Observation - maths in Room 4 15/2/17

It was interesting today watching a maths lesson with children the same age as my class, after watching Lilianne teaching maths with the older children.  

For Shabnam’s warmup she got the children skip-counting in 2s by getting them to clap one quiet clap then one loud clap.  

She also got them to show her numbers with their hands and was then able to check their understanding quickly.  She got them to make doubles with their hands.  

She then set up the group norms - “How do you work as a team?”  While the children talked about that Shabnam settled the other group, who were working on equations in their books.  

The problem Shabnam was working on with her group was “At church lots of people came.  There were 17 boys and 10 girls.  How many people came to church.”  She connected it to the children’s prior knowledge, asking “Who goes to church?  What do you do at church?”

She then asked “What is the question asking you to do?” One child said “put together” and Shab asked “What are we putting together?” She asked some children to repeat others’ answers and got them to agree/disagree/say they’re not sure with their thumbs.  

I found it really helpful seeing how Shab set the problem up and connected it to the students’ own lives, and her use of the think/pair/share strategy.  

She brought the children back to the mat when some of them were not coping with the problem and asked them “What were you counting?” - linking back to the context of the problem.  She reinforced listening to others “What did Irma just say?” She drew one pair’s explanation on the board - they had drawn each person - then explained there is an easier way to do this - to count on from the bigger number.  They held their heads to practise putting the bigger number in their heads then practised a few examples with this new technique.  

4. demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal professional practice

i. identify professional learning goals in consultation with colleagues ii. participate responsively in professional learning opportunities within the learning community iii. initiate learning opportunities to advance personal professional knowledge and skills