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TeachingSingaporeMath 2013 JBadger
Classroom Observations
Classroom observations provided a perspective of how teachers implemented the Singapore Math curriculum through O’Donnell’s curriculum-in-use category. Participant classroom observations collected data on teachers’ delivery of the Singapore Math program. Evident in classroom observations were bar modeling strategies and number bonds to review and explicate mathematical problems as a whole class. Kindergarten to Grade 4 teachers modeled mathematical examples at the concrete and pictorial level using magnetic GATEways to Teacher Education A journal of the Georgia Association of Teacher Educators VOLUME 14, ISSUE 1 PAGE 34 place-value disks on a white board, and periodically explained some vocabulary-rich terms. Mental math strategies were also infused in many lessons. It was not uncommon for a teacher in the lower grade levels to ask students to open their workbook to “the page with seven tens and three ones [page 73].” With few exceptions in the first year of observations, all teachers held – or placed on a table nearby – a copy of the Singapore Math Teacher’s Edition to consult while delivering a lesson. Teachers stated that this practice was permitted by school administrators to facilitate accurate delivery of the new curriculum. Classroom observations reflected a preponderance of teacher-centered instruction instead of providing more occasions for student- centered learning. There were not a lot of opportunities for students to experience the concrete manipulatives themselves, to collaborate on workbook exercises, or progress to the abstract level from the concrete and pictorial stages. The majority of teachers tended to emphasize low-level questioning and did not ask students to draw associations of a mathematical concept to real-world contexts. In one lesson, a teacher drew pictures of number disks (manipulatives) on a whiteboard, but neither used number disks herself nor permitted the students to employ them. In another case, a teacher demonstrated a mathematical operation with some manipulatives but did not allow the students to perform the same operations with the manipulatives. Teachers in grades 1, 2, and 3 integrated dry-erase whiteboards for each student to display their answer to a question during a teacher demonstration or review of a mathematical concept. One teacher engaged her Grade 2 students with individual clocks, whereby each student manipulated a time piece to set the correct time announced by the teacher, such as 20 after 6:00, 5 minutes before 8:00, or three-quarters after 9:00. Another Grade 2 teacher integrated number bonds to reinforce the principle of subtraction using the ones and tens place values. In the Grade 2 example that follows, the strategy of bar modeling was incorporated; however, the teacher provided few opportunities for the students to apply the model and did not question the students’ thinking to determine how an answer was determined. The Grade 2 teacher read a word problem from the textbook, then: T: What did the sentence just tell you? Who are we talking about? How much money did she have? S: She had $6.80 for a watermelon. T: OK. And $2.40 to buy beans. Draw a bar: $6.80 [watermelon] $2.40 [beans] Are we finding the sum or subtracting? S: Sum. T: Quickly try to find the answer. Make sure the decimals are on top of each other. Remember we are not just finding the answer, but write your answer in a sentence: part-part-whole. Set-up the alignment: 6.80 [part] + 2.40 [part] [whole] On the count of three, show me your answer. Students displayed their answers by raising dry-erase whiteboards over their heads for the teacher to view their answer. The teacher responded with either “good” or “check your answer” to each displayed white board. Individually rather than in pairs or in groups and either alone or in silence, students applied mathematical concepts described by a teacher during the last 5-10 minutes of a 50- minute class. When student collaboration or discussion occurred at the end of a lesson, there was little time for the teacher to probe the students’ reasons for arriving at an answer. Classroom observations in Kindergarten to Grade 4 revealed teachers integrating manipulatives in their instruction as well as incorporating bar modeling strategies and explicating Singapore Math vocabulary. Taken together, classroom observations data revealed a moderately strong implementation of the Singapore Mathematics framed through GATEways to Teacher Education A journal of the Georgia Association of Teacher Educators VOLUME 14, ISSUE 1 PAGE 35 O’Donnell’s teaching and curriculum-in-use constructs. Download 272.23 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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