Pre-practicum 1 – Lesson Template

Name: Alexandra Brandes Date: 11/7/2017 School: Baker Elementary School

Grade: 3rd grade Starting and Ending Time: ____ to ____

OVERVIEW OF THE LESSON

MA Curriculum Frameworks incorporating the Common Core State Standards: With regard to
how this lesson fits into the “big picture” of the students’ long-term learning, which MA
framework does the lesson most clearly address?

MA Curriculum Frameworks, Mathematics, 3rd Grade - Number and Operations in Base Ten,
A. Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic.
1. Use place value understanding to round whole numbers to the nearest 10 or 100.

Standards for Mathematical Practice #7, “Look for and make use of structure” because students
will need to be aware of a number’s base-ten structure and the place values of respective digits in
order to accurately round that number

Instructional Objective: By the end of the lesson, (1) what concept, information, skill, or
strategy will the student(s) learn and (2) how will they demonstrate that knowledge?

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to accurately round numbers to the nearest
hundred or thousand.

Assessment: What specific, tangible evidence will show that each student has met this objective?

Students will demonstrate their knowledge through the completion of a two-question exit-ticket
at the end of the lesson.

Academic Language Objective: By the end of the lesson, (1) what language, relating to the
lesson and lesson content, will the student(s) know or learn, and (2) how will they demonstrate
that knowledge? Refer to Read Aloud Training (Elementary) or Academic Language Training
(Secondary) and to WIDA and Three Tiers of Vocabulary Beck, Kucan, and McKeown (2002) as
cited by Thaashida L. Hutton in Three Tiers of Vocabulary and Education.

Students will be able to define words such as “round,” “place-value,” “hundreds place,” and
“thousands place.” None of these words should be new to the students, as they have been used in
previous math lessons and activities.

Assessment: What specific, tangible evidence will show that each student has met this objective?

Students will show they understand these words by being able to accurately complete the exit-
slip, which will rely on these words in its directions.

Revised August 2015 Cass/Malley/Hagen 1

Venkatesh/Akoury/Malley
Content: What are the specific details of the lesson’s content knowledge?

This lesson will focus on rounding to the nearest hundred or nearest thousands. Students have
already been introduced to rounding to the nearest ten and the nearest hundred, so I will be
building on their prior knowledge.

**I will teach this lesson twice, back-to-back with different students each time**

PROCEDURES FOR THE LESSON

In this section, provide specific directions, explanations, rationales, questions, potential
vignettes/scenarios, strategies/methods, as well as step-by-step details that could allow someone
else to effectively teach the lesson and meet the lesson objectives.

Opening ( minutes): How will you introduce the instructional objective to the students, pre-
teach/ preview vocabulary, and prepare them to engage with the lesson content?

I will be working with a small group of students, approximately 5, with groupings based on the
differentiated math levels my SP has established. The small group will gather on the rug in front
of the stand-up easel, where I can show a worked example and write key terms. The students will
each have a small white board, dry-erase pen, and eraser.

I will begin the lesson by activating the students’ background knowledge; they have all been
introduced to the concept of rounding to the tens place and the hundreds place, so I will be
reviewing the hundreds place and introducing rounding to the thousands place.

“Today we are going to talk about rounding. Rounding is when you figure out which numbers the
original one is close it. It is useful for making general statements, when you don’t need to work
with the long, exact numbers. Who remembers talking about rounding with Ms. Harris? Do you
remember the process for how we wrote it out? Let’s start with smaller numbers. Let’s say I have
the number 27. Can someone come show me what place value each of these digits has? *student
responses*. If I want to round to the nearest ten, what do I do? *student responses – have a
student help me draw a number line on the easel, with 20 and 30 on either end, 25 as middle, and
place 27. Can anyone tell me what we will found 27 to? *circle 30*. Exactly! Because 27 is past
the halfway mark, so it’s closer to 30 – it’s only 3 away from 30, but 7 away from 20.

“Last Tuesday you learned this notation: ≈. Can anyone remember what it means? *student
responses* correct, it means “about.” So for this example we just did, we would write “27 ≈ 30,”
meaning “27 is about 30.”

Revised August 2015 Cass/Malley/Hagen 2

Venkatesh/Akoury/Malley
During Lesson ( minutes): How will you direct, guide, and/or facilitate the learning process to
support the students in working toward meeting the instructional objectives?

“Now that we remember how to round to the tens place, how would we round to the hundreds
place? Imagine we are at an animal sanctuary. Because it’s a sanctuary it protects animals and so
has large numbers of each species. This sanctuary doesn’t like to put the exact number of animals
in its brochure; it’s simpler for them to round than to list the exact number down to the ones
place. Imagine the animal sanctuary has 196 chipmunks and wants to round the total number of
chipmunks to the nearest hundred; what do we do? *student answers*” Remind about how will
have to round up, to 200 – so change the digit in hundreds place as well

Remind of convention to round up if exactly in the middle.

“Let’s do an example of the thousands now. Say this zoo has 1432 butterflies. They don’t want to
write this exact number on their signs, though. They want to round it to the thousands. First of
all, what are the place values? (if need to clarify: What does each digit stand for…say one
thousand, four hundred, thirty-two slowly to help). If we’re rounding to the nearest thousand,
what thousands are on either side of this number? *write on easel*

“Imagine there are 143 deer at this animal sanctuary. How many deer would the sanctuary say
they have if they’re rounding to the nearest hundred? Try this one on your white board. When
you’re done put your thumb up and I’ll come see your work.

Imagine there are 2,997 salmon in the river of this animal sanctuary. If we’re rounding to the
nearest hundred, how many salmon are there?

Other possible numbers to use:

 505 to nearest hundred
 7017 to nearest thousand
 8182 to nearest hundred.

If group finishes quickly and accurately, can introduce the idea of “ten-thousands” and rounding
to the nearest ten-thousand – 20,134 (20,000) and 17,982 (18,000)

Revised August 2015 Cass/Malley/Hagen 3

Venkatesh/Akoury/Malley
Closing ( minutes): How will you bring closure to the lesson and, by doing so, review and
determine what students have learned?

“Let’s assess how you’re all feeling about this. Give me a thumbs up if you’re feeling confident
on rounding to hundreds and thousands; sideways thumb if you’re feeling so-so, maybe
confident on one and not the other; and a thumbs down if you want some more practice and
explanation. Alright, thanks for being so honest. You can put your thumbs away now. We will
definitely be working on this more in the future, and this is a skill which you will keep using
throughout your life. Before you head to your next math activity, I have these extra practice
problems. You can pass the sheets to me when you’re done and then put your white boards
away.”

Revised August 2015 Cass/Malley/Hagen 4

Venkatesh/Akoury/Malley
 FINAL DETAILS OF THE LESSON
Classroom Management: If teaching a small group or whole class, how will you use classroom
routines, reinforce appropriate behavior, and/or handle behavioral issues? Give one example.

I will be working with two small groups of pre-selected students. Before I begin teaching the
content, I will lay out expectations for their personal white board use, in an attempt to pre-
emptively stop distraction. If students are not focusing during the lesson, I will remind them of the
task. I will try to use language my SP uses, such as “keep your brain on the rug” and “are you
making a wise choice right now?” to remind the wandering students to focus.

Materials: What are the materials that you will need to organize, prepare, and/or try-out before
teaching the lesson?

 Large stand easel + markers to explanations and worked examples

 5 personal white boards + markers + erasers for students
 Printed exit-tickets + pencils

Follow-up: How will you and/or your Supervising Practitioner reinforce the learning at a later
time so that the students continue to work toward the lesson’s overarching goal (i.e., the MA
Curriculum Framework incorporating the Common Core State Standards)?

Through this lesson, I am reinforcing the introduction to rounding and the ideas of rounding to the
nearest ten and nearest hundred which my SP has taught. These topics will continue to be
reinforced in their daily math block; students will have the opportunity to further practice
rounding through worksheets and activities.

Revised August 2015 Cass/Malley/Hagen 5

Venkatesh/Akoury/Malley
Name: ______________________________________
Rounding to the Nearest Hundred or Thousand
Round the following numbers to the appropriate place value, showing all your
work. Please circle your answer.
 There are 2357 butterflies. Round the number of butterflies to the
nearest hundred.

 There are 4807 fish. Round the number of fish to the nearest thousand

Name: ______________________________________
Rounding to the Nearest Hundred or Thousand
Round the following numbers to the appropriate place value, showing all your
work. Please circle your answer.
 There are 2357 butterflies. Round the number of butterflies to the
nearest hundred.

 There are 4807 fish. Round the number of fish to the nearest thousand

Revised August 2015 Cass/Malley/Hagen 6

Venkatesh/Akoury/Malley
 REFLECTING ON THE LESSON
& DEVELOPING AN INQUIRY STANCE IN DAILY PRACTICE

These questions and prompts are to be used to guide the post-lesson evaluation and critique.

1. Student Learning and Engagement/Classroom Management/Routines

a. What do you think the students learned? Did student learning differ from what you
were expecting?
b. Describe how you tried to engage the students throughout the lesson. Explain how
it was or was not effective.
c. Which parts of classroom or small group management were most and/or least
effective? Why?

2. Lesson Adaptations
a. In hindsight, how might you have improved or modified the lesson during the
planning stages? What adaptations might you have used?
b. What specific suggestions from your Program Supervisor or Supervising
Practitioner were implemented or not? What was the outcome? Were they
beneficial? Why or why not?

3. Strengths and Areas Needing Improvement

a. In thinking about your lesson as a whole, what were the most effective and least
effective parts of the lesson?
b. What do you see as your teaching strengths in the lesson?
c. What areas of your teaching need improvement or modification? What support
from your Program Supervisor or Supervising Practitioner would help you in these
areas? Be as specific as possible.
d. If you were to teach this lesson again, what would you do differently?

Revised August 2015 Cass/Malley/Hagen 7

Venkatesh/Akoury/Malley