Reflection from field experience on April 15

Subtraction with sheep!

This week in field was our second to last time in the classroom. I am really sad about next week being our last time! This week Lauren taught a lesson about subtraction, and I filled out her ADEPT form. I was glad it was my turn to fill out her form, because I think we learn a lot from watching each other teach. Sometimes when one of us is teaching, the other is circulating the kids doing centers, but I really like watching each other teach, and getting to help too. Lauren's lesson was on subtraction and our cooperating teacher hadn't ever introduced subtraction to her students so Lauren's lesson was the first exposure they got to the subject. She read a book about sheep and counting, and then gave each student a sheep make out of a paper plate and cotton balls. The first time she did the lesson, the students did not seem to grasp the idea very well. They wandered around and seemed to have a hard time not being ego-centric and understanding subtraction if they were not in the group. After the first lesson, Lauren decided that for the next group, we would be the ones who got to hold the sheep. Part of what distracted the first group was that they had a physical sheep and wanted to crawl around and "Baah." The second and third groups went really well! I loved being included in Lauren's teaching. Maybe we can always team teach! (If only, haha). I started with all the sheep and as Lauren took a few at a time, the kids counted how many sheep I had (the remaining sheep). As they understood larger groups, we added more. I started holding 6 sheep, but after doing a few problems, the kids really understood it, so we added more and made my starting total 10. I had a lot of fun helping Lauren teach, and think that she did a really good job planning an introductory lesson for subtraction. The students definitely came away with a good understanding about what subtraction is, and how to do it. I think that what made the lesson so successful was the fact that it was interactive and had manipulatives that interested the students. Watching the lesson three times and helping out some made it much easier to complete the ADEPT form.