Sample of Course Work

Teacher Name:  Vickie Driskell

Date:  September 27, 2007

Grade level(s):  First Grade

Content Areas:  Mathematics

Description/Abstract:  Students will use manipulatives to do subtraction

Timeline: 30 minutes

Goals/Content and Cognitive:

Students will be able to use manipulatives to engage in learning subtraction.

Students will be able to find the sum of subtraction problems through spatial and kinesthetic learning.

Links to Curriculum Standards:

Strand 1:  Number and Operations Standard:  Students will understand numerical concepts and mathematical operations.

Benchmark 2:  Understands the meaning of operations and how they relate to one another.

1.     Use a variety of models to demonstrate an understanding of addition and subtraction

of whole numbers.

Guiding Questions:

What do we have to do if you have 6 fish and you give 3 of your fish to a friend?

How many fish will you have left when you give your friend 3 fish?

Why do we need to know how to do subtraction?

Assessment:

Students will be assessed through observation.  Student understanding of subtraction will be assessed from the worksheet.

Learning Connections:

Students need to have prior knowledge of whole numbers.  Students need to understand the mathematical concept of subtraction. 

Conceptual difficulties could occur if students cannot read the color key:

            1 = yellow            2 = green            3 = blue.

The teacher could connect a writing assignment about fish.  The students could write about what color of fish they would like to be and where they would like to go or live.

The teacher will discuss where fish live and ask the students if they know that fish travel in schools.

Learning Activities or Tasks:

1.     The teacher will introduce the subtraction lesson by using the students in the room.

2.     The teacher will allow each student to participate in the activity.  Using six students the teacher will use the students to model the answer as she has two students move away from the group of six.  She will have the students’ answer how many students are left when two are taken away.  The teacher will model several examples of subtraction by using the students.

3.     The teacher will give each student a zip lock bag of goldfish crackers that contain 6 goldfish and a worksheet.

4.     The teacher will solve the first math problem as a class group.  Using goldfish the teacher will have the students put 5 goldfish out and take 3 goldfish away to solve the problem.  When the problem is solved the students will use the color key to color the fish.

5.     The teacher will tell the students that two of the problems on the worksheet have a sneaky answer that is not included in the color key.  The teacher will have the students leave these fish white.

6.     The students will use the goldfish and work independently to solve problems on the worksheet.

7.     The students will use a yellow, green, and blue crayon to color the fish as the problems are solved.

8.     The students will be put in groups of 2 to compare answers by looking at the color of fish.

9.     The teacher will conference with each group of students to ensure correctness.

10.  The teacher will discuss the problems with the sneaky 4 answers and talk about why the students think the color key did not have a color for these two math problems.

Teaching Strategies:

            The teacher will be involved in the lesson, demonstrating subtraction through the use of students in the classroom.  The teacher will move around the room as students work on the worksheet, helping students that need assistance and asking questions on how students solved a problem.  The teacher will encourage students to use goldfish manipulative to solve problems.  The teacher will group students in pairs to check answers.

Management:

The students will work at their group tables independently to complete the worksheet.  The teacher will use technology to create a larger version of the fish on card stock paper.  The card stock fish will be numbered one through six.  These cards can be used by students that need additional help with subtraction.  By putting the number of cards in the problem in numerical order and taking away the number in the problem from the end of the row, the last fish will have the answer to the problem.  The student can also use their finger to count the fish while pointing to the number printed on the fish.  Example:  5-3=2, the student can lay out fish 1 through 5 and take away the last three fish.  The student can see two fish and the number 2 printed on the fish.

Materials and Resources:

            Goldfish crackers in zip lock bags

            Crayons:  yellow, green, blue

            Worksheet

            Fish made from card stock

            An educational aide would be an asset in helping students that need assistance.

Lesson Evaluation and Teacher Reflection:

This lesson was worth doing because it helped children enhance subtraction skills.  The coloring of the fish provided an effective way for students to compare correct and incorrect answers.  The manipulatives provided students with a hands-on activity that enables them to visually see the results of subtracting numbers.  Circulating around the room and observing the students and the worksheets provides evidence of the students understanding of the lesson.  When I have my own classroom students I would pair weaker math students with stronger path students to work in pairs to complete the worksheet. 

The students seemed to enjoy using the goldfish crackers to do math.  Of course in an activity like this it is important to remind the kids not to eat their goldfish (manipulative).  There were students that finished the activity before others.  I let them turn their papers over and draw fish or try to think of their own math problem they could solve.  Some of the students put a lot of effort into creating new math problems and trying to solve them.  The students had fun finding the two “sneaky” fish that had an answer of four.  The class talked about why they did not have a color on the color key.   The majority of the students found the two fish and left the fish white.  This provided a good way to tell if students were not only solving the problems correctly, but a way to see if students understand how to follow directions.  I think the students found the lesson meaningful and worth completing because they stayed on task and all students completed the lesson in about 25 minutes.