Math Lesson Plan

Deak 1

Core Decisions
What
Through this lesson, students will be exposed to a strategy sharing discussion around using mental
math. This lesson focuses on the practice of sharing math strategies amongst peers and the ways to
create a strategy-sharing math discourse. Students will use discussion and manipulatives in order to
engage multiple intelligences. Additionally, through talking out strategies, students will be exposed to
different ways to think about the same problem. By working in a group discussion, I hope to give
students a chance to try out their strategies and gain validation in their own math abilities. Ultimately,
students will understand 1) what and how to share and 2) that they are sense makers and their ideas are
valid (Kazemi and Hintz).
How
For this lesson, I will focus on giving more time for student talk versus teacher talk. Additionally, I will
practice using questions to guide students to justify their answers and talk out their
reasoning/understanding. I will lead students towards composing and decomposing numbers using their
knowledge of place value and creating a base ten. My students may struggle with being unable to write
their answers, but they will have manipulatives and I will provide them with drawings/equations to
show their thinking so they can visualize what is being shared.
Why
My students recently did a lesson around using mental math to add and subtract double digit numbers
by rounding one of the numbers to the nearest ten. Although many students followed along in mirroring
my classroom teachers examples, when I asked them how they solved the problem, many did not
display concept comprehension. I see a need for them to explore mental math strategies on their own,
and experiment with how to break numbers apart and bring them back together.
At this point, the math lessons in my classroom have consisted of my teaching walking students through
examples and then having student to problems on their own. On occasion, students come to the board
and explain their reasoning for problem solving, but there is little discussion to help the entire class
understand the students reasoning and strategies. The students rarely, if ever, perform mental math
and rely heavily on paper and pencil computation. Additionally, in spot checking with some students,
many have displayed a misunderstanding of the concepts related to their computation.

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Deak 2

Date to Teach: Monday, November 17th

Grade/School: 3rd, Andrew Jackson Elementary
Goals/Objectives
Student will increasing ability to use a mental math strategy in order to solve double digit addition and
subtraction problems, and articulate their strategy to their peers.
Pedagogical Focus: Facilitating mathematical discussion around mathematical ideas by eliciting,
clarifying and following up on students explanations

Standards
Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic.

Materials and Preparation

-Space to meet
-Ruler
-White board
-Set of counters for each student: 10 tens, 10 ones
-3 cards with 54-47 written on them
-3 cards with 54+47 written on them
-Students Homework/Classwork folders
-Pencil for each student

Classroom arrangement and management issues

Students will be around a table, each with a chair. The teacher will be a one end of the table, with
students facing the teacher. The students are around a large table as many of them tend to stand during
class, and being around one large table will give them the opportunity to stand. Students will bring their
Homework/Classwork notebook and a pencil. The teacher will bring the counters, separated in a bag for
each student, and will hand a bag to each student once materials are needed.
It is likely many of the students will want to talk with one another while someone else is talking. This will
be managed by reviewing classroom norms around when it is okay for multiple people talking at once
and when we should have one person talk at a time. In addition, it will be emphasized that when

Math Lesson Plan

Deak 3

multiple people are talking, we must still use quiet voices. Finally, when one person should be talking,
the talker will be the one holding the ruler.

Plan
Begin by asking what students know about mental math. Take a few students thoughts and write any
problem examples they give on the whiteboard.
Next, ask students why we use mental math. Creates pairs of two and have them share with each other.
Count down from 5 when need to re-group saying Back in 5-4-3-2-1.
Have 3-4 students share one reason for doing mental math.
Start with an addition and a subtraction word problem to assess knowledge of using base 10s (See
below). For each, present the problem, write the numbers used on the whiteboard, give think time,
and ask for an answer. Get two answers for each. Upon getting each answer, ask the student answering
to describe what they did and write their thinking on the whiteboard. After they share, have another
student explain the first students thinking.
After going through strategies, go back to each problem and solve using counters. Model each problem
with the students.
Introduce two new word problems, in which the same double digit numbers are used (see below). Have
students first model the problems with counters on their own and report their answers. Have one
student respond to each problem, and have another student repeat their explanation in their own
words.
Do the same two problems, and ask students to use mental math to solve. Repeat the process of
student giving answers, showing their thinking on the board, and having another student repeat their
strategy.
Tell students they will each get a chance to solve their own mental math problem. One person in the
pair will get to look at the problem, solve it, and then share their strategy with their partner. Then, the
student will share their answer and their partner will share their strategy.
Hand out the three addition cards to one student from each pair. Execute the above instructions.
Repeat with subtraction cards.
Debrief by asking students what strategies they learned. Have them take out their Homework/Classwork
folder and write down their favorite strategy.

Assessment of the goals/objectives listed above

Assessment will be based upon students ability to 1) solve their individual mental math problem and 2)
their ability to articulate their solving strategy to their classmate. Notes for assessment will be made on
the below rubric.

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Deak 4

Anticipating students responses and teachers possible responses

Students may disrupt lesson repeatedly and not engage in activity. In this case, the student would be
asked to return to the main class.
Students may not come away with the understandings desired. In this case a follow up lesson would be
planned to approach the subject in a different manner.
Students may become frustrated if not able to do mental math for the first problem. In this case, the
teacher will respond that we will have more opportunities to do mental math and will learn strategies
together during lesson.

Accommodations
If students are struggling with understanding how to perform mental math, the teacher partner up with
them for pair shares.
If students find the tasks too easy, encourage them to explain their thinking to another student who is
struggling.

Math Lesson Plan

Deak 5

Knowledge Assessment Problems

Addition
At 8:20am there are 55 students in the gym. At 8:25am, 38 more students come in to the gym. How
many students say the pledge at 8:25am?
Subtraction
(Student name) has 65 Pokemon cards in his desk. He takes out 19 cards to show to (student name) at
recess. How many cards are left in his desk?

Practice Problems
1.) There was a fire drill at school today. Before the fire drill, there were 57 students in the gym. 49
students got out in 1 minuet. How many students still needed to leave the building?
2.) (Student name) has read 57 books. If (student name) reads 49 more books, how many books will
he have read altogether?
Rubric
Student Name

Mental Math Solving

Correct?

Mental Math Solving

Strategy Explanation
Did strategy make sense? able to understand?