Field Experience Assignments

General notes:

• Assignments 1-6 and 10 can be completed in any order. It probably makes the most sense to do assignment 6 before assignment 5 (oops).
• Assignment 5 is not your math and literature lesson--your assignment is just to assist your cooperating teacher in teaching a lesson in some way that gives you some experience in teaching part of a lesson. You should be doing assignment 5 before assignment 9.
• Assignments 7-9 must be completed in order, and you should allow at least a week between assignments 7, 8 and 9.
• The analysis portion of your discussion board posts should include a fair amount of detail. (I won't be counting words, but I do expect these to be about 500 words for those of you who would like a length guideline..)

1. Observe a math lesson. Look for teacher modeling and/or teacher questioning. Post to the D2L discussion board a report that includes:

• The grade level
• The math content knowledge being taught in the lesson
• A brief overview of the lesson
• A rather longer analysis of how the teacher clearly
  • modeled mathematical tasks and mathematical thinking for the students,
    and/or
  • how the teacher used questions to guide children's thinking.

2. Observe children in a math lesson or doing math work. Look for understanding. Post to the D2L discussion board a report that includes

• The grade level
• The math content knowledge being learned or practiced in the lesson
• A brief overview of the lesson or mathematical task
• A rather longer analysis of children's understanding.
  • Of the children who understood the lesson best, what did they say or do that showed you that they understood the math content.
  • Of the children who understood the lesson least, what did they say or do that showed you that they did not understand the math content.
  • Of the children who understood the least, offer a hypothesis of what background knowledge they are missing that causes the math content to be difficult for them.

3. Observe children in a math lesson or solving a math problem. Look for problem solving strategies. Post to the D2L discussion board a report that includes

• The grade level
• The math content knowledge involved in the problem
• A brief overview of the lesson or mathematical problem
• A description of 2 different strategies that you observed children using to solve the math problem.

Note: you may need to ask the teacher to suggest what a good lesson might be to observe for this post. If you run into difficulties, please contact me for suggestions.

4. Help out at math time. Describe what you did. Post to the D2L discussion board a report that includes

• The grade level
• The math content knowledge being learned or practiced in the lesson
• A brief overview of the lesson or mathematical task
• A somewhat longer analysis of what you did to help with the math task. Describe situation(s) where you
  • modeled mathematical tasks and mathematical thinking for the students,
    and/or
  • used questions to guide children's thinking.

5. Co-teach a lesson with your teacher (ask him/her what part of the lesson you can teach). Write and submit to the D2L Dropbox a report that includes:

• The grade level
• The math content knowledge being learned or practiced in the lesson
• A moderately detailed description of the lesson that includes:
  • what the teacher did
  • what you did
• A short analysis of your part of the lesson. Describe situation(s) where you
  • modeled mathematical tasks and mathematical thinking for the students,
    and/or
  • used questions to guide children's thinking.

6. Observe a lesson and submit to the D2L Dropbox a lesson plan that you wrote describing the lesson that you observed. The lesson plan must include: rubric. Lesson plan template.

• The grade level
• The math content knowledge being learned or practiced in the lesson
• A moderately detailed description of the lesson that includes:
  • what the teacher did
  • what the children did
  • how the teacher informally assessed whether students understood the lesson

7. Write a lesson plan for teaching a math lesson using a children's book. Put in the D2L dropbox. Lesson template

• Your lesson should include a literature book with a math connection (I have several you can borrow).
• It would be ideal if this lesson were taught to a small group of children at a time, so that you could teach it 2 or 3 times total (this means it's probably going to be short--20 minutes total perhaps).
• Your lesson should include several questions you are going to ask the children as you read the book aloud.
• Your lesson should include a short activity that children will do after the story that continues the math connection from the book.
• Your lesson plan should include enough detail that I can easily visualize what you will do and how you will do it without having to make extra assumptions
• Your lesson and lesson plan should have a clear math content goal that you can describe, and you should be able to describe how the lesson addresses that goal.

8. Revise your lesson plan, and resubmit it to me and share it with your cooperating teacher. Rubric

9. Teach your lesson and report on it. Put in the D2L dropbox

• Your report should include some details of what the children did during the lesson.
• Your report should include informal assessment results that tell how many children understood the math in the lesson fully, and what they were able to do that showed you that they understood. Your report should also tell which children had trouble with the lesson (use pseudonyms) and what sort of trouble they had.
• Your report should include what you changed between the first time you taught the lesson and the last time you taught the lesson--how did you change what you did so that the lesson would go more smoothly? If you were only able to teach the lesson once, you should try to identify something that you think would make the lesson go more smoothly if you were to teach it again.

10. Read and comment on at least two discussion board posts by other members of the class.