First Grade | Second Grade | Fourth Grade | Fifth Grade | Seventh Grade

First Grade

First grade teacher, So Young Shin, at  Daejeon Sunam Elementary School, Daejeon, Korea, presenting a lesson on “Subtracting from 10”  used  multiple strategies to present subtracting from 10 problems.  The teacher began each  instructional sequence by presenting a problem , then  modeling the problem with a manipulative, number line, or algorithm.  Teacher demonstration was followed by student application of the modeling with their own manipulatives, public evaluation of the student application, and then a new instructional sequence utilizing a different strategy or manipulative.

First presented a simulated  box of two rows of five.  Three cells in the top row contained  simulated Go stones..

Teacher read a story from  the big picture book, a story about the cartoon character’s teeth.

Teacher then presented a word problem and three objectives for the day on the board.

The word problem read: “Find the value by subtracting from 10 and complete the subtraction equation.”  Note the mathematical language used.

The three objectives read:

• Activity 1: Find the value using Go stones
• Activity 2: Find the value on a number line
• Activity 3: Play bingo

The teacher then asked the children to show the word problem  by placing Go chips in their egg cartons.

Children illustrated the problem with their egg cartons.  The teacher asked for student responses, gave public evaluative feedback.  Then the teacher wrote the algorithm 10 – 7 = 3, framing the 7.  Seven had been the unknown.

The teacher than placed a magnetic number line on the board, wrote  numbers 0  through 10 under the number line and then demonstrated  10 – 8 = 2 on the number line jumping a cartoon character backed with chalk from 0 to 10, and back to 2.  Then the teacher wrote the algorithm under the number line, framing the 8.  Eight had been the unknown.

Children then did similar number line problems on heavy cards with large printed number lines, displayed their work for public evaluation, then wrote the algorithm  under the number line.

Teacher then displayed individual placards comprising a l0s subtraction chart.

A bingo game on large bingo boards followed.  The lesson ended  with a cartoon

manipulative from the Big Book having teeth subtracted from his head by teacher and student at the board.

^back to top

Second Grade

Second grade teachers, Lacosta Rennells and Jennifer Peavler, at Green City Elementary School, facilitating a lesson on “Composing and Decomposing 10” focused on gross motor activities as well as fine motor activities in teaching a lesson  on 10.

Title of the lesson was on the interactive white board along with three objectives as the lesson began :

Today  you will . . .

1. Compose a 10 from ones.
2. Decompose  l0’s
3. Find out how many ways to make 10

First children engaged in a gross motor activity in which flashcards numbered 1 to 10 were taped to the floor.  Children  jumped from the flashcard representing one given addend  to another representing the second given addend to make  10.

Then Ms. Lacosta aided the children in creating a data chart showimg number of 10’s and the remainder held by each  of  their groups.  .Ms. Lacosta summarized the activity on the data chart, and then children rotated  to activity centers where they sorted given groups of  ten’s and one’s.

The lesson ended with a two step word problem on the interactive white board.

“Josie has 4 buckets.  In each bucket are 10 apples.  How many apples

Does Josie have in all?

“How many buckets would Josie need if she had 70 apples?”

^back to top

Fourth Grade

Fourth grade teacher Holly Whitacre, and sixth grade teacher Cari Weaver, LaPlata Elementary School, LaPlata, Missouri, facilitating a lesson on  “Multiplication of whole numbers” used arrays to conceptualize multiplication for students.

The lesson began with a multiplication equation on the interactive white board and some definitions along with an array of tiles which students manipulated to demonstrate given problems.

Definitions and direction on the board:

“The width and length of the rectangle are the factors.

The product is the area of a rectangle.

Move the tiles to change the length and width of the rectangle.”

Children demonstrated problems on the interactive white board, by moving tiles.

A chart displaying 100’s, 10’s, and1’s also appeared on the interactive board.

Then children drew on white boards at their desks their own creation of arrays to illustrate multiplication problems.

^back to top

Fifth Grade

Sang Mi Ryu, fifth grade teacher at Daejeon, Korea, Elementary School, presenting a lesson on symmetry, began the class with the title of the lesson, and three activities in the lesson on the board:

Let’s find a line symmetry figure

• Activity 1: categorizing various figures
• Activity 2: Making line symmetry figures
• Activity 3: Exciting letter world (Finding symmetry in Korean alphabet)

In small groups of three to five students, class than carried out the first two activities, each activity followed by individual display of solutions and public evaluation in the large group.  The third activity was a large group lesson conducted by the teacher at the document projector.

^back to top

Seventh Grade

Seventh grade teacher, Angela Fields, at Green City School, Green City, Missouri facilitating a lesson on “Addition of Fractions with and without common denominators, also used multiple strategies to to present fraction  addition  problems: concrete fraction circles, fraction strips on paper, number lines and algorithms.

Ms. Fields began the lesson with a word problem on the interactive white board which read:

You need to cut 3 strips of yarn for a craft project you are making,

9  3/8” ,  5 ½”  and 3 ¾.  How much total yarn do you  need?

Then Ms. Fields reviewed the 4 meanings of fractions, and referred to the fraction circle problems students had done last week in five different modes: vertical and  horizontal  algorithms, in pictures modes, in  number lines, and in word problems.

She then placed  2/8 + 5/8 = 7/8  on the interactive white board, and drew a number line illustrating the problem.

Students then did problems in groups with fraction circles and fraction strip handouts.

Ms. Fields then changed 1/3 + ½ to common denominators, drawing the fractions on circles, then  circling the common denominators.  The problem was then placed on a number line divided into 1/6s.