Summer Blog

Summer Blogging Over the summer we will all be planning and fine tuning our math program for the upcoming year. This summer the Math Academy will provide a great forum for questions, comments and concerns. I don't know how many people will be able to attend. Will the Blog site be available to us to communicate with colleagues who were not at the summer math academy. Addtionally questions might arise even for those of us who did attend. Blogging would be a good and quick way to get answers or feedback
Labels: Shelley Anderton

Where is everybody?

I am looking over what still needs to be taught. So much to do so little time! I am curious to know if everyone was able to cover all the topics. I followed the plan laid out by Jeff so that the main areas will be covered but I am still worried about the gaps. Next year should be easier but I would love to know how others handled the pacing.

Using Assessments

As my second grade team discussed the end of the year assessments we wondered how the results would drive instruction. The third grade teachers will be given the same instructions as we were---Don't deviate from the curriculum. If a large group of second graders(now third graders show a weakness in elapsed time for example will next year's teacher be able to stop and spend extra time on that area?

Shelley, thanks for the tip on the Math Grid Game - it was a huge hit. I named it "Magic Number" and actually drew the base ten cubes on the board above the "100 more", "100 less", etc. grid. The first person had to identify the number from the base ten cube picture. Also, I let the next student correct an error of a previous team member if they needed to when it was his/her turn. It was a great idea....and no prep. needed - just a white board and expo markers....that is so key.

Topic 4.14

To review navigating the two hundreds chart we played a relay game. I drew three grids on the board. (Tic Tac Toe style) Each one had only number filled in. I divided the class into three teams. The first team to successfully fill in their grid won. We played three or four times and the children got better and faster at filling in the grid. They started to see the patterns. The teams were allowed to help teammates so that a struggling child was not embarrassed if he/she still didn't quite get it. This was a simple to construct and play game that didn't require any laminating! Please feel free to email me if my explanation was not clear.

Consolidating and Prioritizing Lessons

I found the overview of math lessons very helpful. It has been somewhat stressful to look at what is left to teach and how little time is left to get it all in. I am curious to know why we can skip all of Topic 12 if we run out of time. In prior years the addition and subtraction taught in Topic 12 was the main work of the second grade. Is this now a third grade skill and we are only exposing students to the beginning mechanics? Regrouping in subtraction is lesson 12.10. I know that our students will need to know how to regroup on the third grade CMTs. How will this impact the third grade teachers who will now have to take on the majority of the teaching of regrouping? I understand that second graders are exposed to the concepts needed to be good math thinkers and maybe the transition to paper pencil tasks will be very easy for them. Is anyone else teaching regrouping (supplementing)?

Lesson 4.8 Hundreds, Tens and Ones

Used the Discussion Book to lead discussion. Skipped the whole linking cubes hands-on and went right to the bean boats. Aileen Howards suggested adding a whole estimation component to this lesson before actually making the bean boats, having the kids work in groups to form estimates of the number of beans in their cups first. Then had students make a boat of ten beans and revisit their estimate. It was really worthwhile and led to great discussion. We went on to make our boats and rafts and wrote the numbers on number expanders and pasted them to the project as well. It was a really fun lesson and very appropriate for this age level.

Please follow these directions when posting:

Math BLOG TemplateFor all posts: Write the number of the lesson and the title of the lesson

Example: (Lesson 4.2- Counting on from 10)

For the remainder of the post, please include any of the following

• Identify problems and offer a solution (if found)
• What have you done to enhance/improve the lesson?
• Are there lessons you found that could be combined? Please identify how you decided.
• What activities did you find most meaningful? Why?
• What activities can be skipped? Why?
• General comments about lesson.

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Lesson 5.9 (during visit to Redding)

We learned many things about Growing with Mathematics on our visit to Redding yesterday (1/9/07). We watched lesson 5.8 and 5.9. Below is a description of lesson 5.9.

During lesson 5.9 (Solving Addition Problems), there was a bit of confusion. The lesson itself was not very difficult for children to understand. However, the teacher attempts to lead the children to discover patterns in addition number sentences. This lesson is really asking the teacher to teach the children a strategy for adding numbers.

On discussion book page 38, the numbers are presented in a child-friendly way. Students are shown a page which provides the scenario that they will be buying toy dinosaurs. The possible costs of the dinosaurs are: 22, 19, 20, 18, 30, 29, 31, 21 cents. The first thing the lesson wants the students to notice is that these numbers, when put onto a number line, are in clusters around either 20 or 30. Then the lesson wants student to recognize the following pattern with numbers clustered around a number:

If 20 + 20 = 40 and I add 1 to the first 20 (21) and take away 1 from the second 20 (19), I still get 40 when I add the two numbers together. The pattern looks like this:

20 + 20 = 40
21 + 19 = 40
22 + 19 = 40

There are many other problems on the discussion book page all of which are related to this concept, though each different question asks children to think about and manipulate the provided numbers in a different way.

Before you get to the student book pages, make sure you do all of the questions on Discussion book page 38 since the way questions are asked on the student book page directly relate to the discussion book page.

Suggestion: Do the whole-group lesson one day. Since this will take a lot of time, do the student book page the following day at the beginning of class. I would not suggest sending this page home because there will probably be confusion.

Lesson 5.8 (during visit to Redding)

We learned many things about Growing with Mathematics on our visit to Redding yesterday (1/9/07). We watched lesson 5.8 and 5.9. Below is a description of lesson 5.8.

During lesson 5.8 (Adding Two-Digit Numbers), the teacher did a great job of showing the students that there were MANY ways to solve the given addition problems. This lesson clearly built upon prior knowledge of addition.

The part of the lesson that I liked the best was that when the teacher asked for student answers, she had the students give the answer and then each student had to talk about the strategy used and the steps followed to solve the problem. The students in her class used at least six different strategies for solving two-digit addition problems. Some examples were:

- Hundreds chart
- Number Line
- Adding columns from right to left
- Adding columns from left to right
- Base-ten Blocks
- Coins... this is the one that I found most interesting. One student asked the teacher if she could add 52 and 35 together using coins. I had never seen a student do this before. The student drew the two quarters and two pennies for the 52 and drew a quarter and a dime for the 35. She then added the three quarters together and knew this was 75. Then she added on the dime (85) then added the two pennies for a total of 87.

This student truly exhibited a great number sense.

Rules of the Blog

First and foremost

Please remember that this is a public website and anything you write will be visible to anybody who logs on. In my first post below, I have posted some "Netiquette" rules that I received from Pat Cooney.

Netiquette, or network etiquette, is the contemporary term for the proper way we communicate and interact with each other using email or over the Internet. Over the years with the advent of email in educational settings, communication with parents and colleagues has become very efficient and most of the time highly effective. Simultaneously concerns with security, confidentiality, and privacy have now made it essential that all of us observe general guidelines of “netiquette” when corresponding via email or the internet.

The Phenomenon of Flaming

The expression of extreme emotion or opinion in an email message is referred to as flaming. The misinterpretation of the content of an email message, plus the likelihood that the recipient will“Fire off a hasty response” can often exacerbate a situation. Impulsive email responses can create a negative impact on relationships among colleagues and parents. Even with the best of intentions, mistakes and misunderstandings can and do occur when corresponding via the internet.

In order to keep our messages professional, consider following the list of general guidelines below.
1. Do not capitalize whole words that are not titles. Capitalizing is generally interpreted as SHOUTING to your reader.
2. Always use correct grammar, spelling and punctuation.
3. Separate opinions from facts. Keeping the focus on facts promotes clear understanding of your communication.
4. Watch the "post" button. Remember messages "posted" become permanent.
5. Never insult or criticize via the blog. Please keep the tone professional.
6. Resist the temptation to “fire off” a response.
7. Read the original message again. Be sure you are not misinterpreting the message of the sender.
8. Always Reread your posts before sending.

I hope that this can become a positive place where colleagues come to share or "think critically" about the Second Grade Growing with Math program.