Information letter for your cooperating teacher
| Assignment | Points | Due |
| CGI Word problem interview plan | 20 | Oct 11* |
| CGI Word problem interview report | 20 | Oct 18* |
| Math talks plan | 30 | Oct 25 |
| Math talks report | 40 | Nov 22* |
| Math read aloud pre-plan | 10 | Nov 8 |
| Math read aloud plan | 30 | Nov 22 |
| Math read aloud report | 20 | Dec 13* |
*If you can't meet these deadlines for any reason, you need to contact me with a schedule for when you will have these assignments completed.
We will discuss this more in class on Tuesday Sept 29, and I will create/provide a sample interview at that time.
You will be designing an interview consisting of 5 word problems where the word problem type varies in difficulty (CGI type difficulty). The interview should include at least 1 word problem that you think all children will be able to answer, and at least 1 word problem that you think will be difficult for many students at this grade level.
Your interview plan should include:
The interview itself should be conducted with at 4 students. Ideally, you should be interviewing them one at a time, so you can pay attention to individual children's thinking, but you may interview them in small groups if individual interviews are not possible. You should consult and schedule with your cooperating teacher when it would be least difficult for you to talk to children individually, and you should share your interview plan with your teacher before using it.
When conducting the interview, provide manipulatives and paper and pencil so that children can use the tools that they prefer.
If a problem seems too hard (or too easy) for a particular child, you can ask a question again and change the numbers to be easier (or harder)
If a problem is still too hard, you can give hints, show them how to act it out with manipulatives or skip it.
Each interview should take about 5 minutes. If the interview is taking much more than 5 minutes, you can skip the rest of the questions.
After each interview, before starting the next one, take notes on:
Your report should include how each child solved each problem:
For each child, share the details of what questions were easiest and
hardest for the children you interviewed, and what sorts of thinking
strategies children shared with you for how they solved the
problems. You should use pseudonyms for all of the children to
preserve anonymity. What did you notice was similar in what problems
children were able to solve, and how they solved them?
You will be conducting a set of 3 math talks with the same students on 3 separate days. The math talks can be done with the whole class, small groups as part of centers or a single small group (as preferred by your cooperating teacher).
Each math talk should consist of an age-appropriate math problem and a similar follow up question.
In a math talk, you are typically asking mental-math questions that might or might not be word problems. After asking the question, there is quiet think-time, which children try to think of as many ways as they can to solce the problem. After the think-time, children share their answers and how they shared the problem; often the teacher records the different ways of solving the problem. Often the teacher helps the class understand the ways that different students solved the problem.
Each math talk should last no more than 10 minutes (if you spend all 10 minutes on the first question, they you skip asking a second question).
In preparing your math talks, you should observe the students and talk to your cooperating teacher about what number problems and word problems are appropriate at this age and grade level.
The problems you choose for the different days should build on each other, so that each day is related to the previous.
In writing the planning reflection, you will be identifying the math content area and learning objectives that your math talks fall into. You should look at the Common Core Math Standards to see which standards your problems are most closely related to. You will also be explaining how your questions are similar to and build on lessons that children have done previously in the class, and also how your questions build on each other from day to day.
After you teach each math talk, you should take notes on what strategies children used, and what seems to be easy or confusing. Compare your notes to your planned questions for the next day, and make changes that you think will help children learn more effectively.
Your report should include:
You will be planning and teaching a lesson that is introduced by reading a children's book to the class, and then following up with a related math exploration. You can teach the lesson to the whole class, to small groups as part of centers or to a single small group (preference of your coordinating teacher).
This is a multidisciplinary lesson, and you should choose a book that will support appropriate mathematical thinking and language and literacy development.
Before you start writing a lesson plan, you need to choose an appropriate children's book, and think of a math exploration that could go with it. Tell me about your ideas and get feedback from me before you start putting together a detailed lesson plan. Share your ideas with your cooperating teacher too.
This is a lesson plan for a lesson you will be teaching. It does not need to be a full length lesson, but you should have enough planned for at least 15-30 minutes of reading and exploration.
In your lesson plan, you will be writing a script of what you plan to say and do in the lesson. If it is a book I also own, you do not have to include the text of the book, but can instead refer to page numbers where you plan to stop and ask questions.
In your exploration, you should doing some math activity that relates to the book. It can either relate directly to the book or thematically to the book. The math should be appropriate for the grade/age level of the class. The exploration should include some concrete representations (pictures or manipulatives) to support conceptual understanding.
Think about the language you will be using in both the book and in the exploration. Identify some places where you can be deliberate in your use of language, especially mathematical language, and help children use language effectively to share their ideas.
What happened: Report on what children did in the lesson. In the exploration segment, what did they do/figure out/solve? What strategies did they use?
Representations: How did they use the concrete representations? Did they do what you expected them to do? Were the manipulatives helpful in building understanding?
Language: How did you and the children use mathematical language? Did you model correct ways to say things? What did the children say and do?
Improvement: What could be changed about your lesson to make it even more effective?