Delaney Brigman

Week 1 (Wednesday, February 8)

Warm Up
Standard: 3.MD.C.7.b Multiply side lengths to find areas of rectangles with whole-number side
lengths in the context of solving real world and mathematical problems, and represent whole-
number products as rectangular areas in mathematical reasoning.

Today, I observed Ms.Elmores 3rd grade classroom. They started out the math portion
of their day by working on a math warm-up problem. The problem was, Chayse is sewing a
blanket. She is buying material for the blanket, but doesn't know how much material to buy to
create the edges with lace. She knows the length is 12in and the width is 8in. How much
material should she buy? This warm-up was review from what the students had been working
on the couple of days before. While the students worked on the warm-up problem, I walked
around the room to see how the students were solving the problem. Did they know if they were
looking for the perimeter or the area? I ended up helping one student figure out if it was
perimeter or area by helping her draw a picture of the lace around the blanket. Ms.Elmore also
had a chart hanging in the room to help students figure out what to do to find the perimeter or
the area.

Group Lesson:
Standard: 3.NF.A.2 Understand a fraction as a number on the number line; represent fractions
on a number line diagram

During the group lesson, Ms.Elmore handed out a long strip of blue paper to each
student and to me. Once each student had their own strip of paper, Ms.Elmore drew on the
whiteboard a long rectangle to represent the strip of paper she handed out to each student. To
start off, she told the student that she wanted to create 2 equal halves of the strip of paper.
Ms.Elmore had me model how to fold our strip of blue paper in order to create two equal halves
but before I modeled this, Ms.Elmore asked to students to see if they could figure out how to
fold the piece of paper, without creasing it, to create halves. Once the students figured it out,
they were allowed to create the crease on their strip. Ms.Elmore then had the students figure
out what they should label the crease, which was . While Ms.Elmore wrote this on her model
on the board, the students wrote on the center crease they had created, as well as, a 0/2 at
the left side of the strip and a 2/2 on the right side of the strip. Ms.Elmore had students repeat
this process to create and as well while we all walked through it together like we did with
the .
Once students finished creating and labeling their , , and strip, Ms.Elmore then
handed out a long strip of white paper to each student and I. We repeated the same process as
we did for the blue strip but instead of labeling the , , and the students labeled their , ,
and 1/9.

Small Groups:
During this part of the lesson, the class was split up into three small groups. One group
worked with Ms.Elmore on review of division and fractions, one group worked with a teacher
assistant on fractions on a number line, and one group worked with me on addition with
regrouping. My group had 6 students and we worked with whiteboards and addition problems.
The students had to add two digit addition problems using the decomposing method first and
then the vertical method (standard algorithm). The students were doing very well. They did so
well that we ended up adding some three digit numbers at the end of the small group lesson
and the students even did well with the three digit numbers.

Week 2 (Wednesday, February 15)

Group Lesson
Standard: 3.NF.A.3 Explain equivalence of fractions in special cases, and compare fractions by
reasoning about their size.

Today, the students did not have much time for math because they had to go take their
classroom picture, which was during their normal math time. The students started off math by
taking a timed multiplication test. The students had 5 minutes to answer 25 multiplication facts. I
know we are told in our classes not to ever give our students timed tests because that is one of
the things that stresses students out about math. I remember taking these tests when I was in
third grade and if we didn't pass the test then we had to keep doing them until we did. Even
though timed multiplication tests are not effective, the way my teacher went about having
students take the test was better than what I remember when I took these tests. My teacher
gave the students 5 minutes to take the test rather than just 1 minute and if students finished
early, she had me go around to check each students answers and if I ran across one that was
wrong, the teacher told me to tell the student to look at that fact again. One the time was up, the
teacher had me go through the test and give all of the correct answers to the class.
Next, the students watched a Brain Pop Jr. video on equivalent fractions. The video
focused mostly on dividing shapes into equivalent fractions and then wrote the fractions that
corresponded to each shape below the shapes. While the students were watching the video,
some of them caught on that equivalent fractions involves division and subtraction.
After the video, the teacher had a PowerPoint on the smartboard that had a few shapes
on them. One of the shapes was divided and shaded while the other one was not shaded but
was divided in a different way. The teacher, first, showed the students how to shade the
unshaded shape in to look like the already shaded shape. She, then, wrote out the fractions for
each shape. One of the examples that she had was a circle cut into two equal pieces with one
half shaded. The other circle was cut into four equal pieces and the teacher had to shade in two
pieces to make it equal with the first circle. After the teacher demonstrated one of the problems
for the class, she had students come up to the board to help her answer the rest of the example
problems.
After the group lesson, the students did not have enough time to be split into small
groups because of the group picture but they worked individually on a worksheet that involved
them answering the same types of questions that the class had worked on together with the
teacher. I walked around and helped the students, if they needed it.
 Week 3 (Wednesday, February 22)
Group Lesson
Standard: 3.NF.A.3.b recognize and generate simple equivalent fractions, e.g., =2/4, 4/6=.
Explain why the fractions are equivalent, e.g., by using a visual fraction model.

Today, the students went more into depth on working with equivalent fractions. The
teacher began math time by having the students review what some equivalent fractions are. The
teacher would simply call on the student and have them provide two fractions that were
equivalent. To help some of the students, every desk in the classroom now has a laminated
number line with fractions written on it to help students remember some of their equivalent
fractions.
After the students reviewed some equivalent fractions, they were asked to come to the
rug at the front of the room with their math notebooks, a pencil, and a worksheet that the
teacher had them glue into their notebooks. The teacher had the questions that were on the
worksheet on a PowerPoint. She went through the model of I do, we do, you do. The teacher
talked through the first question on the PowerPoint; Look at the point on the number line below.
What does the point on the number line show? The number line showed that it was on 4/6 but
the students had to come up with the equivalent fraction that matched that point by partitioning
another number line. This question was a multiple choice question. The teacher continued to
work on questions similar to this and had the students help her answer the question and come
up to the smartboard to partition another number line to help them answer the question.
Small Group
After the group lesson was over, the
teacher split the students up into two different
groups, 6 students worked in a small group with
me while the rest of the class worked with the
teacher. All of the students worked on a worksheet
that had the same types of questions that were
worked on during the whole group lesson. The
students that were in my group did very well on
the worksheet. They worked together to eliminate
some of the answers, just like the teacher showed
them how to do, and created another number line
to partition to help them solve the problem.

Individual Work
Once the students were done working on their worksheets, they had the choice of
working on a program called tenmarks or compass learning on their chrome books. Both of
these programs give various math problems to the students. The teacher is able to individualize
what types of questions can be added onto these programs. This allows the teacher to have
students work individually on what they still need extra math work and help on.
 Week 4 (Wednesday, March 1)
Warm-Up
To begin their day, the students worked on a warm up that involved some math review.
One of the questions that the students had to answer involved partitioning number lines.
Partition a number line into eighths. Another question had students write inequalities and
equivalent fractions. Write an inequality that describes the illustration. One of the illustrations
for this question was a square separated into fourths and the other was a rectangle partitioned
into sixths. They students also had to work on finishing writing equations. Find the missing
factor: 45 __ = __.

Group Lesson
Standard: 4.NF.A.2 Compare two fractions with different numerators and different
denominators, e.g., by creating common denominators or numerators, or by comparing to a
benchmark fraction such as . Recognize that comparisons are valid only when the two
fractions refer to the same whole. Record the results of comparisons are valid only when the
two fractions refer to the same whole. Record the results of comparisons with symbols >, =, or
<, and justify the conclusions, e.g., by using a visual fraction model.

This was the lesson that I taught for my math whole group
lesson. During this part of the lesson, students were handed a
worksheet that had 10 different fraction pairs with unlike
denominators for students to compare. They were given access to
fraction bars to help them create the fractions that they were
supposed to compare to help them see which fraction was bigger
and which one was smaller. The students did 5 questions with a
partner and then the class came back together as a whole group to
finish the last 5 questions. After the students worked in pairs to
complete the 5 questions, I demonstrated and talked through how I
solved two more of the problems using the doc cam. Then, I had
three students come up to the doc cam to solve the last three
problems.

Individual Work
After the whole group lesson, the students were given
another worksheet that had two questions for the students to work on individually. The directions
on the worksheet were, Build the fractions and correctly compare the fractions using the
greater than or less than symbols. Write a sentence to explain your answer. The first pair of
fractions that the students had to compare was and . The second pair of fractions that they
had to compare was and 4/6.

Week 5 (Wednesday, March 8)

Group Lesson
Standard: 3.MD.B.3 Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled
bar graph to represent a data set with several categories.
Solve one- and two-step how many more and how many
less problems using information presented in scaled bar
graphs.

Today, students began their math lesson by taking a timed addition test. The students
had 3 minutes to complete 20 problems that involved them adding numbers in the 100s and the
10s. None of these problems involved regrouping but the teacher said that in a week or so they
would begin working on timed addition tests that involved them having to regroup. After the 3
minutes was up, the teacher had the students chorally provide the correct answer to each
problem on the test. If students missed the problem or did not answer the problem they had to
circle that question to indicate that they got that question incorrect.
After the timed addition test was over, students were instructed to meet on the carpet in
front of the smartboard with their math notebooks. The first powerpoint that the teacher had up
for the lesson had a question for the students to answer. The question was, Shelly ate of her
sandwich. Debbie ate of her sandwich. Which is true about the amount of sandwich the girls
ate? There were 4 different inequality answer choices for the students to choose from. The
teacher gave the students a moment to think about the problem and then began to talk through
the problem with them. She had taught the students, during some of the previous lessons, how
to use the butterfly method. I can remember when we watched the video on fractions in class
the man saying that we should not rely on teaching students the butterfly method in order to
help them compare fractions but it did seem to help some of the students figure out which
fraction was bigger.
Once the teacher finished reviewing a bit of comparing fractions with the students, she
went into the main objective for the days math lesson. On the powerpoint, the teacher showed
students an example of a bar graph and had them review and identify the x-axis and the y-axis.
One of the main points that the teacher taught this day was how important the key is when you
are looking at a picture graph. The teacher explained to students that the key tells you what the
pictures in picture graphs stand for and that it is very important information needed to know in
order to read the graph properly. The teacher, also, made a point, for every graph that she
looked at, to count each column or row and right the number for each before answering the
questions being asked about the graph. In order to help her make her point, during one of the
picture graph examples that the teacher was having the students analyze and answer questions
about, there were two columns that had the same amount in each. One of the questions asked
about the graph was, Which snack was liked by more than 2 people but less than 5 people?
The teacher had only counted and written the number before answering the questions for a
couple of the columns and when she asked one of the students to come answer this question,
she told the student that there were 2 possible answers to the problem. She and the students
then realized that there was actually only 1 but because of the columns that she did not count
looked close to the column that was the correct answer, she did not realize that there was
actually only 1 correct answer.

Small Group Work

Standard: 4.NF.A.2 Compare two fractions with different numerators and different denominators,
e.g., by creating common denominators or numerators, or by comparing to a benchmark fraction
such as . Recognize that comparisons are valid only when the two fractions refer to the same
whole. Record the results of comparisons with symbols >, =, or <, and justify the conclusions,
e.g., by using a visual fraction model.

After the whole group math lesson was over, most of the students went on to work on
either compass learning or achieve 3000 but about 5 students came to work with me in a small
group. These were the students who have been struggling with comparing fractions. They had
been struggling with putting the symbol going the correct way and where the numbers for the
butterfly method go. Each student had their own whiteboard and a dry erase marker. I had a
list of about 20 different fractions with different numerators and denominators for the students to
compare. I would tell the students to write down the fractions and have them use the butterfly
method in order to figure out which fraction is bigger. I also modeled this for them and made
sure they were putting their symbol the correct way. I asked them before we started which
number the alligator wants to eat and they all replied with the bigger number. Some of the
students struggled with the symbol direction on the first problem but after that, all of the students
did not have any more trouble with placing the symbol in the correct direction. The students did
not struggle with where to place the numbers when they were using the butterfly method
either. Even though the students were using the butterfly method, like the teacher wants them
to, I also talked through with them exactly why the fraction that was bigger was bigger and the
other was smaller. Most of the students were able to tell me that it was because one of the
fractions was closer to the whole than the other. I wanted to make sure that this was reinforced
with the students so they did not have to rely so heavily on the butterfly method.

Week 6 (Wednesday, March 15)

Warm up
Standard: 3.MD.B.3 Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set
with several categories. Solve one- and two-step how many more and how many less
problems using information presented in scaled bar graphs.

To begin the math period of the day, the class started off by reviewing bar and picture
graphs. The teacher started off by giving an example question, How many more people voted
for goldfish than rabbits? One of the first questions that the teacher asked the students was
what the x-axis and y-axis represented. She then had the students talk her through how to solve
the problem. What two parts of the graph do we need to look at to solve this question? The
students replied with the correct answer and the teacher had one of the students come up to the
board to write down how many people voted for goldfish and how many voted for rabbit. She
then asked the students what kind of operation they needed to use to help them solve this
problem.

Group Lesson
Standard: 3.MC.C.5.A A square with side length 1 unit, called a unit square, is said to have
one square unit of area, and can be used to measure area.

After the warm up, the teacher went into working on perimeter and area of irregular
shapes. The class has been working on this skill for a couple of days and knows fairly well how
to solve these types of problems. This was more of a mini lesson today so that the students had
time to work on their math zoo blueprint projects. The teacher first modeled a question, had the
students help her solve a question, and then had the students solve a question on their own.
The problem that the teacher modeled was a multiple choice question with an irregular shape
that has sides measuring 8, 9, 3, 3, 5, and 6. The teacher talked through how to split the
irregular shape into two rectangles and figure out which equation would work to find the area.
Since the teacher was working with multiple choice questions, the teacher showed the students
how to use process of elimination with the provided answer choices. The teacher also stressed
that every time the students are solving a problem that involves finding the area of an irregular
shape, there will be a plus sign in the middle of the two equations. In one of the questions, the
teacher forgot to place the addition sign in all of the answer choices. The students knew that the
only symbol that could go there was an addition sign because they had talked about this with
the teacher earlier in the lesson. The question that the students worked on by themselves was
an irregular shape with sides measuring 7, 5, 1, 3, 10, and 4. The answer choices were a) (10 x
5) + (1 x 7) b) (4 x 10) + (1 x 7) c) (3 x 4) + (7 x 1). The students worked on this problem the
same way the teacher showed them.

Small Group
Standard: Standard: 3.MD.B.3 Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent
a data set with several categories. Solve one- and two-step how many more and how many
less problems using information presented in scaled bar graphs.

During the small group time of the math lesson, some students worked on their zoo
project, other worked with the teacher on some extra practice with irregular shapes, and other
students worked with me to review picture graphs.
The students that worked with me on picture graphs flew through the two graphs they
were given. They had to answer 5 questions per graph. There was also a back to the worksheet
but they were instructed to finish that for homework.

Individual Work
Standard: 3.MC.C.5.A A square with side length 1 unit, called a unit square, is said to have
one square unit of area, and can be used to measure area.
3.MD.C.7.B Multiply side lengths to find areas of rectangles with whole-number side lengths in
the context of solving real world and mathematical problems, and represent whole-number
products as rectangular areas in mathematical reasoning.

After students worked in the small groups, all of the students worked on their zoo
projects. For this zoo project, students had a few different requirements. They had to have a
certain amount of exhibits, bathrooms, and restaurants. Then they had to come up with the area
and perimeter of each exhibit, bathroom, and restaurant with the corresponding equations.