Mary Robbins

Math Instruction Reflection

The teacher I was placed with for math instruction during my two week IMB time was named Miss
Murphy. Miss Murphy was someone the students were always excited to go and see. She was tough on her students
and expected a lot out of her students, and they knew it. However, she gave them respect and cared about each one
of them individually and this showed. Students were happy to see her because of her energy and excitement for
teaching. She made her classroom a positive and safe place. I remember when I was there someone was getting
bullied in class. She addressed this in the most commendable way. I loved the fact that she drew attention to a topic
that others would shy away from. I was nervous to go into a fifth grade math classroom at the start of my IMB. She
made me feel more confident in teaching a fifth grade lesson by letting me take charge and choose anything that I
wanted to teach and as much as I wanted to teach.

Miss Murphy allowed me to interact with students as much as I wanted. For the first day I just observed her
protocol and what she did in her classroom. After that, I went around helping individual students everyday. This was
a big thing that I was able to do. I learned how to approach different students with different mathematical needs. I
also was able to teach two math lessons, both of which were about units of capacity. I graded student work such as
homework, classwork, and their warms ups. I was also able to participate in small group lessons. During these
lessons I would first start of showing how to do a problem step by step on a small dry erase board. I would have the
students follow along with me mimicking my steps. I would then do a problem with the students having them taking
truns telling me the steps on how to solve the problem. Then the students would work with the person beside them to
do a few assigned problems. We would solve and share them as a group. Lastly, I would have them then do a
problems on their own and go over anymore additional questions individually.

The standards that were addressed during my two weeks of observations were: MD.1: Convert among
different-sized standard measurement units within a given measurement system and use there conversions in solving
multi-step, real world problems, MD.3: Recognize volume as an attribute of solid figures and understand concepts of
volume measurement, MD.4: Measure volumes by counting unit cubes, using cubic cm, cubic in, cubic ft, and
improvised units, and MD.5: Relate volume to the operations of multiplication and addition and solve real world and
mathematical problems involving volume. During my time there, students learned about volume, how to solve for
volume by using prior knowledge of how to find perimeter. Students also learned the different written equations for
volume. Students also learned how to solve for volume of different shapes, regular and irregular. Students also
learned how to convert among metric units. Students learned the different prefixes of the metric units and how to
convert one unit to another by using multiplication and/or division properties. When I taught my lesson students
learned how to convert among different units of capacity or weight.

Math time would first start out with what was called a memory jogger. The memory jogger was used as a
warm up. These were passed out as the students entered the door way, so it is the first thing that they received every
math period. The memory joggers would have four problems on them to review previously learned concepts. This
was used to help students activate prior knowledge, while also helping to retain learned information (EXAMPLE OF
MEMORY JOGGER PLACED BELOW). The students would then turn in their memory joggers after about 10
minutes. The students would also turn in their homework at this time. After that, the math instruction began. Each
day the teacher and students followed the same structure, but different math concepts. The basic structure of each
lesson started off with a solve and share. The students would open up their workbooks/textbooks and as a group, the
teacher and the students, would go through solving an introductory problem. After that, there would be a guided
video that went over introducing the main idea of the lesson for that day. The students would then do a problem all
together with the video, followed by another with the teacher. When all of those things were finished, the students
would then be assigned problems to do on their own. During this time, Miss Murphy would walk around and check
to see if students were getting the right answer, giving one on one help, and checking for completion so students
could move on to workshop time. After instruction came workshop time. During workshop time students would go
around the classroom and would pull worksheets that were standards that they individually needed to work on.
During workshop time Miss Murphy would also call small groups to the back table that were struggling with that
day’s lesson.
 Miss Murphy guided instruction by allowing students the opportunity to ask as many questions as they
wanted to. She never made any student feel unsmart about asking questions in her class. During instruction Miss
Murphy would ask questions like: “Do this concept relate to something that we have already learned about?” “
What were the steps you took to get that answer?” “Can anyone tell me a different way that they got the same
answer?” “Can anyone show and explain the the class their thought process when solving this equation?”“Why do
you think we go this answer?” Throughout the lessons students were always encouraged to share their reasoning and
their thought process. Miss Murphy would allow students to come up to the front and show how they got a specific
answer. She would call on students that got different answers so each student could explain how they got their
answer and then the whole class would talk about it. During the time when students would work individually this
type of encouragement continued. She would ask students to explain their reasoning behind their answers, this
included providing pictures or shown work and the student would then use that work to explain to Miss Murphy how
they came up with that answer.

One thing that I would like to explain further is math workshop time. I had never seen this done before and
thought it was really cool and I loved how individualized it was. After the students would take a unit test for math,
Miss Murphy used their answers to fill out a standard sheet (THIS SHEET IS ATTATCHED BELOW). This
standard sheet had listed on it all the standards that they needed to be able to master by the end of the year. For each
test the students had, based on their answers right or wrong Miss Murphy would fill out a sheet telling students
which standards they needed to work on and which standards they had mastered. On the sheet if a students saw a
five in the box then they knew that they had shown mastery on that standard during the test. If a student saw a one
the student knew that they needed to work on that specific standard. Students would earn from zero to five
depending on their level of mastery shown during that specific test. This type of inventory was done after every test
so students are able to see if they are making progress on standards throughout the year. During workshop time
students would take their filled out standard sheet and pick a standard that they scored low on, a three or below, and
would go around the room to find a bucket with that standard labeled on it and get a worksheet out of it. The student
would complete that worksheet and then have to take a test on that worksheet once the student had all the correct
answers. I thought this was a good was to individualize instruction because every student would be working on
something that they needed in order to grow in mastery of math concepts.

Overall, I had the best IMB clinical experience I could have asked for. I feel more confident in my ability
to teacher upper Elementary grades, especially upper grades math. I learned how important it is to make sure you
give students individualized work and individualized attention during instruction and after. I will take strategies such
as: poster use, gallon mans, acronyms, and dances with me to help me teach in my own math classroom. On the
posters I will place important information such as the type of metric units in order from largest to smallest. I will use
a gallon man, or other fun cut outs to help students learn by putting something together. I will use acronyms for
concept memorization, for example Miss Murphy used King Henry Died Unexpectedly Drinking Chocolate Milk for
the metric unit prefixes. I will use dances and movement in my class to also help with memorization.

Example of Memory Jogger:

Example of Standard Sheet: