Reflection Commentary

Write a commentary of 3-5 single-spaced pages (including prompts) that addresses the
following prompts. You can address each prompt separately, through a holistic essay, or
a combination of both, as long as all prompts are addressed.

1. When you consider the content learning of your students and the development
of their academic language, what do you think explains the learning or
differences in learning that you observed during the learning segment? Cite
relevant research or theory that explains what you observed. (See Planning
Commentary, prompt # 2.) (TPEs 7, 8, 13)
I think that, for many of my students, math, historically, has not been a place that
requires them to discuss concepts or explain their thinking. I feel that some of my
students were not prepared to engage in this type of math work. As the Common Core
changes focus towards conceptual knowledge and number sense, students are being asked
to focus less on procedural knowledge. I think this was especially hard with fractions, as
Chapin and Johnson observed in Math Matters, fractions tend to be manipulated by rote,
rather than made sense of, conceptually. The concept of fractions is very challenging for
first time learners. This challenge, combined with the new Common Core standards,
proved to be a big factor in students learning. Those students who were more adept in
language and motivated to participate showed the greatest progress.

2. Based on your experience teaching this learning segment, what did you learn
about your students as mathematics learners (e.g., easy/difficult concepts and
skills, easy/difficult learning tasks, easy/difficult features of academic
language, common misunderstandings)? Please cite specific evidence from
previous Teaching Event tasks as well as specific research and theories that
inform your analysis. (TPE 13)
Overall, I think I found that I agree with the findings of education researchers that
fractions is a very complex topic and is challenging to teach (Bezuk and Bieck, 1993).
The conceptual knowledge that must be developed for an understanding of fractions to
occur is substantial. Fractions deviate from a students previous exposure to numbers and
their function. My experience taught me that developing a conceptual understanding of
fractions in a student requires time, patience and a variety of experiences. I do not think
that fractions can be taught through rote process. It takes time for students to come to
terms with the part-whole meaning of fractions and to understand the significance of that
relationship.
I have also been lead to believe through my experience that if a student hasnt had
enough time to grapple with the concept of fractions and the meaning of a part-whole
relationship, asking the student to understand equivalence of fractions or to make value
comparisons is problematic.
I also learned that by using manipulatives as tools to complete assessments, I can
directly observe what students understand that students understand about the part-whole
relationships, as observed by Chapin and Johnson (Math Matters, 2006).

3. If you could go back and teach this learning segment again to the same group
of students, what would you do differently in relation to planning, instruction,
and assessment? How would the changes improve the learning of students
with different needs and characteristics? (TPE 13)
I felt that my teaching of equivalence and value comparisons would have been more
relevant and level appropriate if more time had been spent exploring the concept of
fractions through a variety of hands on experiences with manipulatives and discussions. I
feel like many of the blockades that my students experienced resulted from a lack of core
knowledge regarding fractions. I would have preferred to have subjected my students to
some exercises and assessments to develop and evaluate their concept knowledge of
fractions and the different roles that fractions can play before dealing with equivalence
and value comparisons, but unfortunately, I felt pressured to teach to grade level
standards.


Daily reflections:
Lesson 1: Patter Blocks
1. What is working? What is not? For whom? Why? (Consider teaching and
student learning with respect to both content and academic language
development.)
This lesson provided a challenge I was not anticipating. I thought that most of the
students in the class had the necessary conceptual understanding of fractions to easily use
the pattern blocks to model fractions. To actively complete the task and begin to
experiment with the idea of fractional equivalence, knowledge of how to model fractions
using the pattern blocks is necessary. We spent a good portion of the lesson practicing
modeling fractions and correctly identifying fractions using the pattern blocks.

2. How does this reflection inform what you plan to do in the next lesson?
It is clear to me that my students need more experience with the basic concept of
fractions. I feel that a prior lesson might have taken a closer look at using models to
think about and identify fractions. This would have made the next step of using those
models to think about fractional equivalence much more appropriate. I think in the next
lessons, I will do some warm-ups that involve using models with factions as a way to
reinforce the basic concept of what fractions are, the part-whole relationship and the
definition of fraction, numerator and denominator.


Lesson 2: More or Lesson
1. What is working? What is not? For whom? Why? (Consider teaching and
student learning with respect to both content and academic language development.)
I think the biggest hurdle in this lesson was effectively communicating the directions
of this activity. The amount of information that the students had to keep track of to learn
how to play the game was significant. I think that to asking my students to learn the rules
of the game as well as meet content objectives was an over extension of their abilities.
For those students who have trouble paying attention or have trouble with English, these
paired tasks become an even larger hurdle. I come into lessons hoping that the activities
can be undertaken independently, so I have the ability to circulate among the groups and
ask formative assessment questions. However, I am finding that I often have to walk my
students through the exercise on a step-by-step basis.

2. How does this reflection inform what you plan to do in the next lesson?
We will continue with this activity tomorrow. Firstly, I will review the steps to
completing this activity while modeling. We will complete two or three number
sentences as a group. For the first number sentence, I will roll the dice, and every group
will use the numbers that I roll. For the second number sentence, I will ask one group
member to roll the dice and the group can use their own numbers. After this, I will ask
the students to continue working independently.

Lesson 3: Closest to Zero
1. What is working? What is not? For whom? Why? (Consider teaching and
student learning with respect to both content and academic language
development.)
The activity successfully provided my students with an experience relevant to the
content objectives. This activity seemed to be straightforward enough in its execution
that my students were able to quickly become involved in meeting the content objectives
of the lesson without getting bogged down in lengthy, complicated instructions. Their
success in completing the task resulted, I believe, in a high level of enthusiasm.

2. How does this reflection inform what you plan to do in the next lesson?
This lesson has informed me that it might be better for my students if tomorrows
activity is simplified. The gains my students made with todays simple activity and the
enthusiasm they showed tell me that completing a simple exercise successfully can be
much more beneficial than partial completion of a more complex exercise.

Lesson 4: Making Fractions
1. What is working? What is not? For whom? Why? (Consider teaching and
student learning with respect to both content and academic language
development.)
One of the objectives of this lesson was to ask my students to consider the different
numbers in fractions of different values. I asked my students to make observations about
the relationship between the numerator and the denominator, and how this relationship
affects the size of the fraction. The struggle of this exercise was framing these questions
using language that was easily understandable to my students, and leading their thinking
towards making and consciously considering these questions.

2. How does this reflection inform what you plan to do in the next lesson?
I think that in planning my next lessons, I should take extra consideration in framing
questions that can lead up to more complex questions. I will take some planning time try
to predict how the discussion might go, and write a selection of questions that I can use to
lead students thinking towards my objectives. This way, perhaps I can lead students
towards answering more complex questions that might lead to greater advancement in
conceptual knowledge or number sense.