Michelle Loomis

Observation # 4 – Math

Math is last subject of the school day, for the fourth grade class I am observing. Usually the students are burnt out and do not stay on task. This lesson was very different. The lesson began by the students answer four problems the teacher had written on the board. The students did this on white boards. The students also had to identify the type of problem they were answering. The choices were: distributive, associative, identity, zero, and commutative, all which were written on the board.

The teacher then asked the students to volunteer the answers. Most students raised their hands, eagerly wanting to answer. This indicated that the students seemed to understand the topic that was being covered. After the student wrote the answer on the board the teacher asked the students to do thumbs up or thumbs down, for each answer. After the correct answers were established the teacher would start a song for the students to finish. An example of this was, “I feel good….and I know that I do….so good….so good…I got it right”. The students seemed to know how to respond to each song which indicated they must have done this before, during math class.

The teacher then went on to explain the distributive property. This was done by using the overhead projector. The teacher drew an array and asked the students to make up a multiplication expression for the problem. The students understood and responded by writing, 6 x 8 on the white boards. The teacher then circled a part of the array and asked the students what multiplication expression should be written. The students wrote down 5 x 8. Then the teacher asked what multiplication expression would explain what was left. The students responded by writing 1 x 8. The teacher then explained that putting that together would equal the array as a whole.

After this the teacher wrote an expression on the board. 3 x 14 = (3 x 10) + (3 x ). The students were asked to find the missing number. Most students understood, but the teacher explained the process for the students who did not. After this problem the teacher wrote another problem on the board. For this one he walked around and gave high fives to the students who got it right. For the students who did not get it right he walked them through each step. This was done for five questions.

The lesson ended by the teacher giving out a worksheet, based on the information they had just learned. The students were then given five minutes to work on it and if they did not finish it was homework. During this time the teacher walked around helping the students who were still confused.

During the lesson the teacher asked many questions. However, these questions were only to give answers and did not provide the students to think at a higher level. No questions were asked that required the students to think about the reasoning behind the properties, or to apply this property to an everyday situation. I believe this is the problem with most math lessons. We deal with math in situations every day. Why not use those situations to create a learning environment. If the students do not understand why to use this property they most likely will not remember when to use the property. If I was teaching this lesson I would make sure there was enough time to explain the purpose of this property and to create word problems to put the subject in context.

The class was split up almost equally between boys and girls, seven boys and eight girls. Both boys and girls were called on to answer the questions, and every student was called on at least once. This gave an opportunity for each student to have a chance to participate in the lesson. It also helped the teacher to see which students understood and which students did not.

As for discipline, the boys were disciplined more for negative behavior for this lesson, and the girls were rewarded more for positive behavior. For negative behavior the students were asked to take a discipline strip, which have levels of severity based on how many you pull in a certain day. These were given to the students who were disruptive during the lesson. Both girls and boys were given these strips but two more boys than girls, in the end, had pulled strips. For positive behavior the students who were on task and not being disruptive were given strips. After five strips are accumulated the students who have five are able to have lunch with the teacher. For this particular lesson more girls were given strips than boys. However, this was only by one student.

	Girls	Boys
Called on to answer a question	14	12
Talked to about behavior (negative and positive)	Negative – 2 Positive - 3	Negative - 4 Positive - 2
Total	19	18

I believe this shows that my teacher teaches and disciplines fairly between genders. He does not care whether a student is a male or female. If the student’s are disruptive, they will pull a card, and if they are paying attention and on task they will get a strip. This is the same for every lesson I have observed while in the classroom. I have never seen my teacher discriminate based on gender. I believe that every student has an equal say in the classroom, and I also believe that each student knows they have an equal say.