Design for Learning

Instructor: Michelle Lawless

Lesson Title: Problem Math!
Curriculum Area: Math- Word problems

Grade Level/Cooperating Teacher: 1st/Bowen

Date: 2/23/16
Estimated Time: 2 days

Standards Connection: Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems

involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and
comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using objects, drawings, and
equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem. (See
Appendix A, Table 1.) [1-OA1]
Learning Objective(s): When given a new word problem, students will solve it in their math
journals using at least 1 problem solving strategy.
Learning Objective(s) stated in kid-friendly language:
Today, you will be given a new word problem to go into your journal. You will try your very best
on this word problem using pictures, words, or numbers to complete it.
Evaluation of Learning Objective(s):
Students will be given a new subtraction word problem with numbers within 20. The students will
solve this problem in their math journals. The students will then find their special spot around the
room to go and complete this individually. Students who can use a strategy to fully complete the
word problem and give an answer are in the green range. Students who can not use a strategy to
fully complete it or give an answer will be in the red range and in need of individual instruction.
Engagement: The teacher will call the student down to the carpet. The teacher will state the
objective. The teacher will then read the Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons by Eric

Litwin to introduce the topic of subtraction within word problems. The teacher will ask
students questions before and after reading the book. Okay boys and girls, when I call
your table number I want you to come find your special spot on the carpet. I want
everyones ears open and eyes on me. Today, we are going to solve word problems, but
first I want to read you a story. This book is called Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy
Buttons and its written by Eric Litwin. The teacher will read the book to the students.
What kept happening to the Pete the Cats buttons in this story? How many did we start
with? Yes! 4! How many did we end with? We ended with 0! What is it called when we
have one number and we take some away? Yes! Subtraction!
Learning Design:

I. Teaching: The teacher will restate the objective. The teacher will have a subtraction
word problem written on an anchor chart that she will work out with the students in the
form of a think aloud. The teacher will model different strategies that the students can use
to solve word problems. The students will then be given a new problem that they will
work on with a partner in their spot around the room. The teacher will walk around the
room and help when needed. Once the students have finished the first problem they will
be given a challenge problem. The students will then come back to the carpet and discuss
the strategies they used with the teacher. The teacher will model some of the strategies
the students used to show their thinking. Today, we are going to solve subtraction word
problems. I have this first word problem already written for us to do together. Lets read
this word problem together. Jimmy has 12 pencils on his desk. Sarah takes 5 of them.

How many pencils does Jimmy have left? How do we know that this is a subtraction word
problem? How did you decide that? Now what is one thing we are already given in this
problem? Yes! Jimmy has 12 pencils. Well Im going to use pictures to draw Jimmys 12
pencils and write our number 12. The teacher will draw the pencils on the anchor chart
and also write the number 12 underneath. What else are we given? Yes! Sarah now has 5
pencils because she took some from Jimmy. Im going to draw Sarahs 5 pencils, but Im
going to mark out Jimmys pencils as Sarah takes them away from him. The teacher will
draw the 5 pencils and mark them out from Jimmys pencils one at a time and also write
the number 5. Now what question does our problem ask us? Yes! It asks us How many
pencils does Jimmy have left? Lets count the number of pencils Jimmy has left. Yes
Jimmy has seven pencils left. Does Jimmy have more or less pencils now then when he
started. Well Jimmy has less pencils now because Sarah took 5 of his pencils! Great Job
guys! What strategy did I use to solve this problem? Yes! I used pictures! That is a great
strategy to use when working on word problems. Now I want you to get with your partner
you read with in the morning. Im going to give you and your partner a word problem
that I want you to work on together. I will be walking around the class helping you and
listening to your strategies. When You have finished your first word problem, Im going
to give you your challenge problem. When we are all finished, we will come back to the
carpet and talk about our strategies we used to solve the problems. I want to see your
thinking on paper! The teacher will call the students up to get a problem and find their
partner. The teacher will give the students between 8-10 minutes to complete these
problem. The teacher will call the students back up once the time is up. Your time is up!
Lets all come back and sit on the carpet with our partners. What strategies did you use to
solve the first problem? You used pictures! Will you tell us how you solved it with
pictures? The teacher will have both problems on an anchor chart where she can write
what the students did. I see how you did this. Let me show you how I would have done it.
Did anyone else do it a different way? The teacher will write what this student did on the
chart as well. Lets discuss our challenge problem. What strategies did you use to solve
this problem? Why did you choose to draw pictures instead of doing it another way? Can
you show me what you did? Let me show you how I would have done this. The teacher
will write this problem and the students work down as well. Great job! Now I want you to
turn and talk to the person next to you about what was different about these two
problems? Yes they did talk about different items, but were they both subtraction
problems? How do you know they were both subtraction problems? Yes, because we were
making a bigger number smaller. Great job now we are going to work in groups using
these strategies to solve more word problems.
Problems:
1. Challenge Problem: There are 22 carrots in the classroom garden. Kristen took 12
of them. How many carrots are left?
2. Ben has 18 cubes. Lauren has 10 cubes. How many more cubes does Ben have
than Lauren?
II. Opportunity for Practice: The teacher will have the students get into their pre assigned
groups. The teacher will do this by calling a students name aloud and telling them to get
with their group. The teacher will give each group 3 different subtraction word problems.
The students must work on these together and show their thinking on the paper. They
must use the strategies we talked about including pictures. The teacher will not discuss
these word problems ahead of time like she did before. Now you are going to get into
your groups you have for research. Im going to give each group three word problems.
You will take these to a place in the room to work on them. I want you to show me your
thinking on paper using the strategies we just talked about. You can all work together on
these. I really want to see pictures! When you are finished we will come back to the
carpet and talk about what we did as a group. I will be walking around listening to you
work. The teacher will pass out materials and walk around to observe the students. Lets

all come back to the carpet! Lets read our first problem together. Sally has 16 books in
her book basket. Mary takes 12 of them. How many books does Sally have left? Who
can tell me how they solved this? What strategies did you use? How did you decide to
solve it this way? The teacher will continue to discuss each of the problems individually.
The teacher will not be writing their work down, but just discussing their reasoning
behind their strategies.
Three problems:
1. Sally has 16 books in her book basket. Mary takes 12 of them. How many books
does Sally have left?
2. John has 15 crayons. Jake has 11 crayons. How many more crayons does Jake
have than John?
3. Michelle has 24 apples in her basket. William takes 8 of them. How many apples
does Michelle have left?
III. Assessment
Students will be given a new subtraction word problem with numbers within 20. The students will
do this problem in their math journals. The students will then find their special spot around the
room to go and complete this individually. Students who can use a strategy to fully complete the
word problem and give an answer are in the green range and considered fully proficient. Students
who can not use a strategy to fully complete it or give an answer will be in the red range and in
need of individual instruction. Okay, boys and girls I have printed off a new word problem for
our math journals! When I call your table number I want you to come get a word problem and
work it out in your math journals. You can use numbers, words, or pictures to solve your problem.
I want to see an answer on everyones paper when we are finished. Im grading this on
completion. Table 1 come and get your word problem and find your math journalTable 2 come
and get your word problem and find your math journaltable three come and get your word
problem and find your math journaltable 4 come and get your word problem and find your
math journal. You will have 5 minutes to complete this. When you are finished we will come back
together and discuss the strategies you used on your own.
Assessment problem:
There are 14 puppies for sale at the store. Anna buys 6 of them to take home. How many puppies
are left at the store?

IV. Closure: The teacher will call the students back to the carpet after the 5 minutes is up.
The teacher will ask the students to share some strategies they used when solving their
word problems. This will be a review of the strategies taught. Times up! Lets all come
back to our special spots with our math journals. We are now going to share some of the
strategies we used. What is a strategy you used? You used pictures! How did you decide
to use pictures? Did anyone use a different strategy to solve this problem? Why did you
decide to do it that way instead of using pictures? Did anyone use any other strategies we
discussed today? Great! These are all strategies that can be used in any math problem!
We can even use these strategies when we are adding! Im so glad you all enjoyed
learning with me today! I hope we get to do this again soon!
Materials and Resources:
Math journals
Paper
Pencil
Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons
Math word problems printed

Marker
Anchor chart or board

Differentiation Strategies (including plans for individual learners):

Green: Students will be given a challenge problem where they will add or subtract within 30
Red: Student will be given a cloze passage word problem, where they insert the numbers they
wish to add or subtract. Students will be able to choose their difficulty level.
Data Analysis:
According to the sample of data I collected from this lesson, most students were able to
successfully show their strategies on paper. One student chose to draw pictures and use numbers.
They drew 14 puppies on their paper and then marked out 6 to find what 14-6 was. This student
also wrote on their paper the number sentence 14- 6 = 8 because they knew this fact already. They
not only got the answer correct, but they were able to show their thinking on paper.
Another sample of student work I collected thought this was an addition problem. They
drew the 14 puppies, but then they also drew 6 puppies next to it, at the bottom of the paper they
drew 21 puppies because they thought they were supposed to add the puppies. My ELL students
work was much different from the rest of the class. One student needed to use cubes to solve this
problem, which worked well for him. The student cant read English at all so he had to have help
from Mrs. Bowen He drew 14 lines to represent the 14 puppies but then he didnt go any farther.
Above this picture, he wrote the equation though and got the problem correct. He was able to
show his thinking through numbers but not through pictures. His skills in these areas will
progress as he spends more time in the classroom.

Reflection:
This lesson brought about many difficulties for me. This was my first math lesson and my
first whole group. I thought I was going to have the most trouble with classroom management,
but these students were angels. I ended up having the most problem with trying to sort out
students misconceptions about the math problems. Every students does problems differently and
while these students may be able to draw their pictures and solve the equation, they have trouble
explaining their thinking. I could see that the students knew how to solve the problem using the
strategies and get the right answer, but they had a hard time explaining their thinking to me. I got
slightly disappointed in myself because I thought I wasnt doing a good job, but I realized
afterwards that the students understood the problem, they just needed help verbalizing their steps.
If I could change anything about the problem, it would be to give harder problems. My
problems were one step subtraction within 20, but since I only see about 20 minutes of math with
these students a week I thought my problems would be just fine. The students were able to get the
answer mentally and then have to go back and show their work. They wanted a challenge
problem and the problem I had that I thought was a challenge was just as easy as the rest. I would
also change the amount of time the students were on the carpet. I was going way to slow trying to
explain my thinking because I wanted them to understand it, and they were getting bored and
restless. I think having them move around more and do more turn and talk would have been good
for them. The last thing I would change about this is making sure I had materials for everyone. I
learned today that first graders do not share well and everyone needs one of their own. This is
something I was just going to have to learn on my own and this can be different for other classes,
but in this case it was not.
If I could keep anything the same it would probably be the way I taught the picture
strategy and my engagement. The students really enjoyed the book I read because it had songs
and a favorite childrens character, Pete the Cat in it. The book was a simple subtraction book that
got their minds thinking about subtraction. I asked them questions after it to get them thinking

about subtraction, which worked really well. It was a nice Segway into our subtraction problem. I
think how I taught the picture strategy worked really well. The students understood what I did
because they could visually see it and it was easy for them translate over into other subtraction
problems.
Overall I think I did a decent job today, but there is a lot I need to work on with my math
lessons. I need to have a deeper understanding of the content and a better understanding of where
my students are at. I look forward to teaching more math lessons, to become an even greater
teacher.

Samford University
Design for Learning

Challenge Problem
The students will be working these problems on paper that I will
provide so they have plenty of room to show their work.

There are 22 carrots in the classroom

garden. Kristen took 12 of them. How
many carrots are left?

Partner Problem
The students will be working these problems on paper that I will
provide so they have plenty of room to show their work.

Ben has 18 cubes. Lauren has 10 cubes.

How many more cubes does Ben have
than Lauren?
Assessment Problem
Students will do this in their math journals.

There are 14 puppies for sale at the store.

Jessica buys 6 of them to take home. How
many puppies are left at the store?

Group Practice Problems

The students will complete these problems on blank
white paper in their groups.

Sally has 16 books in her book basket.

Mary takes 12 of them. How many books
does Sally have left?
John has 15 crayons. Jake has 11
crayons. How many more crayons does
Jake have than John?
Michelle has 24 apples in her basket.
William takes 8 of them. How many
apples does Michelle have left?