Professional Experience 3

Sage Blackmore
Student ID: 110199439

Mathematics Evaluation

Number Sense – Small Group

ENGAGE:

At the beginning of this lesson, I was a bit worried due to the fact that the students have been
working at a very low level and I was not sure of how the lesson would go. However, as the lesson
progressed the students gained more of an understanding.

The students were able to count from 1-10 as a whole group in a circle, but when they had to count
by themselves two of the students struggled and therefore they only counted from 1-5. In saying
this, the other two students could count from 1-10, and one student even progressed to counting to
15.

It was also evident that the two high flyers of the group could subitise their counters when I would
either take a certain number of counters away, or gave them more counters. However, the other
two students had to recount their counters, and often did not count the counters in order (e.g.
1,2,3,4,7).

I think that my teaching was effective as I modelled to the students what needed to be done, and I
also made sure my instructions were explicit and I also helped students throughout the lesson, and
further explained what I needed the students to do (e.g. point to each counter when counting).
Additionally, I also think my idea of using fish figurines as counters was a good idea as it made the
students more engaged. In saying this, one student was very distracted by the fish figurines and
therefore it would be important to assess how students behave within the classroom before
introducing a more engaging element like the figurines. Another element I need to work on in my
teachings it to probably be a bit more patient, as when the two students could not count above 5 or
in order I was starting to get a bit frustrated.

SECOND LESSON:

This second lesson I progressed to more pictorial concepts of numbers. It was very interesting to see
that all 5 students were placing their numbers and pictures in an odd order – instead of placing the
numbers in an ascending order (left to right; 1-10), they started from the right and then to left. I
then corrected the students with this concept and made sure that they understood that when we
read we read from left to right, and therefore when you place number 1 down first it needs to start
on the left-hand side.

I think that my teaching is becoming more explicit as students are understanding what to do straight
away, without them seeming to be confused or sitting around doing nothing. I also think that it was
a good lesson for the students to connect numbers with quantities which then leads into the next
lesson. In saying this, one student did struggle with counting all the pictorial quantities up to 5.
Instead of counting each cut out image and recognising them as individual numbers (e.g. picture of 2
dogs = 2), he would count each image (e.g. would count 1 turtle, then both of the dogs, and then
count all 3 ice-creams and that would go into the count and he would end up with a total of 6). I did
find this difficult to try and get the student to understand, however, once working more one-on-one
with him he did understand not to count each image in each cut out.
Professional Experience 3
Sage Blackmore
Student ID: 110199439

FINAL LESSON:

Unfortunately this lesson had to be completed quickly due to time constraints and PLC meetings
towards the end of the week. The students who could easily match numbers with quantities in the
previous lesson, had no trouble places the train carriages in order – regardless of whether the
carriages has numbers or dot quantities. However, Jude and Samuel, the two students who had been
struggling throughout the lessons did not understand how to follow on number carriages with then
the next ascending number quantity. In the end for these students I went back to the previous
lesson of them matching numbers with quantities to help them develop concepts and their
understanding at a deeper level before moving on to the train carriages again, as there was no point
challenging them that much when they were not ready for it.

I think it is important to realise when students are ready to be challenged, and when they need more
practice on a specific concept. Therefore, I think I was effective within my lesson today to allow the
two boys to go back to previous lessons to further help their understandings.