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November 3, 2014
ITE324-412
Child study
Why you chose this student.
The student I chose for this child study is within the average mathematical skill range of the class
and he is willing to make mistakes in order to learn from them. I will call this child Jordan. In
fourth grade, the math classes are split up according to skill level. The class that my mentor
teaches is the well-below math class. I have been told that majority of the class doesnt have
good number sense; this means that they dont understand the value of numbers other than for
money purposes. Jordan is a student that is in both, homeroom and math class with my mentor,
so it is much easier to get to know his strengths and weaknesses. I made sure that Jordan is a
student that attends class regularly and doesnt have any behavioral issues that distract him from
learning. Other than how shy he is, I notice that he is a good student who puts in the effort to
understand the lesson content.
Observation notes.
Within the first week or so when the class was doing speed drills for multiplication, I observed
that Jordan was having a hard time doing the mental math. Given 5 minutes to do 20 questions
he completed about 15 of them. Out of all his other classmates, there were some that did better
and some that barely filled out half. Jordan was a little slow to figure out each solution one by
one, but when I corrected the speed drills I noticed that he did quality work. With minimal
wrong, out of the ones that he actually completed it shows that he wasnt just rushing through it
to fill out all the blanks, he carefully thought about how to find the answer to each problem.
When Jordan was taking the math assessment for the ending of the first quarter, I noticed that he
was struggling to understand the concept of place value expanded form. Even though my mentor
reviewed the content right before the test, I dont think he understood how or why he had to
identify and add the different place values of a number. Jordan knew where the tens hundreds,
thousands column etc. was but he didnt understand the purpose of expanded form.
Just yesterday, the class was introduced to a new topic dealing with friendly numbers and
number bonds. When they were doing white boards in class, I noticed that Jordan picked up on
this concept real fast. He understood each part of how to break down double-digit addition to
make it easier to add. He was also capable of showing me two ways to do it. He excelled greatly
in this area of focus.
Discuss the childs relational understanding. (3 supporting details)
In class, lessons are scaffold according to the level of understanding amongst the students. My
mentor does a great job of providing the knowledge of multiple ways to solve a problem. Most of
the time the students in the class will not understand the conceptual part of the lesson, therefore it
must be broken down or modeled using alternative strategies or physical manipulative.
Place value blocks allowed Jordan to physically see the representation of a one (unit) or a
ten (rod). It is safe to assume that these place value blocks were actually able to give
numbers a sense of value.
When the class was practicing word problems, to find the missing factor, my mentor had
them create a unit bar to represent a whole. A part of the unit bar was missing or empty.
This represented the missing factor that they needed to find. Jordan was a little confused
relating a unit bar to the conceptual relationship between addition and subtraction.
Oral language is something that is key to understanding mathematics. Sometimes
students create a mental block when they dont understand the purpose or meaning of
using mathematical language. My mentor replaces these brain-blocker words with words
or ideas that seem more child-friendly and easier to identify/remember. Jordan
understands that a friendly number, is a number than is created to make addition easier
to figure out. For example it would be numbers like 20, 400, 1,500, or 150 (any number
with a zero at the end).
Jennerra Maemori
November 19, 2014
ITE324-412
Child study part 2
Picture of student artifacts.