Nina Johnson Practicum: Phase 2 D.

Krandel February 10, 2013 Instructional Program: Subtraction

Student: Bryson M. Skill: Subtraction Initiator: Nina Johnson

Context for Instruction: Instruction of basic subtraction skills will occur throughout the morning routine during small work groups in the natural setting of Brysons K-1st grade cross cat classroom. During this time, there are three adults in the classroom (one special education teacher, one para professional, and one student teacher) and four students who spend the majority of the day together in the cross cat classroom. Instruction and assessment will be implemented during class time when all students are involved in small work groups, working on independent skills on differentiated skill levels.

Program Objective: When completing subtraction assignments during math instruction, Bryson will compute basic subtraction facts within twenty to finish assignment with 80% accuracy on five consecutive trails.

Generalization: To enhance transfer across different contexts of subtraction based problems (word problems, money, time, map reading, abstract, etc.) the use of sufficient exemplars will be implemented into instruction to ensure generalization of subtraction skills. In addition to introducing subtraction skill in different contexts, instruction will be done on the conceptual, representational, and abstract level. This will allow the student to use manipulative, representations, and symbols to generalize skills. In order to monitor the students generalization, the student skills will be compared across problems

setting different situations for subtraction skills for correct procedures and conceptual understanding.

Rational: Stated by the common core standards, students in first grade should have the ability to represent and solve problems involving subtraction, understand and apply properties of operations and the relationship between addition and subtraction, subtract within 20, and work with subtraction equations. Also, subtraction is used in ones everyday life. The skill of subtraction is used when one goes shopping, when reading a road map to configure how many miles to travel, using money, and when telling time. Subtraction is a basic math skill that one should learn resulting in independence of life skills. Assessment Procedures: Brysons subtraction skills will be assessed in the following manner: -During the concrete instructional period, the student will be assessed on the abstract level, but have access to manipulative devices to aid in correct calculation of difference in subtraction. The students assessment consists of a subtraction worksheet containing problems of current instructional difficulty (0-10, 0-20, regrouping). Once the student demonstrates the ability to complete the assessment worksheet with eighty percent accuracy on five consecutive trails, the student will advance to the next level of instruction.

-During the representational instructional period, the student will be assessed on the abstract level, but have working knowledge of the representational strategy used to calculate difference. The students assessment consists of a subtraction worksheet containing problems of current instructional difficulty (0-10, 0-20, regrouping). Once the student demonstrated the ability to complete the assessment worksheet with eighty percent accuracy on five conductive trails, the student will advance to the next level of instruction.

- During the abstract instructional period, the student will be assessed on the abstract level, using numbers only. The students assessment consists of a subtraction worksheet containing problems of current instructional difficulty (0-10, 0-20, regrouping). Once the student demonstrated the ability to complete the assessment worksheet with eighty percent accuracy on five conductive trails, the student will advance the next level of instruction.

Assessment Schedule: Once 1:1 instruction of subtraction has begun with the student, the student will be assessed every third day of instruction. Assessment will occur at the beginning of instruction, in order to make decisions on advancement, during the small work groups of the morning routine. Once mastery has been achieved at one level, the student will progress to the next level of difficultly in the skill.

Instructional Procedures:

1. Instruction of 0-9 subtraction skills on the concrete level 2. Instruction of 0-9 subtraction skills on the representational level 3. Instruction of 0-9 subtraction skills on the abstract level 4. Instruction of 10-20 subtraction skills (no regrouping required) at the concrete level 5. Instruction of 10-20 subtraction skills (no regrouping required) at the representational level 6. Instruction of 10-20 subtraction skills (no regrouping required) at the abstract level 7. Instruction of 0-20 subtraction skills (regrouping required) at the concrete level 8. Instruction of 0-20 subtraction skills (regrouping required) at the representational level 9. Instruction of 0-20 subtraction skills (regrouping required) at the abstract level

-During the instructional period, reinforcement will be given and faded in accordance to the schedule presented in the reinforcement section.

-Within instruction time, subactivites will be incorporated to aid in student engagement and generalization. Such possible subactivites include:

Subtraction Top-It

Materials: number cards 0-20 Players: 2-4 Directions 1. Shuffle the cards. Place the deck number-side down on the playing surface. 2. Each player turns over two cards and subtracts the smaller number from the larger number. 3. The player with the largest differences wins the round and takes all the cards. 4. In case of a tie for the largest difference, each tied player turns over two more cards and calls out their difference. The player with the largest difference then takes all the cards from both plays. 5. Play ends when not enough cards are left for each player to have another turn. 6. The player with the most cards wins.

Beat the Calculator

Materials: number cards 0-9 (4 of each) Players: 3 Directions 1. One player is the Caller. A second player is the Calculator. The third player is the Brain. 2. Shuffle the cards and place them facedown on the table. 3. The Caller draws two cards from the number deck and asks for the difference of the numbers. 4. The Calculator solves the problem with a calculator. The brain solves it without a calculator. The Caller decides who got the answer first. 5. Players trade roles every 10 turns or so.

Decomposing Numbers Directions: Glue 1 paper squares into each box. Mark an X to take away a square. Finish each subtraction sentence to record the different ways you can break a number.

Example of a Number Decomposing worksheet:

BANG! Directions: Math Fact BANG! A student pulls a stick, reads the fact, and answers. If answered correctly, the student keeps the stick. If answered incorrectly, the student puts the stick back. If the student pulls out a BANG, all their sticks are returned to container. The player with most sticks at the end of the time wins.

Subtraction Races! Directions: Choose a card. Find the difference. If you are correct, move ahead one space. If you are not correct, your turn in over. The first one to the flag is the winner.

Reinforcement: During instruction of a new concept (conceptual, representational, abstract) of subtraction, direct and specific verbal praise will be given for every correct calculation of a difference. Once Bryson has correctly calculated ten consecutive differences of a new concept, praise will be faded according to the following schedule: -Every other correct calculation for ten consecutive problems -Every third correct calculation for ten consecutive problems -Every fourth correct calculation for ten consecutive problems - No specific verbal praise provided for correct calculations, rather give general positive praise for completion of full assignments and homework with no assistance. If Brysons performance starts to fall at any time during the fading of reinforcement, the original reinforcement schedule will be implemented and begin the fading process once performance is stabilized.

Maintenance: With the basic skills of subtraction, there will be no specific procedure for monitoring maintenance because subtraction is a skill that one uses throughout an entire day (telling time, making change or budgeting, map configuration, temperature, weight, subtracting fractions and other advance mathematical skills). By giving Bryson the ability to expand his subtraction skills, maintenance of this skill will carry on and continue growth of the skill.

To ensure maintenance, reinforcement will be faded but not until student achieves skills at the mastery level. Reinforcement fading may not occur if the student is continually being introduced to more difficult content (borrowing from tens, hundreds, thousands).

Evidence & Resource: Students with disabilities may show difficulty in mathematics due to a lack of understanding in the basic meaning behind a concept (Miller & Hudson, 2006). Having a conceptual understanding of the idea will allow the student to have a greater perception behind abstract mathematical symbols and operations (Miller & Hudson, 2006). The instructional strategy, concrete-representational-abstract (CRA), has been found valuable for stimulating conceptual understanding of mathematics through the use of multiple methods of representation (Miller & Hudson, 2006). In the CRA method, the instructor introduced the targeted skill at the concrete level (Miller & Hudson, 2006). At the concrete level, the student uses physical objects to manipulate the problem in order to make connections to concepts (Miller & Hudson, 2006). Once mastery is achieved at this level, the instruction moves to the representational level where students use twodimensional markings/pictures to show knowledge of learned concepts (Miller & Hudson, 2006). The last level of instruction is the abstract level where students demonstrate calculation only using numbers, leading students to gain fluency to encourage effective problem solving (Miller & Hudson, 2006). I believe this method will be effective in instructing the current student in basic subtraction skills. After informally assessing the student, it was observed that the student lacked conceptual knowledge of subtraction. It was detected that the student was applying knowledge of addition when solving problems. When asked to model a subtraction problem, the student molded the first number, molded the second number, and then combined the two numbers as done in addition. Also, when asked to calculate the difference between two numbers the student proceeded to calculate the sum. By

beginning instruction at the conceptual level, the student will gain meaning behind the procedure. The CRA method also proved successful in instructing elementary students with disabilities to solve multi-digit subtraction problems where knowledge of regrouping skills is necessary (Mancl, Miller, & Kennedy, 2012). The study conducted in the Macncl, Miller, & Kennedy (2012) article showed gains in mathematical skills for all participants in this skill using the CRA strategy. With a target objective of basic subtraction facts within twenty, I believe this method will bring success to the student by being able to apply the same strategy to all aspects of subtraction (basic, multi-digit, and regrouping) (Mancl, Miller, & Kennedy, 2012). In addition to applying the CRA strategy in instruction, the use of real-world applications will be used to increase conceptual understanding of subtraction (Miller & Hudson, 2006). The use of real-world applications incorporated into lessons will also boost motivation and encourage generalization (Miller & Hudson, 2006). With the student current knowledge of coin value, I believe by applying subtraction skills to making change will both increase conceptual understanding and engage the student in instruction. Subtraction instruction can also be joined in use of time, map reading, temperature, and advance mathematical skills. By exposing the student to the skill in different contexts, the goal is to promote generalization and ensure maintenance of learned skills to be applied in everyday activities.

Miller, S. & Hudson, P. (2006). Helping Students with Disabilities Understand What Mathematics Means. Teaching Exceptional Children, 39, 28-35.

Mancl, D., Miller, S., & Kennedy, M. (2012). Using the Concrete-RepresentationalAbstract Sequence with Integrated Strategy Instruction to Teach Subtraction with Regrouping to Students with Learning Disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 27, 152-166.

Subtraction: CRA Method

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1-23 1-24 Date 1-25 Number of Abstract Problems Solved Correctly Number of Conceptual Problems Solved Correctly

Number of Subtraction Problems Solved Correctly