E.

Rae Miller
ED 424-01
Lincoln Portfolio
Reflection
When I went to Lincoln Elementary for the first time, I had the opportunity to observe the

students that were assigned to me, and what a regular math lesson was like for them. I was assigned

Logan, rated as low and Penny, rated as medium. I noticed that Mr. Davis stopped three or

four times to ask Logan to focus, or get on task, etc. Logan also got his name on the board to stay

in from recess. He kept getting up while the students were supposed to be working on a worksheet,

and only finished a few problems. Penny seemed like she was focused during the lesson, and she

finished at least a third of the worksheet. The lesson that we observed covered how division

problems are arranged, and algebraic-type multiplication problems. Mr. Davis had the students

practice looking at the problems, and coming up with appropriate questions to ask to solve the

problems. He also taught his students that a ? in a problem indicates the missing part of the

problem that needs to be found. Mr. Davis also explained that the ? could be anythingeven a

. At the end of the lesson, Mr. Davis asked that my peers and I help his students work on

memorizing multiplication and division facts.

My partner and I designed our pre-assessment to test the students on multiplication facts

0-12, and on the concept of division as the inverse operation of multiplication, like what we had

seen Mr. Davis teach them. The work that the students did on the pre-assessment helped us get a

better idea of where they were at. We saw that many of our students were putting dots into groups

to solve multiplication problems. There were a few problems that were commonly missed (i.e.

7x7=49). Many of the answers were off only by a number or two, which made me think that they

had miscounted using the groups of dots. Logan gave up during the pre-assessment and refused to
keep trying. I encouraged him to keep trying to answer a few more, but he did not answer any other

questions, and said, I dont know the answers.

When we created the post-assessment, we kept the same test questions for the majority of

the test, but reversed (i.e. 4x?=24 to 6x?=24). We also noticed that there was confusion about

changing a multiplication problem to a division problem. Those questions seemed invalid to us in

retrospect, so we changed them to division problems. Another change that we made was that we

allowed the students to use counters on the test if they wanted to. All of our students improved

except for one. Evan missed only one question on the pre-assessment, but missed two questions

on the post-assessment. I noticed however, that he got the question he had missed before (7x7=49)

correctwhich made me feel like he still made progress. Unfortunately, Logan was absent for the

post-assessment, along with the second lesson.

During our instruction time, my partner and I focused on reviewing the basic concepts of

multiplication and division, and teaching our students how to use tools (i.e. clocks and counters)

to find the answers to difficult problems. We both felt that more practice with these tools would

help them master the concepts necessary to memorize math facts, and to think through challenging

questions. I felt like practice with the counters helped contribute to the growth we saw among our

students. If I were to do it over again, I would spend less time on division, and spend more time

with practicing using manipulatives.

The greatest challenge that I felt I had during my time at Lincoln was in trying to help

Logan. I noticed that he became easily distracted, and had an attitude of I cant do it from

observing him on the first day, and the day of our first lesson. During the practice activities for our

first lesson plan, my partner and I took turns sitting by him to help keep him on task. Despite our

efforts, he still did not get much of the independent practice done, and was absent for the remainder
of our time there. We were disappointed by this because we had plans for me to sit by him during

the post-assessment to encourage him and help him focus, and we knew that he needed the most

help out of our group. It also made us wonder if he is absent frequentlywhich would certainly

hinder his success in math.

All in all, I felt that I learned about myself as a teacher. I learned that I should think about

directions on a test from a students perspective, and I learned that I believe that time using

manipulatives in math is worthwhile. One last thing that I learned about myself is that I care about

whether I help students learn or not. I found myself holding my breath as I graded their work

hoping they would succeed. I only knew these students for a short while, but it made me happy to

see them progress, and to strategize on how I could help them best.
 Pre-Assessment Key

1. 2. 3. 4.
3x6=18 4x5=20 8x2=16 9x3=27

5. 6. 7. 8.
7x7=49 8x4=32 4x8=32 3x1=3

9. 10. 11. 12.

9x5=45 11x7=77 12x3=36 6x5=30

13. 14. 15. 16.

12x11=132 9x9=81 3x0=0 8x7=56

17. 18. 19. 20.

4x3=12 11x9=99 6x6=36 12x9=108
Name: __________________________
Directions: Write what the ? is in each problem.
1. 3x?=18
6

2. 4x?=24
6

3. 5x?=55
11

4. 6x?=42
7

5. 7x?=35
5
Write the following problems as division
problems.
Example: 4x4=16 is
6. 8x8=64

64/8=8
7. 9x8=72

72/8=9
8. 12x6=72

72/6=12
Write the following problems as multiplication
problems.
9. 12012=10
12x10=120

10. 13211=12
11x12=132
 Post-Assessment

Name: __________________________
Directions: Write what the ? is in each problem.
1. 6x?=18

2. 6x?=24

3. 11x?=55

4. 7x?=42

5. 5x?=35
Directions: Solve the following division
problems.
6. 648=

7. 729=

8. 726=

Directions: Write the following multiplication

problems as division problems.
9. 12x10=120

10. 11x12=132
Directions: Solve the multiplication problems.
1. 2. 3. 4.
3x6= 4x5= 8x2= 9x3=

5. 6. 7. 8.
7x7= 8x4= 4x8= 3x1=

9. 10. 11. 12.

9x5= 11x7= 12x3= 6x5=

13. 14. 15. 16.

12x11= 9x9= 3x0= 8x7=

17. 18. 19. 20.

4x3= 11x9= 6x6= 12x9=