones. For example, when Deseree suggested that Carolina might have had one strip of ten and thirty single stickers, I almost immediately said, Not thirty, cause she only had 32 stickers. What I wish I had done (and what Ive been working on for a few weeks) was try to understand why Deseree said thirty. Did she understand that one strip actually meant ten single stickers? Did she say 30 because she saw that number written in previous equations? The reality is that I dont know what she was thinking because I didnt give her the opportunity to expand on her answer. In this instance and elsewhere in the video, I think my quick responses shut down what could have been important mathematical discoveries.

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V. Planning and Structure Response Overall, I thought this lesson was a bit light on mathematical discourse while at the same time expecting students to grasp a pretty complex idea. While we spent quite a bit of time talking about sticker strips and singles as a way to model two-digit numbers, there was just this single foray into the idea that different combinations of tens and ones equal the same number. In fact, this idea was just one discussion point in a lesson that, as written in the teacher manual, includes two discussion points, a daily exploration of clocks, and independent work. As such, I didnt feel that students really had time to explore this concept before they needed to move on to

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Colleen Kapsch March 26, 2014 ED12X the next idea. It was dropped on them and just as quickly taken away, never to appear again in the unit! If I teach this again, I would try to come back to this idea (different combinations of tens and ones equal the same number) frequently. TERC emphasizes showing students a variety of representations but never returns to this one, and I would change that. As students continue to explore two-digit numbers, I would ask them to represent the number using different combinations of tens and ones. These small reminders, when used consistently, could help students use strips and singles to show subtraction. I think this could be very powerful when students begin to decompose a ten into ten singles to solve two- and three-digit subtraction problems.

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VI. Peer Discussion I found the peer discussion of this video to be very illuminating. Something I found particularly interesting was the idea that different representations of numbers push students to think about value. This comment helped me understand TERCs rationale for showing almost every number or problem on a number line, on a hundreds chart, and with stickers. Where I had occasionally found these many representations cumbersome, our conversation reminded me that they can encourage new thinking. Ideally, I think many representations can help students develop a deep understanding of number relationships. On the other hand, the critiques of the sticker representation also resonated with me. Brian noted that we rarely call out the explicit nature of representations like these, leaving kids to

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Colleen Kapsch March 26, 2014 ED12X wonder, How are these three long strips and 30 related? There was also the question of whether a cursory exposure to a new representation and concept could be beneficial. After teaching several more units in the TERC curriculum, I continue to think about many of the issues raised in our discussion. They have helped shape my current teaching practice and my beliefs about math instruction. !

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