Jessica Kim

ITE 324
December 10, 2013
Child Study
The child I chose for my child study is a 5-year-old Kindergarten
student at Palisades Elementary School. He is an only child who lives with
his mom and dad. I chose this child because he is an engaged and effective
learner. He is a bright student who asks for help and answers questions
during class discussions. He gets disappointed and shrugs when his answers
are incorrect, but he always attempts to try again.
To understand my childs mathematical performance, I asked him, Do
you practice math at home? and he asked, What is math? Although he
can perform math, he did not understand the definition of math. According
to him, he does not practice math at home, but recently started using a new
program his school now requires. I know that the school started enforcing a
new program called iReady for students to practice their math and Reading
skills. This program is supposed to help academically develop and improve
their skills to also prepare them for upcoming tests. My child says the only
math he does at home now is iReady and his math homework.
To explore my childs mathematical behaviors, I performed various
strategies. My 5-year old child in kindergarten proved he had one-to-one
correspondence. I gave him 5 counters. He did not line up his counters but
instead he had them disorganized and scattered. I asked him to put them in

a line form and as he did I asked, Can you count how many counters are
there? My child counts each counter at a time, but does not move them to
the side. He then responds, Five. Now that I knew he had cardinality, I
asked him, How many yellow counters are there? He responded, Three.
Finally, I asked, How many red counters are there? He responded, Two.
In result, I asked him, So how many counters are there in all? He
responded in an unconfident answer, Five? He responds to my questions in
question form. Although he was unconfident about his answer, it was
correct. According to Bay-Williams (2014), he performed relational thinking
by taking 3+2 to equal 5.
After discovering he had one-to-one correspondence and cardinality, I
wanted to challenge him with subtraction to also check for mathematical
proficiency. He had five counters so I asked him to take away one yellow and
tell me how many were there now and he responded, Four. This was an
example of relational thinking where he was able to take 5-1 to equal 4.
Another strategy I used to understand his relational thinking was making
combinations with linking cubes. I gave him 10 linking cubes and asked him
to make different combinations of ten. He was able to perform 8+2=10,
5+5=10, and 4+6=10. This proved to me that he had some relational
thinking, but not mathematical proficiency.
My child also said he could count to 100. I asked him to count to 100
for me and throughout the counting process, I discovered he has troubles
with his tens place value. He counts, 1,2,329 and needs help with 30.

Then he counts, 31,32,3339 and needs help with 40. He continues to

count in this pattern, but as we get to 59 he repetitively says 90 for each
tens place value forward. He has difficulty with early counting to 100, but
has number recognition to 100. As I tested his inventory skills on number
recognition, I realized my child does not have place value understanding.

Diagnostic Interview
Script:
My student will answer the following questions on counting using linking
cubes. First, I will give the student a set of 10 scattered linking cubes.
Q:
A:

Q:
A:

How many are there? I gave the student two attempts to find out if
he had one-to-one correspondence.
1st attempt- He doesnt organize them, but just counts the linking
cubes one by one as he points to them then answers, Ten.
2nd attempt- He counts by picking up the linking cubes one by one to
fill his hands and answers, Ten.
Can you count them for me as you put them together? Using the
same set I provided one additional strategy for him to count for me.
Ten.

Then, I asked my student questions using missing-part activities to see if he

had understanding on part-part-whole relationships.
Q:

A:
Q:

A:

If there are this many (showing 10) and I take away this many (2 on
the right), how many do we need to make 10? I hid the amount I took
away in my right hand to see if my child could recognize the missing
part.
Two.
If there are this many (showing 10) and I take away this many (4 on
the left) how many are here (in the left hand)? Again, I hid the amount
I took away, but this time in my left hand to see if my child could
recognize the missing part.
Four.

Finally, I wanted to know if my student was able to make relations with

counting on. He was unable to answer the question so I provided some
guidance steps.
Q:
A:
Q:
A:
Q:

(from the previous prompt I show him 4 linking cubes) How many
more do we need to make 10?
No response.
If I have 4 in this hand (right) and 6 in this hand (left), how many are
there again? Providing guidance.
Ten.

A:

So, if I take away this many (4 in right hand), how many are there left
(in left hand)? I provided a subtraction problem to gain childs
understanding.
Six.

Q:
A:

So how many more do we need from 6 to make 10?

We need four more.

From this diagnostic interview, I observed how my student had one-toone correspondence and was able to count three different ways. He was able
to count given a scattered set of 10 linking cubes. He was then able to count
by picking up the linking cubes one by one to fill his hands. Lastly, he was
able to count in an organized set as he linked the cubes together.
According to my diagnostic interview, my student was also able to
recognize part-part-whole relationships, but not all. He was able to answer
the given questions correctly showing his understanding of part-part-whole
relationships of the number 10. For example, when I took away 2 linking
cubes from a set of ten he was able to recognize how many linking cubes he
needed with the given strategy of missing-part activities.
At first, he did not show understanding when using the term, more
when asked for counting on relations. So, he had difficulty answering the
question referring to, how many more? Then, when given some guidance
with subtraction, he was able to make better conclusions with counting on.
Instructional Plan
I designed a short-term instructional plan for my child on counting on.
We practiced verbally counting from 1 to 100, but I realized my child did not
have place value understanding. He was able to count from 1 to 29, needed

guidance with his tens place value. For example, as he counted to 29 I would
have to count 30 and then he would be able to count on from 31 to 39. Then
this counting on would repeat until we reached 100. From my evidence, I can
assume that he has some relational understanding of counting on, but not
with the tens place value. To develop his knowledge of his tens place value, I
implemented the use on linking cubes. We used linking cubes as our
manipulative to show groups of ten and count on. I had my child show me a
set of ten linking cubes and count on to 100. He was able to count on, such
as, 10, 11, 12...20 and show understanding of number patterns. Then we
used bundles of tens to check for understanding of number patterns counting
by tens. For example, he was able to count, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50...100.
For a long-term instructional plan, we worked on decomposing ten. I
wanted to know if he could understand the meaning of decomposing and
show me how to take a number apart creating different combinations, such
as 7 + 3 = 10 and 6 + 4= 10. He was able to show me by using linking
cubes. He took 7 yellow linking cubes and combined them with 3 green
linking cubes. From this he continued to build different combinations of 10
and used this to show his understanding of counting by tens. These plans are
important to address to check for student understanding in number patterns
and early counting skills for kindergarteners.