MAED 3222 CLINICAL FALL 2014 BRANDON HORTON

TEACHER INTERVIEW
You must interview a teacher from grades K, 1, or 2. At the beginning of your report, include
the date of the interview. You do not have to include the teachers name. Paraphrase the
response to each prompt/question given by your supervising teacher. You may also include
comments and observations about the teachers responses.
1. Describe a shift in your way of teaching one K-2 math topic from the procedural to the
conceptual. One of the things that my CT said that she does is she starts every math block with
a warm up activity. Throughout the year she does different warm up activities to start math off
for the day. This helps to review previous covered concepts, and it helps students to build their
knowledge in math and with number concepts. One of the warm up activities she does is start
with get to, which starts with her pulling a number stick out of a box. Then as a class they count
on the number line to that number. Then they pull another number and count on back or
forward from the first number to the second. This activity helps students gain knowledge of
number concepts, values of numbers, and experience increasing and decreasing numbers. This
along with other activities are used to start each lesson, which then leads into the math major
lesson of the day. For teaching the main lesson, she starts basic and works towards making it
more complex, starting simple before diving into the hard parts. She models for students the
activity that they will be doing if its a game. She uses quite a few games in the classroom to
teach math concepts.
2. Describe some mathematical tasks that you have found to be especially engaging and
effective for K-2 math students. My teachers has said that having students work in partners
makes students very engaged, as well as just about any activity that is hands on with
manipulatives engages students in the lesson. She says that active engagement is key. Also
making math real students is also important by applying concepts to the real world.

3. When you are preparing a lesson on a given concept, what resources have you found to be
most helpful in providing engaging, open-ended tasks?
My CT prepares for lessons by looking CCSS and keeping in mind what she must cover by the
end of the year. She keeps these in mind and looks for ways to build up to the standards. She
looks at other districts outside of CMS for ideas on pacing standards such as Howard County
Schools for their way of teaching math. She also orders things in her classroom so that one
concepts build onto another. For example she introduces tens frames before teaching place
value.
4. What are some of the methods you use to see how well a student understands a concept?
One of the ways my teacher assesses her students knowledge is by doing exit tickets. At the
end of some days she gives an exit ticket for students to complete, which contains a question or
2 about the current unit. These exit tickets are primarily used to check for understanding. Also

MAED 3222 CLINICAL FALL 2014 BRANDON HORTON

walking around during independent practice and observing is another way she assesses
students knowledge and progress. Informal assessment is still very important.

5. How do you plan your lessons? If theres a lesson planning template that you regularly use,
can you explain what it is you like about it? My teacher uses a lesson planning template
developed by her grade level. The grade levels plans lessons together, but she admits that she
does tweak instruction for her class just a bit. They gear their lessons towards the standards.
Her lessons always contain 5 different parts, which are the warm up activity (either an activity
like star with get to or a word problem), the essential question/ main concept being taught; the
next part is modeling the concept and or activity that they will do independently, followed by
the independent or group activity, and lastly assessment.

Reflection
1. What were your impressions about the teachers attitude towards preparing lessons?
I think my CT effectively explained to me her way of planning lessons. She was very helpful in
answering my questions, and I felt like she really cared about how she plans lessons. She cares
about her students and knows that there is a lot to think about when planning instruction for
her class. She had a very firm belief in the way that she does things. Although her school uses
investigations as their math program, she has looked at outside resources to help her, and she
has come up with her own ideas on how to teach the standards and make sure her students are
prepared for the next grades. My overall impression is that she will do whatever it takes to
effectively teach math to her students and prepare them for the end of the year.
2. What would you do differently?
I honestly am not sure what I would do differently. My teacher knows her students very
well. She knows where they are, and she knows what her students need. I really value
and like the way that she orders her lesson. I would certainly consider warmup activities
in my classroom, and I would look for even more types of activities to start my days off
in math. I also like how she looks at those standards and figures out how to build up to
them. I think it is essential, and I know when I begin teaching that I will find out what my
students know and work off of that, as well as order standards in a particular order so
that will allow my students to build up to what they are expected to know. Start easy
and work our way up, I think is key.

MAED 3222 CLINICAL FALL 2014 BRANDON HORTON

STUDENT PLACE VALUE INTERVIEW

11/19/14

MATERIALS NEEDED: counters and base ten materials

Include the date of the interview on the top of the page.
1. Ask the student to take out several handfuls and count all the objects. What method
did he/she use? If the student counted them one by one, encourage him/her to think of
other ways to count using groups. Is the student able to do that? I took 28 connecting
cubes and had my student count them. He counted them correctly with one to one
correspondence and correctly identified that there were 28 by counting by ones. I
asked him if there was another way for him to count them, and he said you could
group them by 5s or by 10s and add the leftovers. He showed me how he could do
this.
2. Extend the activity by asking questions like: If I give you two more, how many would
you have? If I take away two groups of ten, how many would you have? I asked him if
there were 2 ore added how many would there be, and he knew there would be 30. I
asked if I then took 2 away from the 30, he correctly identified that there would be 28
again. He also demonstrated that he had knowledge of tens and one because when I
asked if I took away 2 tens from 28, he answered correct and said there would be 8
left.

3. If you put out 4 tens and 15 ones, does the student know how to trade? Can the
student tell you that 55 is the number that is shown? Continue this activity with more
examples. My student was able to correctly identify that there were 55. He counter
the 4 tens to =40 and then counted the rest 41,42,43 all the way to 45; he didnt
trade ten ones into a 10, but I knew that he had knowledge of trading because I
further asked him if there was a better way to count it, and he said you could actually
turn 10 ones into a ten. I further asked if I added another ten what would I have (he
answered 65), and another 2 tens (he answered 85).

4. Depending on how well the student is doing, ask questions like How many more do
you need to have 70? How many more should I take away so that 20 are left? From
85, I asked how many more he would need to get to 100, and he answered at first
incorrectly by saying 5 more ones and 2 tens, but after telling him to check his
thinking, he changed his answer to 5 more ones and only 1 ten.

MAED 3222 CLINICAL FALL 2014 BRANDON HORTON

Reflection
1. What questions were easy for the student? Describe the students response.
Overall, I thought all the questions I did with my student in the interview were
very easy for him. I could tell he is very strong in math, and even his teacher told
me that he is a high student in math. His responses were all very accurate and
correct. He used very good method to figure out the answers to the problems. He
counted by one; he demonstrated the concept of seeing 10 as a base; he
demonstrated that he could add and subtract amount, and overall I thought that
maybe the questions I provided were a little too easy for his level.
2. What questions were difficult for the student? Describe the students response.
The only one problem that my student stumbled on was the one where he had to
figure out how much it would take to get from 85 to 100. He was close by saying 5
ones and 2 tens. I suggested that he try that again, and within a 30 seconds he
realized his easily made mistake.

3. Write a brief paragraph describing this students understanding of place value.

Like I mentioned previously, my student for the most part has a very good
understanding of place value. It seems as though he is where he should be for a 2 nd
grader at this time of year. He definitely knows what tens and ones are; he sees 10
as a base being 10 ones; he understands how to trade and regroup ones as a ten;
he knows how to add and subtract multiples of ten (10,20,30) , and he knows
how to count amounts by grouping into 5s or 10s. Overall he has very strong
understanding of place value, and Im sure in a few months, he will have an
understanding of three digit numbers too and their place values.

MAED 3222 CLINICAL FALL 2014 BRANDON HORTON

CLASSROOM MANIPULATIVES
Manipulatives provide valuable support for mathematics teaching and learning. The
manipulatives a teacher chooses to use will depend on the grade level, the
mathematics being learned and the commitment of the teacher toward using them.
This is a fact-finding mission to look at the range of manipulatives available to
support the mathematics learning of students.
Complete the chart below by listing the manipulatives that you see in the room and
describing how they were used during the time you spent there.
Manipulative
Number Tiles

orange and green connecting cubes

Tens frame with counters

Tangrams

Describe how it was used in a lesson

These were used in a warm up activity.
Each student got a bag of these 1-20.
They had to put them in order, and
then they did a mind reader activity
where the teacher was thinking of a
number; she them clues, and they had
to guess it. EX: the number had 2 digits,
has a 2 in it, and is less than 19.
These were used in a game to learn
addition. Students pulled 14 cubes out
of a bag randomly; some were orange,
and some green. Students wrote down
an equation to represent the problem.
8 orange and 6 green would be 8+6=14
These were used to help students
develop number sense, by seeing
numeral values represented by
counters lined up on the ten frame.
Students in an activity used their ten
frames and counters in a game to learn
about more and less. Students rolled a
dice; then they showed a value on the
ten frame; then they spun a spinner
that landed on 1 more, 1 less, more, or
less, and then students had to make
changes to their ten frame; if it landed
on more or less, they got to pick their
value to add or take away; additional
ten frames were added if they went
over 10.
These were used in multiple geometry
activities and lessons. Students used

MAED 3222 CLINICAL FALL 2014 BRANDON HORTON

Geoboards

Play money coins

these as visuals to learn the names and

properties of 2 shapes. Then in later
activities they were used to compose
and decompose 2d shapes.
These were used by students in a
geometry math center, where students
composed 2d shapes with the rubber
bands.
Students used these in an activity to
visually represent money, while
learning about coins; their values, and
trading in coins for another. Ex: 5
pennies=1 nickel

Reflection:
1. Did you observe a lesson in which manipulatives were used in an especially
effective way? If so, briefly describe the lesson and their use. Out of all the
lessons that I observed using manipulatives, one of the lessons that I liked the most,
and that I felt the manipulatives did a great job with was where the connecting
cubes were 2 different colors and students came up with a combination to make a
problem. This was called number bonds. Students were given a target number; they
grabbed a random amount of cubes (2 different colors involved in the mix), and then
students wrote an addition equation to show the combination. I thought this was
effective because it is a very good learning activity that allows students to construct
meaning and to have a hands on approach to teaching addition, as well as fact
families, and really understanding these concepts overall.

2. Elaborate on possible uses of manipulatives suggested to you during the time

you spent in the classroom. How would these uses support the development of
students mathematical concepts? One piece of manipulatives that I see as being
very effective would be base blocks and connecting cubes. The base 10 blocks
werent used during my observations, but I do know they have lots of advantages to
using them in lessons. You can use them to build students place value knowledge;
you can help students construct meaning and learn how to represent a number
using ones and tens; you can teach them how to add and subtract using base 10

MAED 3222 CLINICAL FALL 2014 BRANDON HORTON

blocks, and this I see would a great way to teach these types of things before
introducing pencil and paper algorithms. You can take those base 10 blocks and
teach students why we regroup (knowing that once we hit 11 ones; we turn it into a
ten and 1 one left over) when adding . Students I think would enjoy learning in this
way, and it will help them be more prepared for teaching algorithms down the road.
Finally, I see connecting cubes as being valuable in that there are lots of activities
and uses for them, including place value and base ten lessons, as well as using them
in other games and activities like the number bonding game.

MAED 3222 CLINICAL FALL 2014 BRANDON HORTON

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION 1st grade 10/15/14
Answer each of the following questions using complete sentences.
1. What was the topic of the lesson? The topic of this particular lesson was
quadrilaterals. The teacher introduced to the students parallelograms, squares,
squares, rectangles, rhombuses, and trapezoids. Students learned that
quadrilaterals all have 4 sides.
2. What CCSSM goals were addressed in the lesson? Paraphrase language from the
goal(s) that is relevant to the lesson. There actually to my discovery isnt a 1st
grade standard that goes with this lesson, but the teacher did talk about some of
the attributes of different quadrilaterals and quadrilaterals in general. The CCSS
for first grade would come the closest would 1.G.1 Compose two-dimensional
shapes
(rectangles, squares,
trapezoids, triangles,
half-circles,
and quarter-circles). Knowing about these attributes can help students later
to be able to compose some of the shapes listed such as squares, rectangles, and
trapezoids. The attributes are key to being able to build any type of shape.
3. Would you characterize the teachers focus as attending to procedural or to
conceptual knowledge? Explain your characterization. The focus in this lesson was
more of attending to conceptual knowledge. Everything done in this lesson was
very analytical because students had to reason as to why shapes were considered
a quadrilateral, and the teacher directed students attention to the different
attributes of different quadrilaterals. Students didnt do any procedures, but
instead reasoned and discussed the concept of shapes being quadrilaterals or not.
4. Describe how the teacher engaged the students in the mathematics lesson. After
explaining to students about the different quadrilateral, and explaining that
quadrilaterals are shapes with 4 sides, the teacher had the students do a couple of
activities to help them practice the concept. The first activity involved having the
students play a game where the teacher would say go point to something that is a
quadrilateral or something that is not inside the classroom. They played multiple
rounds, and it allowed students to be up moving around and involved in
identifying real world objects as quadrilaterals or not. The last activity for this
days lesson was hands on, and involved students being given a sheet of shapes to
cutout, and they had to correctly glue each one to a piece of paper in 1 of 2
columns (quadrilateral or not quadrilateral)
5. Describe how the teacher modeled good communication in terms of using clear
and complete sentences and correct mathematical terminology. Give specific

MAED 3222 CLINICAL FALL 2014 BRANDON HORTON

examples. One of the things the teacher did was inform students that all
quadrilaterals have 4 sides. Honestly I dont think she did an effective job
distinguishing for students the difference between the different types of
quadrilaterals. She only showed pictures; she didnt go into detail with them on
this day the difference between the types of quadrilaterals. She modeled for
students by showing them pictures of the different quadrilaterals.
6. Describe how the teacher used mathematical questions during the lesson. Give
specific examples. During the lesson she asked students to identify if something
was a quadrilateral or not. She used this question in both the pointing activity, and
also in the cutout sorting activity.
7. Describe how the teacher assessed the students mathematical knowledge during
the lesson. The assessment the teacher used included observation and looking at
the students work from the sorting activity. Knowledge was assessed by watching
if the students correctly pointed to something that was and wasnt a quadrilateral,
and she also assessed by looking to see if students correctly identified and sorted
quadrilaterals and non quadrilaterals.

Reflection
1. Describe some things the teacher did in the lesson that you found to be
effective.
One of the things that I found to be the most effective was that instead of
doing a worksheet, students did more hands on. They were up and moving;
they were cutting out shapes, and it was more engaging for students.
2. Give a specific example of something the students learned. One of the obvious
key concepts that I know students learned was that quadrilaterals are any shape
with 4 sides.
3. Describe something you might add to this lesson. I might somehow have added
in manipulatives, like tangrams or mini shapes of some sort. I would have allowed
students to touch and feel different quadrilaterals to see the differences, instead
of just looking at a picture.