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Stephanie Mackey
4th Grade, Burns Park Elementary
Open Response: Queen Arlene's Dilemma (Day 1)
Monday, January 25, 2016
60 minutes
This lesson is titled Open Response: Queen Arlenes
Dilemma. In this lesson and the following lesson, students
will be presented with an open response question focused
on fractions.
This is the sixth lesson of a unit focused on fractions,
mixed-number computations, and measurement. This
lesson will assess students on the previous five lessons,
which were decomposing fractions, finding the whole, and
adding fractions/mixed numbers. After this lesson,
students will be working on subtracting fractions, which
will use their knowledge of factions.
Everyday Math Lesson 5.6
Learning Goals

Learning Goals
Students will be able to
correctly decompose a
whole into smaller fractions
both visually and
numerically.

Connection to Standards
4.NF.3.a
Understand addition and
subtraction of fractions as
joining and separating parts
referring to the same whole.
4.NF.3.b
Decompose a fraction into a
sum of fractions with the
same denominator in more
than one way, recording each
decomposition by an
equation. Justify
decompositions, e.g., by using
a visual fraction model.

Students will be able to

explain their mathematical
thinking with reasoning.

SMP1
Make sense of problems and
persevere in solving them.
SMP2
Reason abstractly and
quantitatively.
GMP2.2 Make sense of
the representations
you and others use.

Connection to Activities
In the open response
question, students are
expected to correctly
distribute a queens land
amongst three of her
daughters. The question
tells the students how much
of the land must be given to
each daughter. I will assess
whether or not their picture
and number sentence create
the whole (all the queens
land) and if the fraction
pieces (in the picture) and
the fractions (in the number
sentence) correspond with
the given information in the
question.
When students respond to
the open-response
questions, they will be
assess on the quality of their
explanation. For example,
does their explanation
include pictures and
reasoning that support their
answer? Students will be
trading papers during Day 2

of the lesson with a group

that has something that
their group is lacking in
order for students to see
examples of strong
components of explanations.
Attending to the Learners
Anticipating student ideas:

Making the content accessible

to all students:

After talking to Ms. Chester, I can anticipate a few things

that students might do when answering this openresponse. In terms of the content, students might not
realize that in the first part of the open response, they are
being asked to add + 1/3 + 1/3 where each of those
fractions refers to the same whole. Carrie said that some
students may think that refers to one whole and 1/3
refers to the that is left from the initial . For the second
question of the open-response, I think students may say
that the queen will get of the land, and then the 3
daughters will get 1/2, and of the land, respectively. I
think some students will do this because they think that
of the queens original land is the new whole when, in
reality, the whole is staying the same.
In order to make the content accessible to all students, I
am going to read through the problem with the students
before they begin working. This way, students can ask me
questions they may have about vocabulary or wording in
the question. Next, I will use strategic partnering so that
students can work with someone who is either at their
same level or slightly above/below their level. This way, all
students can support each other in learning. We have
noticed that, sometimes, when students who may not fully
understand content are paired with someone who has a
secure understanding, the secure students in our class end
up doing lot of the work or not explaining the material well
to their partner. I want to eliminate this issue so that all
students can access content and learn from the openresponse question. Also, I looked over the question and
noticed that the question did not require prior knowledge
other than the content we have been learning in class. This
makes the question appropriate for all students.
Assessments

Type of
Assessment
Open-Response
correct answer

Learning-Goals Connection
By looking at students open-response answers, I will be able
to see if students understand how to decompose a whole
into smaller fractions both visually and numerically. There
are a variety of ways that students can decompose the
whole, but my initial assessment (after Day 1) will assess if
they are able to understand the content, initially. After Day 2,
I will see if students are able to access the content better
after getting support from their peers and me.

Open-Response
explanation

Summative
assessment: walk
around & monitor

Another goal I am focusing on in this lesson is to have

students successfully explain their mathematical thinking. I
will assess students after Day 1 and Day 2 on how they are
able to explain their mathematical thinking. I will be looking
at their written and visual explanations and how they
improve after receiving support from their peers and me.
While I am walking around the classroom during Day 1 and
Day 2, I will be assessing a variety of different things. First of
all, I will be assessing students content knowledge by
looking at their work and gauging what content I need to
cover the next day. Also, I will be looking at their explanations
and asking them questions that will push their thinking.
Finally, I will be monitoring how they persevere with the task.
Instructional Sequence

Materials:

Time

3 min

5
minsute
s

2 mins

-32 copies of Math Masters pp 203

-Math Journals pp 166, 167
-Fraction pieces
-Fraction Match pieces
-32 copies of Home Link 5.6
Steps Describing What the Teacher and Students Will Do

1. Go over math boxes pg 166.

a. Have students share their answers.

2. Project page 167 of their math journal onto the

board.
a. Begin by showing students 1 example of
fractions they can use:
i. + 1/3 + 1/6
b. Then, hHave students work on the problem
individually.
c. Ask students which color pieces they used &
display on board.
d. Ask what equation they wrote to go with the
picture.
3. Pair up students & have them move:
a. Ebie & Mayah H.
b. Isaac & Deacon
c. Jensen B. & Alona
d. Anne & Aaron
e. Max & Nathan
f. Yan Yee & Julia
g. Wei Wei & Sadie
h. Coen & Ingmar
i. Pearl & Rosie

Notes and
Reminders
(including
management
considerations)
Walk around
classroom to make
sure that all
students have
finished them
during bell work.
If students seem
disengaged, have
students bring their
own fraction pieces
to the Ladibug or
have students draw
their pieces/wholes
on the board.

If students are
absent, make sure
that you re-group
students so that
they are with likelevel partners. Ie:
putting the highest
students & lowest
student together
may result in the

j. Aubrey & Iris & Talmadge

k. Alex & Logan
l. Jensen W. & Maia M.
m. Antony & Charlie

3 mins

5 mins

Rest of
class

4. Pass out Math Masters pg 203 to each student.

5. Have student read the 1st open-response question
out loud.
a. Have partners turn & talk and discuss what
they think they need to do without using
their pencils yet.
6. Have another student read the 2nd open-response
question out loud.
a. Again, have partners turn & talk to discuss
what they will need to do for the second part
of the open-response before using a pencil.
7. Explain that after students are done, they will be
playing Fraction Match.
a. Reiterate that they will want to make sure
they are using the strategies we have talked
about in the previous open-response lessons
to make a strong open-response answer.
**Do not rush to the game.
i. Ie: pictures, clear explanations
ii. Review with the class what they want
to improve upon from their last openresponse assignment.
8. Pass out Home Link 5.6 to students.
a. Explain to students that it is not due until
Wednesday morning but they can turn it in
tomorrow if they want.
b. It is in their favor to turn it in early, though,
because you will get another opportunity to
improve on your homework if there are
things you get wrong or areas of your
reasoning that are not as strong.
i. This is a good way to practice math
reasoning.
9. Have students work with partners to answer the
open-response question.
a. Questions to ask partners:
i. How many people are sharing the
land in each problem?
1. 3 people in problem 1
2. 4 in problem 2
ii. How much of her land is the queen
planning to give away to her
daughters in each problem?
1. All of the land in problem 1
2. of the land in problem 2
iii. How do you know your fraction
addition equation in problem 2
represents the diagram you drew?

highest student
doing all the work.
**You can put
triangles with
rhombi & rhombi
with pentagon,
though.
Gauge students
understanding of
the problems.
If many students
seem confused
have two pairs
share their ideas of
what they will need
to do to solve the
first part.

-Monitor students
work.
--Write down
what
partners are
doing
correctly &
incorrectly to
address the
next day.
-Make sure both
partners are
working on the
problem.
--Document

10. Once students are done, allow them to play the

game.

if students
are not
persevering
as that is a
goal of the
lesson
-Write down ways
students could
improve on their
response

Reflection on Planning
Learning goal for self:

Preparing to teach this

lesson:

In the previous lesson I taught, I wanted to focus on assessing

students learning during and after a lesson. I think this lesson
is a great opportunity for me to work on this goal again. First
of all, by doing a two-day lesson, I will need to thorough
assess student learning and understanding in order to address
any areas that need improvement or more explanation during
Day 2 of the lesson. I am going to use the assessment rubric
that Everyday Math has provided and adapt it so I can better
understand student understanding & thinking. I will use this
adapted rubric the night after I enact Day 1 of the lesson and
make note of what content students are not secure on and
what aspects of a strong open-response students are not
including. Also, I will be walking around during Day 1 of my
lesson with a monitoring checklist. On this checklist, I will have
a row for each students name. Each of the columns will state
one of the goals of the lesson. I will make B for beginning, D
for developing, and S for secure in each of the columns for
each student as I walk around the classroom. This will help me
to understanding which students still need more support and
which students are more secure in their understanding of
content and how to support their mathematical reasoning.
In order to prepare for this lesson, I first am going to practice
using the ConnectEd site. In my previous lesson, I began to
use the fraction pieces that the website provided, but I want to
become more familiar with these tools before enacting this
lesson. Next, I am going to create the monitoring checklist
that I have planned. I think this is important to create before
the lesson because then I have a clear idea of what I want to
assess students on by the end of the lesson. I also am going to
create the assessment rubric to use after Day 1 of the lesson
before I enact the lesson so my assessment is standardized
and does not change based on what I see the results of
student work are.