Assessment Profile

Interview 1-November 9^th

1. There is something you do after you get out of bed and before you go to school that takes about four minutes. What might it be?

Brushing my teeth

2. If we left on July 3^rd and went on a vacation for exactly two weeks. On what date might we return? (student used scratch paper)

July 17^th

3. I left home and arrived at school forty-five minutes later. When might I have left home and when might I have arrived at school?

7:00 and 7:45

4. I am a month with thirty-one days. Which month might I be?

November

5. The hour hand is on the 7 and the minute hand is on the 6. Your favorite movie comes on and lasts two hours. At what time will the movie end? (the student was allowed to use an analog clock with movable hands)

9:30

Interview 2- November 11^th

6. I went on vacation and made a snowman. What month of the year might it have been?

December

7. What is something that you can do about one hundred times in one minute?

Blink your eyes

8. Name a month that most people usually go to the beach.

July

9. Name something that you do that takes about one minute.

Tying my shoes

10.I wrote the time 6:30pm on a sheet of paper and showed it to the student). What might you be doing at this time?

Watching ‘Avatar’

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

• Elapsed Time
• Classifying events according to the duration of time
• Understanding of A.M. and P.M.
• Knowing simple time facts, for example: seven days = one week
• Understanding of Analog Clocks

Weaknesses

• The number of days in certain months

Interview Analysis

In Interview 1, the student only missed Question 4 and got the rest correct. The student displayed a good understanding of elapsed time with Questions 3 and 5. With Question 2, the student displayed a good understanding of elapsed time with days and weeks. With Question 1, the student displayed an understanding of the time it takes to do certain activities. There are a several reasons why I believe the student may have missed Question 4. When asked to choose a month with 31 days, I think they answered on impulse and just named the present month.

In Interview 2, the student did not miss any questions. With Questions 6 and 8, students displayed a good understanding of seasons and months of the year. With Question 9, the student displayed an understanding of the time it takes to do certain activities. With Question 10, the student showed an understanding of events and how they relate to time. I believe the student gave good guess of an activity that one could do 100 times in one minute in Question 7. It takes approximately one second to blink your eyes. Blinking your eyes that rapidly is possible though.

Students at Work!

Here my students are at work cutting out shapes to create a tangram picture. Students cut out different shapes and then put them together on construction paper to create a new image.

Tangram Activities

Constructing your own set of Tangrams:
1. Fold a rectangular piece of paper so that a square is formed. Cut off the extra rectangular flap and discard.
2. Cut along the diagonal of the remaining square forming two large congruent triangles.
3. Take one of the large triangles and fold it in half forming two smaller congruent triangles. Cut the triangle along the fold. Label the triangles 1 and 2.
4. Take the other large triangle and crease it at the midpoint of the longest side. Fold the vertex, opposite the longest side, to the midpoint. Cut off the small triangle formed by the fold. You should have a small triangle and a trapezoid. Label the triangle 3.
5. Fold the trapezoid in half along the crease at the midpoint. Fold the vertex of one of the base angles to the midpoint. Cut along the two folds forming a right trapezoid, a small square, and a small right triangle. Label the triangle 4 and the square 5.
6. Take the trapezoid and fold the vertex opposite the largest angle forming a triangle and a parallelogram. Cut and label the triangle 6 and the parallelogram 7.
7. Congratulations, you now have your own “free” set of tangrams!

Activities:
1. Is it possible to make a square using
a. only two pieces of your set?
b. only three pieces of your set?
c. only four pieces of your set?
d. only five pieces of your set?
e. only six pieces of your set?
f. all seven pieces of your set?
2. If the area of the square formed in #1f is one square unit, find the area of all seven pieces individually.
3. Which of these figures can you make using all seven tangram pieces?
a. A trapezoid
b. A rectangle that is not a square
c. A parallelogram that is not a square
d. A triangle

Favorite Math Lesson...Probability!

My favorite math lesson taught was about probability. This was my favorite lesson because it allowed the students to be completely interactive throughout the entire lesson. They learned about a concept in which they were already familiar with. I loved how it was evident that they were learning due to their immense enthusiasm throught the lesson. Below is the lesson plan for that particular lesson.

I. Subject/Content Area
• Mathematics/Probablility

II. Alabama Course of Study
• ALCOS 2009: Grade 4: Determine the outcomes of simple events as likely, unlikely, certain, equally likely, or impossible.
• Verifying predictions by testing possible outcomes of a simple event.

III. Concepts
• Probability: the likelihood that an event will occur.
• Likely: an event that probably will happen.
• Unlikely: an event that probably will not happen.
• Certain: an event that is sure to occur.
• Equally Likely: just as likely to happen as not to happen.
• Impossible: an event that cannot occur.

IV. Behavioral Objectives
• The students will determine the probability of certain events using terms likely, unlikely, certain, equally likely, and impossible.

V. Evaluation
• I will evaluate the students understanding of the concepts based on classroom feedback and students completion of a probability chart.

VI. Materials
• Colored Unifix Cubes
• Clear Bag
• Smart Board
• Sticky Notes

VII. Teaching/Learning Prcedures
A. Motivation
• (I will pass out bags of filled with 10 red cubes). Is it possible or impossible to pull out a red cube? How often will you pull out a red cube? Is it possible to pull out a green cube? Is it certain that you will pull out a red cube every time?
• (I will then tell students to take out 5 of those red cubes and put in 5 blue cubes.)What are your chances of pulling out a red cube? What about a blue cube? Are your chances equal of pulling out either one? Why are they equal?
• (After that, I will instruct students to take out all but 2 of the blue cubes and put back in 3 red cubes.) Is it more likely to pull out a red cube or a blue cube? Is it likely to pull out either of them? Is it impossible to pull out a red cube? Blue cube?
B. Instructional Procedures
• Students today we are going to learn about probability. Probability has to do with the likelihood that something will happen.
• (I will then have students write notes from the Smart Board that include the different definitions and real-life examples of the words likely, unlikely, certain, equally likely, and impossible.)
• Is it possible or impossible for a fish to walk on dry land? Why is it impossible?
• Is it likely or unlikely for a 16-year-old to be in 4th grade? Why is it unlikely?
• It likely or equally likely for you to flip a coin and it land on heads or tails? Why is it equally likely?
• Is it certain that every student in here is in the fourth grade? Why or why not?
C. Closure
• ( I will then pass out 5 sticky notes to each student. A chart will be on the board and students will be instructed to stick any event that falls under each category of likely, unlikely, certain, equally likely, and impossible. Students will have 15 minutes to do this. We will then go over some of the things they put on the chart.)

VIII. Supplemental Activities (Early Finishers, Enrichment, Remediation)
• There will be no early finishers. This is a whole-group lesson.
• Students who desire enrichment will be allowed to work on probability and determining the outcome of certain events. They can practice on pages 705 and 707 in their math textbook.
• Students who need remediation will be put into small groups and work more on the concepts by doing pages 702-702 in the textbook. I will be there to guide them.

IX. Professional Reflection
• What went well? The students were constantly engaged. They behaved well for the most part. They were active learners.
• What did not go well? There were no major issues with this lesson. Students followed instruction well and seemed to be enjoying learning the concepts.
• What would I do differently? This lesson went very smoothly. Therefore, for future reference, I doubt I would alter it.

Personal Philosophy of Teaching Mathematics

My view of teaching mathematics has totally changed. This course, as well as my experience in the classroom, has shown me that there is no one way to teach mathematics. I never knew how important it was using manipulatives and technology in teaching a lesson. Manipulatives show mathematical concepts in a completely different light. They halp enforce principles so that students can understand them and not just memorize facts that they will forget by the end of the year (or even earlier). Technology is also very important. We live in a technological world! It is extremely important to integrate technology into every subject as often as possible. I have learned a lot of useful ways to use technology, such as the Smart Board, to teach fractions, ratios, probability and a variety of other concepts.