Material Detail

What a great lesson! I agree that the SMART Board is such an amazing tool to have, and we are so fortunate to have them in our classrooms to enhance student learning. I think it was smart to go back and add review on the operation symbols to refresh students’ memories. Using number stories that are applicable to real-word experiences (e.g. bake sale) is an authentic way for students to learn and practice writing number sentences. You did a nice job of incorporating a variety of teaching methods. Students will love interacting with the SMART Board during whole-group instruction, and will benefit from working with peers. Peer work can be successful because they can learn from one another, support and challenge each other. Applying what they learned to creating their own number story and sentence will be use the math skill being learned. I think this lesson supports all learners, by providing visuals and hands-on experiences.

Technical Remarks:

Nice job explaining the background and need for this activity. Students definitely need to know how to work with number sentences and create their own number story. This is vital in the real world- and you did a good job of helping students understand and activate prior knowledge and experiences. You gave the students several chances to communicate and collaborate with peers. They could ask for assistance, as well as work together to create a product. Students with lesser skills could be helped by peers with greater knowledge and skills. Students had several learning strategies to follow. They were given inductive reasoning to help solve a problem as a class, they were given chances to explore their own problems and create solutions, and students also used deductive reasoning if they needed to help a partner solve a problem. I enjoyed the way the students were able to choose creative expression in their use of TuxPaint. Students would be familiar with this program, and had a guideline to follow (create a number sentence and illustrate with pictures) but were given ability to be creative in how they expressed their answer. Students would be able to draw a picture or create illustrations to match the problem in their mind. Great wrap up to the lesson as well, students were able to share their creations with their peers and learn from others. Students will also enjoy the whole class assignment once the teacher has created the slideshow with all the numerical equations pictures.