EEDUC 5102 - Teaching Elementary School Mathematics

Assignment: Interview and Report: Working with a child

Child interviewed:Grade 2 student

Textbook Used: Math, the Millennium Edition – published by Scott Foresman-
Addison Wesley, copyright 2002 by Pearson Education Inc.

The textbook I selected was very useful when preparing questions and activities to ask
my second grade student. By reviewing the Table of Contents, I could clearly see what
types of mathematics a second grader would be challenged with throughout the school
year. It enabled me to draft questions and think of activities that would illicit many
responses from the student. I was able to choose some topics that would be on basic,
intermediate and advanced levels.

What I particularly liked about this text was the way the book included a multitude of
activities, worksheets, and practices that enabled the student using it to learn the skill on
many different levels. This repetitive practice seems to provide continuing enrichment
that could be used as homework, practice tests, etc. The book stressed the use of
manipulatives as well, which can greatly aid in the learning “why” approach.

ACTIVITES OUTLINE

Counting
Activities
1) Warm up by counting by 5’s. Ask student to count forward to 75 and back by 5’s
starting at 25.
Questions:
• How did you do that counting?
• Did you use your fingers, a number line, use manipulatives, or your head?
• Did you know that all the numbers would end in either “0” or “5”?
2) Count how many children walk to school and how many ride. Make a chart using
manipulatives.
Questions:
• Does it help to think of the numbers you counted as more or fewer? Make a chart
using manipulatives.
3) How many toes would 4 boys and 3 girls have? Count them.
Questions:
• Can you draw a picture or can you count in your head?
4) Which name has more letters, your first or last name? Count them.
Questions:
• How many more letters does your last name have than your first name?
Estimation
Activities
1) Can you guess how many M&M’s are in a package? Then ask them to open the
package and count the M&M’s.
Questions:
• Ask them how they came up with their guess.
• Explore deeper into why they guessed what they did.
• Does child see this as a baseline?
2) Can you guess how many M&M’s are in the large jar?
Questions:
• See if child uses the above mentioned baseline or just makes a complete random
guess.
3) Estimate the number of ears there are in your class. Then count the ears.
Questions:
• Did the student count by 2’s.
• Ask child if they counted the people first, or if they thought of how many students
there were at all?

Mental Math
Activities
1) I am thinking of a number…it is an even # between 20 and 30, one digit is a 2, and the
other digit is greater than 4.
Questions:
• Ask student if they need pencil and paper.
• Ask them if they think there is more than one correct answer.
• Ask them if they used a number line.
2) If there are 20 students in your class, and each child drank 2 cartons of milk for lunch,
how many milk cartons do you need for the whole class at lunch time?
Questions:
• Ask student if they thought of a picture or chart for this question.
3) I am thinking of a number….it is greater than 12, less than 20, when you add the 2
digits together, the sum equals 8. (17)
Questions:
•
4) You are going to a movie that starts at 1:00. It takes 30 minutes to drive to the movie
theater. What time do you have to leave your house to get to the movie at 1:00?
Questions:
• Does student draw a clock?
5) Continue the pattern…3,6,9,____,____,____.
Questions:
• Does child use fingers or a number line?
• How did you know what the next number would be?
Computation
Activities
1) 27 + 35 = _____
Questions:
• Did you use regrouping?
• Did you look for 10’s to add first?
• Did you estimated first?
2) 62 – 35 = _____
Questions:
• Same questions as above.
• Did student relate the above addition problem to this subtraction problem?
3) There are 55 frogs in the pond. 17 of the frogs are green. The rest are orange. How
many frogs are orange? 55 – 17 = ________
• Did you draw a picture or make a chart?

Math Model
Activities
1) Give student 18 legos. Ask student to make a train out of the legos. Ask student to try
to break the train in 2 equal groups.
Questions:
• Did you count the legos to find how many would make half?
2) Hand the student 2 game boards. Each game board has 15 boxes. Hand the child 16
buttons. Ask the child to record how many ways he can put 16 buttons on 2 game boards.
Questions:
• How does this manipulative help you understand how many ways you can make
16?
3) Hand the student a paper doll teddy bear. Also hand student 1 paper red shirt, 1 green
shirt, 1 blue shirt, 1 pair of jeans, and 1 pair of corduroys. How many outfits can the
student make for the bear to wear?
Questions:
• Suggest the student make a chart of pictograph.
• How did student record their findings?
The Interview Session

Having had no prior professional education experience as well as no school age children,
I was curious about what a second grade student would know about mathematics and how
much they would be able to do. When reviewing the textbook in preparation for the
interview, I was amazed at how much they cover in a given school year.

During our interview session, we aimed to cover the 5 guidelines of counting, estimation,
mental math, computation and math model. It did appear by reviewing the textbook that
all of these guidelines are addressed in the 2nd grade curriculum.

Counting –
When doing the counting activities, Trey seemed to have no problem counting forward
using 5’s. My initial activity for him was to count from 25 to 75, but he asked if he could
start at 0. He did so and counted up to 100, stating “90, 95, $1.00”. I thought is funny
how he thought of the number 100 as $1.00. I asked why he did that and he said because
they are learning about money in math right now at school. We then took out change and
he counted using the coins. I asked how he knew that each number would end in 0 or 5
and he stated “Because 5 +5 is 10 and 10 +5 is 15, so you can just go up by 5 each time”.
I thought this was a good example of memorizing number facts. When I asked him to
count backwards using 5’s, he has much more trouble, stating “That may be too hard for
me, I think that would be more for a 5th grader”. Interesting, as the concept of how he
counted forward could be similarly used to count backward. He did not seem to
understand the relationship between addition and subtraction. I then adapted my outline
and asked him to use the money to count backwards and he could do this but needed
some assistance. When we moved on to the other activities, Trey was able to do them
more successfully by using manipulatives. He wrote down numbers for the question
about how many toes 4 boys and girls would have. He simply wrote down 5, 5 next to
each other. Then he wrote the number 10. Then he made a tally chart of 4 groups of 10
and then 3 groups of 10, and one by one counted them to 70. He seemed to need to keep
track of each toe in the class and make sure he has enough people. The extra detail of
girls and boys did not confuse him, although he did break down his tally chart into 2
groups. Overall, I thought Trey did very well, however he did need some help relating
one exercise to the other. To him, they were all very separate tasks using separate
thoughts. His learning process seemed to be a combination of using memorized facts and
manipulatives.

Estimation -
The estimation activities and conversation was FUN! I had asked Trey to estimate how
many M&M’s were in a standard size bag. His reaction was “well, I guess I could guess
100 worth of M&M’s.” I asked Trey to write down his estimate. Then when I took out a
jar of over 500 M&M’s, I asked Trey to estimate again. He stated “there are a lot in
there…I will say 5,000.” I again asked him to write down his estimate. I reflected to
myself how he was using powers of 10 instead of a random mixed number. I asked him
if he thought about how many small bags would fit in the jar. He said he thought 10. I
showed him how to draw out 10 rectangles representing 10 M&M bags and wrote 100
inside each. Trey then counted up the bags to get 1000. We then compared that to his
estimate of 5,000 and he said “I think I guessed too much”. I asked why he thought that
and he said, “because if one bag has 100 then 10 bags has 1,000 and 1,000 is smaller than
5,000.” He did, after drawing it out, seem to understand the concept of a baseline. I think
it initially helped him too because he could relate the 2 sizes. He understood that 5,000
M&M’s could not have fit in the small bags and that the jar would have to hold much
more than one small bag. We had to adapt our activity to add a few steps to show and
prove our baseline, but I think it helped him to understand it more clearly. Trey then
wanted to dump out the jar and count. We did this and he quickly put the M&M’s into
piles by color and counted each. I noted this as a classification exercise.

Mental Math –
This activity was difficult for Trey and he seemed to be apprehensive to start it. We
began with activity 1 from the outline, “Thinking of a Number”. I asked him if he would
like some paper and a pencil and he said yes. First Trey wrote down all of the numbers
from 1 – 30 vertically on a piece pf paper. He then crossed out all of the numbers from
1-19. I asked if he knew what an even number was and he said yes. I think that helped
him to because then he crossed out all of the odd numbers. It left 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30
on his sheet. I then asked if he knew what greater than meant and he said “yes, if an
alligator had 1 piece of candy or 25 pieces of candy, he would want to eat the 25 pieces
of candy so his mouth would open to the 25 and he would eat that side”. I thought this
was cute and obviously a trick that a teacher has taught him in class. Trey then stopped
and said he was having trouble. We worked on the rest together. I asked him to break out
the parts of the question one at a time. The next part was that the one digit of the number
was 2. He then crossed out 30. Then we noted that one of the digits was greater than 4.
Trey said “well 24 and 26 and 28 are greater than 4”. I had to adapt this question to have
him see the numbers as single digits. He then did see that that number could only be 26
or 28. He was a bit confused by the fact that there could be 2 answers.

Computation –
This was the most eye opening of the activities for me. Trey seemed to be able to
compute things in a way that I never would have thought before taking this class,
certainly not the way we were taught to add and subtract when I was in 2nd grade. When
handed the equations to solve, Trey used a scrap piece of paper. He wrote the equation
again vertically 27+35. He then drew 2 long skinny rectangles (I believed these to be
Base 10 rods) and 7 small squares. Then he drew a line below that and drew 3 rods and 5
small squares. He put a counted out 10 small squares and then drew another 10 rod. He
then counted the 6 rods and remaining 2 small squares and wrote 6,2. Then he went back
to the sheet I had given with the problem on it and wrote 62. I asked him if that is how
he does all of his adding problems and he stated “only the ones with 2 numbers in them”,
meaning adding 2 - 2 digit numbers together I assume. He said he can sometimes
remember some of the facts to be able to do it quicker. When I then showed him the
subtraction problem of 62-35, he did a similar process using pictures of 10 rods.
Math Model –
We focused on the bear outfit question. The paper doll manipulatives really seemed to
spike Trey’s interest in the activity. The first thing he did was put all the shirts in pile
and all of the pants in another pile. He then laid the bear on the table and put on the red
shirt and jeans outfit. He then marked a tally mark on a paper. He then switched the pants
and made another tally mark. Then he put on the green shirt and jeans, made a mark,
switched the pants, and made a mark. He continued to do this using all of the clothing
pieces. He added his tally marks and stated “6 outfits”. As he did not make any formal
chart to graph his progress and data analysis, I adapted the exercise to show him how he
could have made a tally chart as follows:
Red shirt Green shirt Blue shirt
Jeans X X X
Corduroys X X X

He said “oh ya, we do that in school to chart money in a bank”. It seemed that Trey had
knowledge of using a tally chart and graph but reverted to using a more basic form of
keeping track of the possible outcomes.
 Part IV. Reflection

It is beneficial and necessary to address Standard I of the Professional Standards

of Teachers – Plans Curriculum and Instruction. I did this by reading the 2nd grade text,
Math, the Millennium Edition, along with preparing materials that are needed for the
lesson plans. Also, I collaborated with a colleague about the student’s interests which
addresses Standard V – Meets Professional Responsibilities. By reading the text, I was
able to give instruction that pertained to his level, draw upon what he knows, and identify
the proper materials and resources for proper instruction. Math is an important concept,
and whether or not we are cognizant about it, it is in our every day lives. As a result, it is
imperative that we not only teach students how to correctly perform different math
operations, but to embrace math. In order to fulfill that object, I have learned that teachers
must be knowledgeable in the content they area that they teacher. By learning about the
math concepts that are taught in 2nd grade, I have been able to use different methods and
strategies in my lesson plans during the interview. I am a very strong believer that every
child is entitled to achieve and receive equal opportunities addresses Standard IV –
Equity.
I also discovered that providing students with a rich array of different
manipulative not only engages the students, but in addition, they also provide different
methods that students can use to learn new mathematics. I also felt that the adaptation
needed during the interview process addresses Standard II – Delivers Effective
Instruction.
This interview proved to me that not only is math more fun, but it is easier for
students to learn math through the use of different manipulative. Through the use of
manipulative and activities, I created an environment conducive to teaching which
addresses Standard III – Manages Classroom Climate and Operation.
 Appendix B
Brief Reflection Form
Assignment: Interview and Report: Working with a child

Name:
Date of Reflection:
Faculty Reviewer:
Date of Review:

1) Describe the contents in which this item was developed or collected and what you
have learned from this experience.
The assignment was a task that I looked forward to getting to work on. I have a nephew
in the 2nd grade that really enjoys school and was very willing to be my case study. I
decided to review his second grade math textbook prior to our session so I could gather
an understanding of the math topics that he has worked on so far this year. I then began
to create an outline or lesson plan of activities that would show me his mathematical
thinking with regard to the 5 topic areas. What I learned from completing the interview
and our session together was that my thoughts of how a second grade student would
respond were not as I had predicted. While there were some instances where the
knowledge base amazed me for such a young student, there were other times where I
understood after that I was incorporating my prior knowledge into the lesson, rather than
developing it off a blank slate, such as a student would be learning it.

2) What does this item demonstrate about your progress toward one or more of the
state teaching standards?
I felt that this project was a great way to practice planning lesson plans before beginning
interview process. It is beneficial and necessary to address Standard 1 of the Professional
Standards of Teachers – Plans Curriculum and Instruction. Had I not planned out the
specific activities for the student to do during the interview and related them to the
necessary curriculum guidelines, I feel the lesson may have been too varied and have no
real focus. I felt that the activities were an example of “planning lessons with clear
objectives and relevant measurable outcomes”.

I also felt that the adaptation needed during the interview process addresses Standard 2 –
Delivers Effective Instruction. The example of showing the student that he could have
created a tally chart to determine the outcome of the bear paper doll activity created a
new way of thinking for the child. Also, when it was determined that perhaps some of
the lessons were too difficult or the student was having trouble, it required a new way of
exploring and introducing the material. I learned that I had to explain it a different way in
order for the student to fully grasp the concept. In many cases, that involved the use of
manipulatives.
3) What does this item tell about your growth as a teacher?
I felt that this assignment was very useful to me as a teacher. It enabled me to, through
direct contact with a student, to see that my created lesson plans may not always be the
most realistic or practical when put into practice. I learned that looking for and accepting
the students’ response to my lesson is an important part of the teaching profession. I
would hope that each lesson taught and each student’s response to that lesson will in turn
be a lesson for me as a teacher. I feel it will be through some trials, mistakes and
achievements that growth can really progress.