Lesson Planning

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 Sit:1

Transferring
• Application Understanding
• Problem solving • lnitiating
• Abstracting
• Schematizing

The Singaporean teaching model includes a four-part activity model. Planning for instruction
should include all types of activities.
The understanding phase consists of the initial lessons of any concept new to students. For
exemple, the introduction of model drawing and learning how to draw basic models occur du
this phase.

Drill and practice are done during the consolidation phase. After students understand the skill
concept, 1 0-minute review activities should be scheduled at the start of class in the weeks afte
key topic or concept has been introduced. Flashcards, games, worksheets, textbook mental m
etc. are all exemples of practice activities. Model drawing is not typically used to help stud
fluency.

Problem solving is most typical of the transfer phase of instruction. Students should have O 9
understanding of the concept and skills necessary. Students then apply their knowledge in new
situations, including solving routine and non-routine problems. For exemple, students will use
drawing to solve both familier and unfamiliar problems.

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• Mental Math and/or Ongoing Cumulative Review
• Instruction: Teocher directed or student leod (Opening Tosk)
• Guided Proctice: Textbook
• Activity or gome for proctice
• lndependent Proctice: Textbook and/or Workbook
• Home Enjoyment: Workbook or supplementol moteriol

1 Sample 1-hour lesson

Who/e group instruction: Mental Math and/or
Ongoing Cumulative Review
10 minutes to stort or end closs
• Closs working ot some poce through content.
• lndividuol students con be given +
differentioted problems during guided and / Instruction
independent proctice. (Opening Tosk from Textbook)
20 minutes

!
Guided and lndependent Proctice
(Textbook, Workbook, Journoling)
30 minutes
.
Whole Group Instruction with differentioted proctice
groups: Mental Math and/or
Ongoing Cumulative Review
10 minutes to stort or end closs
• Closs working together through instruction.
• Guided and independent proctice is
differentioted by skill level.
• Groups rotote between guided and Whole Group Instruction
independent proctice. (Opening Tosk from Textbook)
20 minutes

Smoll Group Smoll Group

Guided proctice lndependent Proctice
(Textbook) (Journoling, Workbook
15 minutes from previous lesson)
15 minutes

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Sma// Group Instruction:

Mental Math and/or

Ongoing Cumulative Review
10 minutes to start or end class

Small Group Small Group Small Group

Instruction Review or Practice lndependent Practice
(Targeted) (Journaling, Fluency {Textbook, Workbook
15 minutes Activity) from previous lesson)
15 minutes 15 minutes

• This is a good model for teachers with blended, multi-age or multi-level classrooms, classrooms
with a teacher and paraprofessional available, or on a review day where targeted instruction
is necessary.

• Groups rotate between instruction with teacher and practice sessions either for review or
tesson practice.

1 Planning for an Opening Task

An Opening Task allows students to explore new mathematical concepts, requiring them to make
connections with prior learning and engage in concrete activities. These tasks provide for
differentiation while ail students focus on the same skill or concept. Students in the concrete phase
of learning feel successful and those needing enrichment are challenged to find multiple methods
for solving the same problem.

Components of an opening task include:

• Exploring: The concrete phase of C-P-A allows students to build on prior knowled e and
.
helps them to see connections b etween concepts. g

• Structuring: Teacher consolidates the learning to meet lesson ob·iect·,ve t d h

strategies. s as s u ents s are

• Reflecting: Make connections between the concrete activity and the pictorial ·
representation found in the textbook.

• Journaling: Use to develop communication skills and formatively a h .

ssess t e learning.

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1Journaling·- - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Journaling in the math classroom promotes written communication and con serve as a form
formative assessment. Student journals typically are not included as part of the curriculum
materials but could be as simple as a collection of loose-leaf paper or individuel composition
books.

There are four basic types of journal entries; investigative, descriptive, evaluative and creative.

lnvestigative: Students explore a new concept, solve a problem and make connections to prior
learning.

Exemple: Three friends shore a sleeve of cookies. Each sleeve holds 32 cookies. If
1
each friend eats /4 of the sleeve, how many cookies do they eat altogether?

Descriptive: Students describe or explain a concept or mathematical vocabulary.

Exemple: Use pictures, numbers and/or words to explain a polygon.

Evaluative: Students argue for or against a strategy or solution to explain why they think an
answer is right or wrong, explain their choice of strategies or justify the most efficient strategy.

Exemple: Which of the strategies discussed in class today would you use to solve
245 - 97? Why?

Creative: Students write their own word problem or create their own number puzzle.

Exemple: The answer is 465 lbs. What's the question?

Depending on the type of entry, you could incorporate journaling into many parts of your math
day. Open a class with an investigative entry to engage students. Consolidate learning and
reflect on thinking with a mid-lesson descriptive or evaluative entry. Enrich students with a
creative entry for early finishers of independent practice.

1)oJc ·_ _ __
Jouv-V\cd¾ - -
TH-\e:
ProbleVV\:

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 · e ; · 11,i~înking
• Why does it make sense?
• Are you sure?
• ls that always true?
• Why? How do you know?
• Can you explain that?
• Can you prove it? How do you know it's true?
• What do you notice? What do you wonder?
• Can you say more about that?
• Can you draw a picture? A diagram?
• ls your answer reasonable? How do you know?
• Does it make sense?
• How is this task like the one we did before? How is it different?
• What did you learn before that can help you to solve this problem?
• What is alike and what is different about •.. ?
• Can you solve it another way?
• Are there any other ways of thinking about .•. ?
• Are you surprised that... ?
• ls that possible?
• What if ... ?
What does that mean?
• What did I do to the model?
• How can I name this?
• How did you figure that out?
• What happened today?
• Can we do a calculation?
• If different answers among students: What's wrong?
• What new questions can we ask?

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1Types of Assessment and Their Purposes
P~e-assessment_ (al:o called entry-level) Tests students' prerequisite skills and knowledge and
w,11 help determme 1f students are ready for the upcoming material.
1· Placement tests con be found at singaporemath.com and are used to identify
weaknesses and gaps in content knowledge. These should not be sent home, but rather
used to prepare for instruction in a classroom or to assist with implementation of a
Singapore math curriculum.
2. Pre-made pre-assessments are provided with some curricula.

Formative (or progress monitoring) Fosters development and improvement within an activity
and should be used to guide instruction.
• Textbooks provide practice questions for each topic and con be used to determine
students' readiness to move on.
• Supplemental materials that provide extra practice con be used to assess a student's
basic level knowledge of a topic.

Summative (end of unit tests) Assess whether results meet stated goals or objectives.
• Comprehensive practices and reviews con be found in the textbooks and workbooks
and con be used as a resource for teachers looking to create their own assessments.
• Sorne curricula offer pre-made assessments that test students' basic understanding of
concepts, their ability to apply their knowledge in familier situations and their ability
to apply their knowledge in novel situations.

1Home Enjoyment as Formative Assessment

Checking each home enjoyment is an obvious way to monitor progress depending on the level of
parental involvement.

If home eQjo~ment is impoRtant enough ta assign. it•s

impoRtant enough f oR a teacheR ta Review.
Students should be given feedback on homework as soon as possible and should correct their own
mistakes as O means of learning. Through regular progress monitoring, a teacher con see if
instruction needs to be repeated, clarified, approached in a different way, etc.

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 Hel Their Child with Home En·o
How Can Parents . Math curriculum is newly
Dealing with parents is frequently a cha Il enge
when a Singapore h • s·
th the way it is taug t m mgapore an
introduced. Generally speaking, paren t s did not learnthmatrategies taug ht m • firs t, se cond a nd th'Il
I
they do not understand the curriculum. The mente ma 'tably something with which they ar1
d r is almost mev1
grade may be new to them, and bar mo e mg . h . h"ldren with homework may not be
1
not familier. Parents who are accustomed to helpmg t feir c t. n parents may simply tell their
• h d t kbook ln rustre 10 '
able to do so by lookmg at t e stu en wor • "thm they learned in school, thereby
children, "Just do the problem this way," and teach th e a go~ t d the "why" math works prier
1

defeating the Singaporean process of having the student un ers an d

• 1Y memorize a proce ure.
to being taught "how" to selve the pro bl em or s1mp

.
What can parents do? Flashcards, computer webs1tes, hav1ng
• th e child figure out the total of a
few items at the grocery store1 or the change due back upon payment, goes a long way. Even
super-busy parents can spend a few minutes a day (at the dinner table or in the car, if need be),
quizzing their child on her multiplication facts.

ln addition to working math facts, parents can aise:

• Encourage and allow his child to count change.

• Help their child tell time on an analog dock.
• Work with their child with measurement: cooking, carpentry, travel etc.
• Play card games and other logic-based games! Research has proven that:

1Sorne Suggestions on lntroducing Parents to Singapore Math Methods

1. Explain why you're incorporating a Singapore Math curriculum into the classroom.
2. Explain the Singapore Math approach. (Think "Singapore Math in a nutshell".)
3. lnform parents about the training you have already completed!
4. Show/exp Iain the materials. They are different than what parents are used to.
5. Tell the parents your home enjoyment policy. Now, you can explain what type f
parents can be doing with their children at home. 0 work the
a. Math Facts: Not just multiplication!
b. Mental Math: You will need to go over in more detail. Explain how it • d
class and give several examples of what parents can do with their child1s use in yo ur
ren.
6. lnform the parents_of the key topics that will be covered in your grade fevel.
7. Prepare for different objections:
a. "Why can't I help my child the way l learned/know?"
b. "What happens after my child leaves this curriculum?"
8. Demonstrate some components:
a. Number Bonds
b. Decomposing
c. Mode! Drawing

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