Student Teacher:

Chloe Rakos

Supervisor:

Lauren Delisio

Date:

October 15, 2015

Visit #

Summary of Pre-visit Conference/Goals for this lesson:

Point out good student behavior
Manage time
Provide clear directions for transitions
Student Teacher Reflection:
After planning several math lessons using the format and schedule of events that is used
for math in 1M, planning this lesson came easily to me. The only thing I was concerned
about was working with a number other than 10 since that has been our focus recently but
on the other hand, I was excited to challenge my students and get a good idea of where
they are with their adding and using more abstract counting strategies.
I felt very calm and confident during this lesson. I felt that my students were really
engaged the whole time and that they were excited about the challenges that were being
presented and to participate in the game we were going to play. I felt that the students
really reacted well to my behavior management strategies and really looked to me
completely for direction throughout the lesson rather than my cooperating teacher. I also
felt that I really made an improvement with my transitions during this lesson. I
remembered to make sure that I gave a lot more guidance and direction for each step of
the lesson and gave more clear expectations.
I felt really good about how this lesson went. I was very happy with how I managed my
time and that I finished everything right when I was supposed to. I felt that I took my
time and went at a good pace for my students. I was also very happy with the overall
student behavior during this lesson. One of the things that did bother me during this
lesson was that the numbers were working with were not consistent. We did fact families
of 10 in the warm-up, fact families of 7 during the lesson, and fact families of 5 in the
student activity book. In the future, I would probably plan the lesson to be more
consistent with what fact family we are working with but I think it did end up being a
good learning experience for my students to work with the different fact families
throughout the period. I have definitely been seeing a huge amount of growth in my
students adding abilities over the past few weeks.
Supervisors Feedback:
Today you taught a mathematics lesson in the self-contained first grade class with nine
students. You started with a math warm up. The students stood in a circle with you on
the rug. You asked, Who remembers last week when we played this game? You get a
card and then walk around and find your fact family. You calmly reminded students who

were chatting, I shouldnt hear thoughts. You passed a card to each student, with a
number written on it. Then, you instructed all of the students to turn their cards around
and to go find their partners and say good afternoon! Students moved around to
match their cards with the cards that made a fact family of 10. Once all of the students
found their partners, you reviewed each fact family of 10, reminding each student to
make it into an equation.
Next, you instructed the class to sit down and put your card in front of you. The next
activity involved you tossing a ball to each student. You would say the number in front of
that student, and the student would have to respond with the rest of the fact family (e.g.,
5 plus). This repetition of math facts, especially the fact families of ten, is a great
strategy for helping students to remember their addition facts, and will translate into
subtraction strategies as well.
The last two math warm up activities involved movement: Lets get in our cars to round
our corners quiet cars for now. I should see hands on the steering wheels ready to drive
our cars. You complimented one student for getting her hands ready. I like that you gave
such clear, explicit instructions. (Rounding corners is counting 9-10, 19-20, 29-30, etc.)
The final activity was Lets get in our rocket ships...down here like this. (Squatting to
the ground).We are going to blast off back to our seats. Get your whiteboards, markers,
and erasers out Show me that you know what to do when you get back to your seat!
(Then you counted backwards from 10-0). The students transitioned really well; they
were very orderly and knew exactly what to do because again, you gave them clear
instructions.
The students took their whiteboards out to practice writing their numbers while reviewing
their fact families of 10. Today we are going to be writing the missing piece of our
equation. We are doing fact families of 10. (e.g., 8 + blank equals 10). You reminded
students, Dont say it aloud; write it down on your board. Your writing was projected
on the overhead so that students could clearly and easily see your writing. One student
was struggling; you modeled for him by counting up with your fingers, and asked him to
count your fingers. I would have pulled some manipulatives here to model for this
particular student so that he had a concrete representation of the addition fact.
While kids were working you were walking around and providing corrective feedback
and praise. This is a really great time for some formative assessment- even if you just jot
down some notes on a clipboard or checklist.
You asked one student, Do you want a challenge? He replied yes, so you wrote
1+ ___ =10, which is more difficult because the students are used to seeing the larger
number first. The students seemed to struggle with this, and you commented, I think
were going to have to work on that some more this is an example of formative
assessment, so nice job picking up on this.
You instructed the students to put their materials away, and to come to the rug when they
had done so. The students were eager to follow your instructions and transition to the rug

for the game. One student started taking out his math book, and you corrected him; even
when youre correcting students you are very calm (I did not instruct you to do that.)
Your calm demeanor will translate really well into your future classroom(s).
Once the students were all on the carpet, you reminded them how to sit: Criss cross
applesauce, spoons in the bowl. You started the game, called Hidden, Not Hidden, by
saying, Remember this math game we played with 10s? Well we are masters of 10 now,
so we are going to make it harder and use 7 instead of 10. You modeled how to play the
game with Unifix cubes how many am I showing you? Six so how many are behind
my back if I am counting to 7? So 6 are not hidden, and 1 is hidden. Who would like to
volunteer to do a magic trick? You allowed several students to model, ensuring that the
students understood how to play the game. You split the students up into four small
groups and gave specific instructions regarding where to get their materials and where to
move in the room. You used a timer to keep the timing of the mathematics block on track.
You kept five students on the carpet with you and sent four students to work with Mrs.
Mocarski.
To regain students attention, you said Hocus pocus, time to focus and the students fell
silent. You asked them to talk with their partners about the combinations of seven that
came up the most when they were playing. You wrote several equations related to the
sevens fact family on the board, and reviewed them with the class. They read the
equations aloud with you.
Again, you gave clear instructions to the students with regards to what they should do
next, and you and Mrs. Mocarski gave compliments to the groups for working so well in
their partnerships. The class was rewarded with two sticks in the bucket, which is the
whole class rewards system. The positive reinforcement is wonderful, and the students
clearly respond to it.
The students transitioned back to their seats, and you led them though the activity in their
workbooks titled, Whats in the Bag? which involved fact families of five. I was
wondering if you should have stuck with the fact families of seven, as this switching back
and forth between families can be tricky for students who are struggling with
mathematics.
Finally, you moved onto the last portion of the math block, during which time the
students practice addition facts in their Rocketship math binders. You modeled how to
find the answer for 3 + 3 using Touchmath. You set the timer for seven minutes.
Overall, this was a really well managed lesson, with a lot of transitions that were
extremely smooth and organized. The students were very engaged. With regards to your
goals, you did point out good student behavior, but only once (that I caught), so keep
reminding yourself to focus on the positive behaviors. I believe you met (and exceeded)
the other two goals! Great job.
Review and Revision of Personal Goals:

Point out good student behavior I feel that I have been doing this more and more
throughout my teaching. I do think I was more concerned with other things in this
lesson so its possible that I didnt do it as much as I wanted to. I definitely want
to keep working on doing this.
Manage time I was very pleased with my time management in this lesson. I felt
that I didnt rush through anything and I didnt do anything too long that my
students lost focus and engagement. I also finished the lesson at the perfect time
for my class schedule.
Provide clear directions for transitions I felt that this was my biggest focus for
this lesson and I feel that I really did a good job with it. I think in the future I
could probably do even more to improve my transitions but this was a really good
start and I was very happy with how they went.