Observational Reflection
For my observational reflection, I decided to view a lesson performed by my cohort teacher Mr. Felt. The focus of the lesson was the "true" introduction of division: its sign, its number sentence, and what the number sentence means. I was told that the children had been working with division problem all year but was simply refereeing to it as grouping (which is accurate).
To begin his lesson, Mr. Felt put a math question on the overhead, which he does every day. The question stated, "You and two of your friends have 9 cookies. If you share the cookies evenly, how many cookies will each friend get?" Mr. Felt usually lets the children figure these problems out on their own and this case was no different. The children are allowed to use math manipulative if they choose but none felt it necessary for this question. After five minutes or so, the students are allowed to work with a buddy to check their answers, help each other out, etc. After about seven minutes, he called the students over to the "OCC," which is a sitting area the students gather to to share lessons, ideas, etc. After he had brought the students over to the OCC, Mr. Felt grabbed a portable white board and explained that this grouping question had a sign and proceeded to draw the division sign. Many of the students agreed with him because many of them knew what division was. He asked what the sign meant and about one third of the class had a raised hand and was ready to answer the question. After a brief discussion about grouping, he had a couple of students come down to the white board and draw their solution to the morning problem. After a student draws his or her strategy, they are to explain it to the rest of the class. After explanation, the students ask questions and try to learn from each other. This was very much a social learning situation. Students were sharing their knowledge with each other for the betterment of the class. The teacher was there every step of the way, guiding their ideas and asking questions that he felt needed to be asked. The students talked about grouping (what it was, how it was done), they talked about the division sign and what it meant, and finally they talked about the number sentence that followed the morning question. After quickly assessing the students through a couple of questions in which they had to agree or disagree, Mr. Felt ended the lesson and moved the students to the next area for the day.
Much of this lesson had a sociocultural perspective: The children were engaged in discussion with a more knowledgeable member of society and they learned through their community. The students used cultural tools in the symbol systems of mathematics (the division sign) and used real tools to help solve these problems. The teacher used the zone of proximal development throughout this lesson in how he guided the students through questions and allowed the students to perform the teaching themselves if they were capable in doing so. The students are encouraged to work with partners, are gathered together in a very social area, are encouraged to ask questions and teach one another, all of which are social by nature and was the method to this lesson.
Besides the sociocultural aspect, there was a good amount of Blooms taxonomy involved. Children were in constantly found in levels analysis through evaluation. Children were in analysis as they broke down the division sign and what it meant, when they broke down the morning question into its parts, and the number sentence into what it meant. They were in synthesis as they combined these new ideas to apply them to the question they were working on : how could the three people and nine cookies be written as a number sentence, grouped, etc. Finally, students were in evaluation as they talked about the methods or strategies taught by the other students, their value, and whether that strategy was favorable to them ( there is always more than one way to do a math problem).
I really liked this method of teaching. I think Mr. Felt and I have very similar styles. From what I can tell, he believes that students can learn from one another, especially with guidance. I know that we learn from other people, even if they are only slightly ahead of us on a particular concept. Everyone learns from other people; if we didn't, we would still be living in caves, hunting wild beasts with sticks.
I know the students enjoy working with partners and living in the social aspect of learning. They often ask the teacher if they can work with partners, and this isn't some crafty ploy to chat and goof around. When the students work in partners, at least in this classroom, they talk about the problem, how they solved it and what the answer could be. They apply what they learn to future problems and what more can you ask for?
Internet Safety Part 2: Doing
15 years ago
