Video Analysis #2

The teacher's overall theme of connecting back to "pictures being worth a thousand words" is a very interesting concept. In mathematics, drawing pictures to accompany the answer will show how much of the information the students understand on a deep level and what are simply facts that they have memorized and can recite when needed. I like that the teacher gives examples of drawings and representations when the students come up with the idea that multiplication as repeated addition so that they know what she means by "math pictures". 

During the discussion about multiplication, the idea of equal groups comes up. This is a key concept to multiplication and division so is important for the students to be familiar with the idea. In the teacher commentary, she explains that she kept trying to bring this notion back up during the discussion of division, since the students were struggling, but they were not connecting it back to grouping. The reason for this is probably because the students are not used to the mathematical language and therefore have a difficult time voicing their explanations of retrieving their solutions. So, even at a young age, students need to be introduced to and expected to use mathematical vocabulary to explain the reasoning behind their problem solving.

Since there is such a large amount of discussion and interaction with peers, it is critical that there is a very comfortable classroom environment in place so that all students feel that they can express their ideas safely. Being able to critique the work of others and taking corrections on your own work are crucial steps in finding a solution and group discussion. Rules should be put in place so that working together goes smoothly whether it is whole group, small group, or partner work. In the video, the class seems to have healthy conditions for collaboration, however when the student work shows that the small groups have a big impact on the students final answers. If they think that their peers have the correct answer, they may change theirs without being able to explain how the solution was reached. The teacher also had great control of the classroom and was able in incorporate fun attention-getters that keep the students engaged and attentive. 

I thought that the teacher's mental math question was well chosen because it was not too difficult but was not a fact that most students would have memorized; they would have to choose a strategy to think about to get to the answer. Moving to a word problem was a very sensible next step in the lesson because it allows the students to apply the knowledge that they have been building upon throughout the lesson. Posing this question also lends itself to connecting back to the theme of drawing mathematical pictures. The teacher sets up the problem so that there are not specific instructions and therefore lets the students use their own exploration to come up with an answer. When looking at the student work it seems that some students knew how to get the right answer, but their pictures do not align with their answer, so we know that these students just know the facts of the problem and need to continue gaining a deeper understanding of the topic. Lastly, including student reflection can help the teacher to place where each student stands in grasping the concept and what next step needs to be taken in the overall unit.