_______________________Math Philosophy______________________
My philosophy of math is hands on and diversity! Each student learns in different ways. I will be teaching and assessing the students knowledge and ability to grasp concepts in many different ways. I will have some students who learn from hands on activities and others who learn through hearing or watching. With mathematics students tend to miss the big purpose by not getting their hands on concepts. They have learned the processes or procedures of mathematical concepts but lack an understanding of where they come from.
I will also learn my students as individuals. Without knowing my students as individuals I will not be able to teach then accurately. This will be the first way that I will be able to teach my students effectively in mathematics. From this point and using outside resources to keep myself trained in the best way to teach, we will be well on our way to learning!
_______________________Math Initial Questions__________________
The pictures above are the KWL charts that we filled out together and his work with multilink cubes. Videos of the student working with the multilink cubes are located on the left panel under "Pages" labeled "Videos" just click "Videos" and then click "November" All of the videos will be listed there, look for the headings.
Before I conduced the interviews I observed the student doing addition and subtraction. The students
only true interaction with addition and subtraction was with timed drills. The student did their best to complete them but was overwhelmed by the task and would skip many or just write down answers. He wasn't concerned with the algorithms or understanding the concept but primarily to just "get them over with."
During the interviews with the student used for the assessment profile we used a KWL chart. From these charts I learned everything the student knew about addition and subtraction. From this chart and things that the student said it was clear that he understood that numbers needed to be added and subtracted while regrouping in the ones, tens, hundreds, or thousands place. However, once we got to the “Want to Learn” section it became very apparent that the student had no real world connection of addition and subtraction. Some of the questions that were asked are “Can you subtract animals, letters, or shapes? Can you add animals, letters, or shapes?” He also told me during this time that the normal algorithm or adding and subtracting confused him sometimes. Instead of focusing on that concept right away for this short assessment, after consulting with my professor, I decided to focus on real world connections of addition and subtraction.
Some of the questions and answers that we worked through during these interviews are:
Purpose: To get a view of the students understanding of single, double, and 3 digit numbers.
Question: “What is everything you know about the number 8?”
Student response: “It’s between the number 7 and 9. You can subtract it.”
Question: “ What is everything you know about the number 10?”
Student response: “ It’s between the number 9 and 11. You can add it.”
Question: “ What is everything you know about the number 64?”
Student response: “It’s a cool number. I can add 64.”
Purpose: To see how the student feels and what the student thinks about addition and subtraction.
Question: “ How do you feel about addition?”
Student response: “ It stresses me out. I just don’t like it.”
Question: “ How do you feel about subtraction?”
Student response: “ It’s cool. It feels good when I do it.”
Lastly, we worked with multilink cubes and I got him to show me how many different ways he could make 25 with them. The pictures and videos above show him working with those cubes and his KWL charts.
_____________________Intervention and Summary_________________
_____________________Intervention and Summary_________________
Once the prior knowledge of the concept of addition and subtraction was assessed I decided to bring in shapes, animals, and words that we can add and subtract with. The first few examples we did together with shapes he first attempted to only add and subtract like shapes. From this point we talked through subtracting and adding as a whole then only like shapes. The student grasped the concepts and was elated to see that you can add and subtract shapes. From here we moved on to adding and subtracting animals. I first asked the student to imagine that it was a zoo and if you wanted to add or subtract animals to it, what would be your total? The student grasped the concept of adding and subtracting another real world item. Lastly, we moved to adding and subtracting letters. We practiced mainly with compound words to see how adding and subtracting letters make longer or shorter words. Some of the words we used were “Farmhouse, Farm, and Toothpaste”. This was one of the most exciting for the student. This student loves math and was elated to see that you can carry it into reading and everyday life.
Overall the student grasped the concept of real world connections very thoroughly. We walked around the library and school and talked through different things that we can add and subtract that we see. Some of the things he said were “wall tiles, books, and people.” Throughout the day he mentioned to me other things that he can see that can be added and subtracted.
In conclusion it was decided that the student had a solid foundation of real world addition and subtraction. He needs further one-on-one intervention to continually grasp the concept. He tends to get lost in the lessons that are done whole group. He has the concept 3/4 of the way mastered, however, still needs more one-on-one intervention. This student, with further practice, will have huge success with addition and subtraction!
