Ashlie Dente

February 27, 2017

Math Lesson Reflection

Before Lesson:

Before the lesson began I had to get what I needed together and determine how I was
going to teach this lesson. We use Everyday Mathematics for our math curriculum. I used this as
what to teach but I wanted to make the lesson my own. This days lesson was going to be on
time and telling it using the hour-hand only. I needed to figure out the best way to teach this
topic. I knew telling time was going to be hard so I wanted to do something fun/creative to make
it a little easier to understand.
I determined math workshop was going to be best for this subject. This way I could break
the students up into small groups. These groups would be based on learning. I can put students
together who I know pick up math more quickly together and those who do not go together.
These groups were pretty much already together since we do math workshop at least once a
week. I found Mrs. Trubins demonstration clock to help me with the lesson and I found
worksheets students will complete as well as a clock cookie game to wrap up the lesson. Each
group will have different worksheets. The worksheets ranged from easier (lower groups) to
harder (higher groups). The cookie game was the same for each group except I made the rules
different for them. I also found a really cool book all about telling time to read during the mini
lesson.

During Lesson:

When it was time for math, I had students come to the back carpet with their slates and
markers. I decided to do some mental math and fluency before we started todays lesson. I had
students think and answer: if Cory has 12 pencils and shares 9 with his friends. How many
pencils does Cory have now?. Many of them got the answer right away and would write only 4
on their slates. I had to keep stating making the word obvious.. Cory has 4 PENCILS and shoes
9 PENCILS with his friends, etc. until they realized they needed to write the unit (pencils). We
had been working on adding units to our math problems and sometimes I have keep reminding
them. The next couple examples for the warm up they knew to use the unit (stickers, pencils,
etc.). Next, I discussed what we were going to be doing today. I explained we will be going over
the concept of time and what we use to tell time. I first asked them to think: What tools can we
use to tell time? Next, I asked them to think about it: Write on your slate, what time do you eat
dinner? It was interesting to see what time they thought they ate dinner. Many of them wrote
10:00 or 1:00 or even 8:00. There were a few that wrote 4:00, 5:00 and 6:00 which are probably
around what time they actually eat, I was impressed! Next I read, Telling Time by Wendy
Blaxland. This book explained what time is and all the different meanings.
 Before we broke off into math workshop I explained what everyone was to do. There
were four groups. Math with a teacher is working with me, math by themselves was to complete
math boxes for unit 6-1 (page 112 of math journal), math with a partner were to play math
games of choice from the math games bins and technology is where they played math games
on the iPads. Each rotation was about 15 minutes long depending on how quickly students
picked up the lesson with me.
I worked with the lowest group first and worked my way to the highest. I showed each
group on the SmartBoard a digital clock and an analog clock. I explained these are some tools
we can use to tell time. I asked where do we find these? Each group gave examples of iPads,
iPhones, watches, clock in classroom, etc. Next, I asked each group to share different activities
that are exactly an hour. Some said math, some said soccer, some even said eating dinner. On
the demonstration clock I explained to them that this is the hour hand (pointing to the little hand).
Whenever it is pointing to a number, thats the hour that it shows. I went around the clock with
the hand 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. and had them state the time out loud. Each group got it so quickly! I was
amazed and impressed. I quickly moved on to the worksheets. I explained the first problem for
each group and had them complete the rest on their own. Most students from each group were
able to do it. There were one or two that I had to explain one-on-one the concept.
After the worksheets were complete, we played the time cookie jar game. For the first
two groups (lower groups), I gave each of them a cookie that had a different time on it in digital
form. I spread out the cookie jars which had the analog time on it. One by one I had students tell
me what time they had and to place it in the correct cookie jar. Each student got two or three
times. For the other two groups (higher groups), I spread out the cookie jars, gave them the
cookies and had them place it right away. They did not take turns or go one at a time. Students
in each group loved this game! They kept saying how fun this is and they wanted to do it again. I
had to explain due to time we couldn't but I would put it in the math games bin and they could
play it again some other time.

After Lesson:

I feel like the lesson went really well. Students were able to stay on task during their
different centers and I did not have to tell them to keep the volume down much. I thought the
concept of telling time would be a lot harder for the students but they got it pretty quickly. A
couple days later, I reviewed it with them and they still had it so it made me feel good that my
lesson worked.
My goal for my lesson maybe try this as a whole group instruction next time. Students
picked it up so quickly that maybe not much time was needed to complete the lesson. I couldve
spent more time on other lessons that they did not understand as a modified workshop after the
lesson was complete.