Kelsey Johnson

7 Grade Mathematics Teacher, Mr. W

th

Observation Notes

Task Selection
Mr. W choses to start with no warm-up or exercise for students to complete Starts with Good News Told students the goal for the day, which was to identify and calculate interior angles Taught through a PowerPoint presentation about interior angles Explicitly told students to take notes during PowerPoint presentation o presentation had many examples, that was it Completed a proof on the angle measures in a triangle on the document camera Had students come to the board to demonstrate answers and had them explain their reasoning Gave students homework assignment

Discourse
Spoke to the students through direct instruction Ask infrequent questions o always short answer (besides when asking how did you get your answer? Gave lecture entire hour about interior angles Allowed for little discussion about the new topic

Assessment Systems
Asked students to draw three triangles, followed by the questions about acute, obtuse, and right triangles Assessment technique seems to be asking short answer questions throughout the lesson, like Do you remember this? What kind of triangle is this? Has two students come to the board to show their answers and explain their reasoning o this was a great assessment of students knowledge of the new topic Walked around the classroom after homework problems had been assigned to help any who needed assistance o which shows an assessment after the lesson had been taught to check for understanding

Kelsey Johnson

Answers to Math Metaphors

Ideally math is like working a puzzle. Problems, like a puzzle, can be solved in different ways. Two different people can solve the same problem in different ways much like two different people would put together a puzzle in different ways. Ideally a math learner is like an explorer. They are willing to solve challenging problems and use mathematical ideas in different ways to solve the problem. They understand there is more than one way to solve a problem and are willing to explore different ways of solving the same problem. Ideally a math teacher is like a coach. They use frequent assessments to gauge student understanding and are constantly encouraging students to deepen their understanding of math ideas.

Reflection
After watching Mr. Ws lesson and reading his answers to the metaphor I see how in his lesson he included opportunities for students to show their different methods to solving the same problem. This was done when he had two students come to the board and show their work and explain how they arrived to their solutions. Though both students had the same answer, they completed the problem-solving process in separate ways. This showed that students can have various methods to solve problems and explaining their processes can influence their classmates to approach alike problems in similar ways. Also, after reading Mr. Ws comments about what he compares a math teacher to be, I see a disconnect with his lesson and his views. He mentions that the teacher uses frequent assessments to gauge student understanding, but I did not see many assessments in his lesson until the very end. Overall, I noticed that his choses on his metaphors closely align with his teaching strategies and techniques. I believe that allowing the opportunities for students to show their various solution methods is essential for the mathematical environment in the classroom. This allows for students to express their beliefs in mathematics, and shows the diversity of strategies. This was a technique that I admire in Mr. Ws class, and I will be implementing this into my student teaching semester and beyond. I also enjoyed his energy throughout the lesson. He stayed upbeat and excited to teach, which helped keep students motivated and engaged in the lesson, even though it was a lecture. Lastly, I too believe assessing students throughout the day is critical. I will need to fully understand my students mathematical abilities before moving onto a new topic.