Today I felt that I needed to do more than one year’s work with my class. Though they understand some concepts but have huge gaps in their learning.
I had planned an activity which was taken from the Problem-solving level 2 NZ Maths. I have carefully went through the problem myself, making sure that I have some questions to prompt them or direct their thinking.
I started the lesson yesterday with number talks as usual because it does develop number sense within the students, and sharing their strategy helps others to develop understanding by listening to each other. I deliberately used number 24 to see what strategy they come up with. I was pretty excited to see that students had some knowledge about grouping numbers.
I showed them the problem and gave them thinking time, think, pair, share to talk about the problem before discussing it together. The main thing that I wanted to remember that the tables have the same sizes. I gave them the first part of the question only. I sent them off to do the work and only one person was able to do it.
I was happy for that person but not happy that the rest of them weren’t. I brought them back to the floor and we went through the problem again. Another person was able to show some spark but still, most did not understand it.
I thought it was a great lesson, getting them involved and using materials, drawing diagrams but still, it didn’t work? When I think of it… I cannot have scaffolded better.
Where did I go wrong? What is it that I need to do to help these children achieve in Maths?
It just leaves me confused and helpless with the question…
WHERE DO I START?
