Amanda Favia March 1, 2013 ELD 375 Field Report 2 Observation of Teaching and Learning

In Mrs. Shwoms first grade classroom she taught her students patterns on February 26, 2013. Mrs. Shwoms objective is that students will be able to recognize what a pattern is, identify what a set is and predict what will come next in a pattern. Mrs. Shwom hopes the students will be able to recognize and create a pattern at the end of the math lesson. Mrs. Shwoms source is enVision math program, she used this program to help her guide her lessons. This program provided the connecting blocks along with the worksheet the students worked on. Mrs. Shwom explained that she is going to use connecting cubes to make patterns for her students to see if the students could figure out the pattern. She says that she will have all the students at the carpet and make a pattern out of the connecting blocks and have the students turn and talk to a partner to see if they can figure out the pattern. Mrs. Shwom explains that she will model what she wants the students to learn and then she will explain that she wants the students to go back to their desk and make their own pattern. Mrs. Shwom explains that she will end the lesson with students doing individual work. Mrs. Shwom starts the lesson off with a pattern on the projector which read 5 6 5 6 5 _ 5 6 _ 6. The teacher asks the students to turn and talk to figure out the missing numbers and also asked them to figure out the reasoning behind why they think that number is the missing number. There was two groups I observed talked about how there was a rhythm by saying 5 6 5 6 and they knew the answer because of the rhythm. The teacher than asks the class what the missing

number is and what the reasoning behind why this is the missing number is. All of the students got the missing numbers right but there were two strategies that the students used. The first strategy that was discussed was rhyming, Mrs. Shwom had the student who brought up the strategy explain the strategy and then she explained it to the class again. The second strategy that was discussed was looking at the first set in the pattern and see what is missing. Mrs. Shwom used the same strategy which was having the student explain how they used the strategy and then Mrs. Shwom would explain how to use the strategy again. Once everyone understood the two ways to figure out a pattern she moves on. Mrs. Shwom then explains to the students what she wants them to learn. The students knew Mrs. Shwom wants them to know what an A-B pattern is which the students knew about before the lesson. The students were able to figure out the missing number(s) because they knew what the A-B pattern was. Mrs. Shwom then writes on the board How can you predict what comes next in a pattern. Mrs. Shwom talks to her class about what a prediction is, after Mrs. Shwom talks about predictions with the class she takes out the connecting cubes. Mrs. Shwom makes a pattern with the connecting blocks using the two colors; purple and green. She then asks the class to turn and talk about what they think the pattern is, the two groups that I was looking at used the same strategy as last time by rhyming, they said purple, green, purple, green and were able to figure out the pattern. Mrs. Shwom next question to the class was how many sets there are in the pattern, Mrs. Shwom took the first set and placed it on top of the set next to that one and did it till she got to the end. The class counted out how many sets there were. To challenge the students a little, Mrs. Shwom had the student close their eyes while she switched around the pattern, she added some more cubes and also placed them horizontally and vertically. The students opened there eyes and had to figure out the pattern. At first the students

just said the pattern was standing up, lying down. As a result to this answer Mrs. Shwom asked the students what came next and the students replied with sanding up. Mrs. Shwom put a train of ten cubes standing up. The students yelled No! Purple and green, purple and green. Mrs. Shwom put one green cube on the top and one purple cube on the bottom (which is how the first set was shown). Mrs. Shwom then explained to her students that they were going to go back to their seats with a train of cubes and make a pattern at their seat with the ten cubes they had. Mrs. Shwom places a little booklet of worksheets on their desk. As the students are working, Mrs. Shwom walks around to every student and asks what the pattern is, one student I was observing replied 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2. Mrs. Shwom then asked how many sets there were, the few students I observed did not seem to grasp what a set was. I feel they did not understand this because Mrs. Shwom told them they could only repeat the set once. Once everyone finished their pattern Mrs. Shwom told the students they were going to move to a different chair and draw the pattern that was in front of them and also write what would come next in the pattern. The students switched seats twice so they could draw and complete two patterns. After this activity the teacher has the students put the trains back in the box and return to their seats. Mrs. Shwom then put the next sheet the students will be working with on the projector to explain to the students what they need to do. She explains that they need to circle the next shape in the pattern, Mrs. Shwom also explains that if students wanted to challenge themselves they should name the pattern and circle the first set. Some of the students I observed did very well on this worksheet but there were two who still seemed to be confused. Many of the students got confused if the pattern was one single cube, one single cube, one double cube. The students had to figure out what shape would come next after the first single cube. The few students I observed

that were having trouble circled the double cube, there was also one or two more problems similar to this which they had trouble with. Only one of the students I observed decided to do part of the challenge which was circling the first set. I do not think this student understood sets because even in the patterns that switched shapes every other shape he did not understand what a set was. After the students finished their worksheet the lesson ended. Mrs. Shwoms lesson went exactly how she thought it was going to go. At the end of the lesson Mrs. Shwom explained that she succeeded in challenging the students to see how different patterns can look based on different colors and shapes. The one thing she said she did not accomplish was having the students recognize a set and know how many times the set is repeated. Mrs. Shwom says that she met her objectives and took it to the next level by finding sets. She explains that in the future she will continue this unit by building on what different patterns look like by differentiating shapes. She also says that she will have the students draw patterns instead of using connecting cubes. Overall I think this was a successful lesson and the students got a lot out of it but still need to work on sets.