Counting Up/Vertical Addition Lesson Reflection
After teaching reading for several weeks it was quite a shift moving to math. The lesson introduced vertical addition to the students who, up until that point, were only familiar with horizontal addition problems. The lesson also involved teaching the method of counting up when adding single digits. This concept was brand new for the students and teaching math was basically brand new for me so I felt more nervous about the outcome of this lesson than I did last time. However, I think I did a good job presenting my lesson to the students leading to a positive outcome.
I recognize that my biggest problem again proves to be refocusing the students after letting them go off independently. This first grade classroom functions very collaboratively when it comes to working on math problems. Silence is not enforced and helping out their neighbors is encouraged by Ms. Angeles. While this is a very productive environment for the students, it is hard for a teacher to regain control. Since classroom management has been an issue for me since the beginning, regaining control both during my observed reading lesson and my observed math lesson was a challenge. Eventually the students did quiet down and joined me on the rug, but the time it took to accomplish this was too long. When students began to share, the students on the rug were not giving their full attention. I think if I had done a better job refocusing them this would not have been a problem. I need to figure out better ways to catch the student’s attention without the need to raise my voice.
The worksheets I made up for the students ended up being too long to complete in 20-25 minutes. However, the goal wasn’t to finish them, the goal was to give the students enough work so that they didn’t finish within 10 minutes and then have nothing left to do. I realize now that I should have stressed this fact before letting the students get to work because many of them were stressing out and rushing to finish the worksheets when I tried to stop them and bring them back to the rug for the wrap-up. This may have been part of the problem when trying to refocus the students. After seeing the students complete the worksheet, I realize the addition problems I tried to help set up for them on the back of the worksheet ended up confusing many of them. If I had left the numbers blank or had created boxes for the students to fill in I think the idea would have been clearer. The time it takes for students to complete a worksheet and the strategy a teacher uses to differentiate the work seems to be a trial and error process. Now I know for the future if I do a similar math lesson, I will give less problems and let the students create the problems on their own without adding in confusing components.
While these few issues did take away from the success of my lesson, I do think the material was presented positively. The students were able to verbalize the steps they needed to follow in order to find the answers to the problems and most of them were able to set up a vertical addition problem independently. I think I did a good job of first modeling the process of counting up, then having the students help me as a class, and finally, having a few student volunteers walk me through the process individually. This allowed for a variety of examples for the students and several different opportunities to try the problems with support and ask questions. Another aspect that I think worked well for the lesson was the differentiation of the worksheets. While improvements definitely could have been made, I think each worksheet appropriately targeted the level of the students.
I like that I had a student from each level share at the end of the lesson. During my reading lesson I had only asked one student to share and later wished I had given more of an opportunity for other students. This time I let three students share and I was able to determine if the lesson targeted each learning level. These students’ responses gave me another level of assessment for the lesson.
Since we have moved forward in math and are now working on double-digit vertical addition problems I can better evaluate the affects of my lesson. I can see that the students clearly understood the concept because of how quickly they caught on to double-digit addition. The following lessons went very smoothly because the students had the proper background knowledge in order to build upon the topic. I realize it is usually not until later that a teacher can fully assess the quality of their lessons.
I feel good about my math lesson and now that I know I can conduct a positive lesson I feel a lot more confident in the subject area. I hope only to improve as I move forward from this lesson and learn from my mistakes. My weaknesses and strengths have become a lot more clear to me the more that I have taught and now I really can pick out the areas I need to work on. This is meant to be a learning experience and I believe that is exactly the experience this placement has given me.
I recognize that my biggest problem again proves to be refocusing the students after letting them go off independently. This first grade classroom functions very collaboratively when it comes to working on math problems. Silence is not enforced and helping out their neighbors is encouraged by Ms. Angeles. While this is a very productive environment for the students, it is hard for a teacher to regain control. Since classroom management has been an issue for me since the beginning, regaining control both during my observed reading lesson and my observed math lesson was a challenge. Eventually the students did quiet down and joined me on the rug, but the time it took to accomplish this was too long. When students began to share, the students on the rug were not giving their full attention. I think if I had done a better job refocusing them this would not have been a problem. I need to figure out better ways to catch the student’s attention without the need to raise my voice.
The worksheets I made up for the students ended up being too long to complete in 20-25 minutes. However, the goal wasn’t to finish them, the goal was to give the students enough work so that they didn’t finish within 10 minutes and then have nothing left to do. I realize now that I should have stressed this fact before letting the students get to work because many of them were stressing out and rushing to finish the worksheets when I tried to stop them and bring them back to the rug for the wrap-up. This may have been part of the problem when trying to refocus the students. After seeing the students complete the worksheet, I realize the addition problems I tried to help set up for them on the back of the worksheet ended up confusing many of them. If I had left the numbers blank or had created boxes for the students to fill in I think the idea would have been clearer. The time it takes for students to complete a worksheet and the strategy a teacher uses to differentiate the work seems to be a trial and error process. Now I know for the future if I do a similar math lesson, I will give less problems and let the students create the problems on their own without adding in confusing components.
While these few issues did take away from the success of my lesson, I do think the material was presented positively. The students were able to verbalize the steps they needed to follow in order to find the answers to the problems and most of them were able to set up a vertical addition problem independently. I think I did a good job of first modeling the process of counting up, then having the students help me as a class, and finally, having a few student volunteers walk me through the process individually. This allowed for a variety of examples for the students and several different opportunities to try the problems with support and ask questions. Another aspect that I think worked well for the lesson was the differentiation of the worksheets. While improvements definitely could have been made, I think each worksheet appropriately targeted the level of the students.
I like that I had a student from each level share at the end of the lesson. During my reading lesson I had only asked one student to share and later wished I had given more of an opportunity for other students. This time I let three students share and I was able to determine if the lesson targeted each learning level. These students’ responses gave me another level of assessment for the lesson.
Since we have moved forward in math and are now working on double-digit vertical addition problems I can better evaluate the affects of my lesson. I can see that the students clearly understood the concept because of how quickly they caught on to double-digit addition. The following lessons went very smoothly because the students had the proper background knowledge in order to build upon the topic. I realize it is usually not until later that a teacher can fully assess the quality of their lessons.
I feel good about my math lesson and now that I know I can conduct a positive lesson I feel a lot more confident in the subject area. I hope only to improve as I move forward from this lesson and learn from my mistakes. My weaknesses and strengths have become a lot more clear to me the more that I have taught and now I really can pick out the areas I need to work on. This is meant to be a learning experience and I believe that is exactly the experience this placement has given me.