November 6, 2023

Guided Reading
-Had students sit at the U-table
-Students took turns reading
-Asked questions after every few pages (put these questions into your lesson plan - I’m assuming you had the
questions prepared?)
-Show me your questions and vocabulary words
-What happens when a student struggles with a word when reading?
-Did each student answer questions or did certain students avoid answering?

November 8, 2023

Guided Reading

Math Talk Grade 4/5

-Which One Doesn’t Belong task
-Gave students a couple minutes to come up with which one they thought didn’t belong
-Had to adapt your activity because they all came up with the same answer
-Maybe have them share in table groups first? (sometimes they are more willing to talk in whole class
discussion if they’ve talked in groups) Or write their answers on their desk and then you can see what kinds of
answers are going to be shared?
-This way of teaching math means adapting constantly (it’s hard to do!)
-Give them lots of time to think and respond to each other (less questioning by you - or ask questions like “Do
you agree with Jaden? Why do you think that?)
-Michael and Jaden were playing hangman (it’s hard to keep students engaged) (maybe walk around the room
to be aware of behaviour and also proximity often discourages distracted behaviour)
-I know math isn’t your background…this takes a lot of time and practice to build the skills to teach math this
way…good first experience with a math talk though :)

November 9, 2023

Social
-In control of the class, students were engaged
-I told the grade 6’s to ask you if they wanted to go to the bathroom…but I missed if they all went or not…do
you have any expectations for bathroom breaks?

Guided Reading

Math Talk Grade 4/5

-Introduced the task (adding decimals)
-You walked around and checked on students the whole time and all students were engaged. (Are you able to
tell me which students could do this independently? Did Adrian need help? You helped Lydia. How many
different students did you ask to share their thinking? How did you decide which students to ask? Did you ask
any students who were struggling? Were all students listening when students shared their answers?)
-How did students know if they were correct?
-My suggestion is that when a student shares their thinking you write it up on the board so other students can
see it. Some students might have struggled with the first one and then seeing it written on the board might help
them understand so that they are able to do the next ones.
-It was a good task and got them thinking and also reviewed the current concept we are working on. I’m happy
that you are stepping out of your comfort zone and trying out teaching math :)

November 10, 2023

Social
-Kept students on task

Math Talk Grade 4/5

-Get started quickly (they’ll take as long as you let them to get ready…they are slow)
-Introduced maze activity (did you think about how you wanted to make groups?) (Asked them to do it and if
they got the correct answer they would get a treat - later told them that they had to get to 10 to be the “winner”
but then one kid said he thought there wasn’t a winner…be really clear about the goal when you introduce the
activity…you’ll know what you didn’t explain when they ask questions)
-Reasoning behind random groupings
-All students were engaged and working (Nicko explained to Tyler…he clearly knew what to do and was
interested in teaching it to Tyler because he was interested in the activity)
-They were fairly independent or could rely on their team, but you were also able to help them when needed
-This activity showed that you thought about what you wanted them to get out of it and how they could be more
engaged in their learning
-Good job :)

Nov 17, 2023

Math talk 6/7

-Much better at waiting for students to think while sharing answers (Kevin had enough time to realize he was
wrong; you questioned how he got that but then he gave up…try again to get him to share at least the start of
the thought process and then someone else could finish it or comment on it…it’s valuable for students to find
where other students made mistakes)
-Leave all the writing on the board instead of erasing and then you can go back to it if it works (you left it on for
the second problem)
-Heads down formative assessment - good :)

Nov 20, 2023

Reading/Social 6/7
-Got started reading at 8:44. I know that the breakfast routine and announcements takes time and is chaotic
but try to get them started a little quicker.
-Switched to social at 8:58. You are welcome to get the computer up and running and everything for your
lesson set up when you get here in the morning. Just tell me to get out of the way if you need to :)
-You explained the instructions, and explained behaviour expectations (could any of your instructions have
been clearer or do you feel like they knew what to do?)
-Handed out booklets at 9:10.
-Can they work together or should they be working independently? Will they be allowed to work together while
you’re teaching the other group the next few days?
-Clarified instructions on the grade 7 booklet
-What did you decide to do if students are off task? How many warnings? Don’t be afraid of handing out
consequences…this age is tricky because it’s a balancing act between earning their respect and keeping them
in line before you lose them and can’t get them back
-How much work did they get done? Did you check in with every group?
-Let’s come up with a plan for Hailey to get her caught up.
-Sometimes it’s good to come up with an exemplar for a project they’ve never done before so that they can see
what they are aiming for
-Let’s also come up with a plan for Tyler - what do we think he’s capable of without drawing attention to him
when he works with his peers
-Closure?

Math Talk 6/7

-Good problems
-Better transition after recess this time
-You listened to Colin’s explanation and then you knew you needed to re-direct them and further explain
-I don’t know if they understood the answer…I know you’re still working on explaining math….you’re doing a
good job of trying something that isn’t your background

Math Talk 8/9

-Give the reminder that they should be doing the problem on the board (some groups took awhile to get
started)
-Noticed that some students were talking while Benny was explaining and you were on top of it and got them
quiet

November 23, 2023

Reading 6/7
-Let’s get them started as quickly as possible. They’ll go for breakfast as long as nothing is happening in class.

Social 6/7
-Recess question was a good idea but in the winter the girls hate recess. Haha. Good adjustment to your
question though. That activity went differently than you planned!
-Did all students participate in the lesson? Were all students engaged? How do you know if they understand?
-How did the 7’s do?
-Where are students at with their trading cards?
-How did the 6’s do with their cards when you were working with the 7’s? For awhile they were putting things
under the wall to the grade 4/5 room.

*You need to work on your transitions - you left Social without wrapping it up and Mrs. Cosman had to wrap it
up; you started math 4/5 eight minutes late and didn’t have all the materials you needed. Next week you’ll be
teaching significantly more time and you’ll need to be prepared and watching the clock and in control of the
class. This is a good goal for you next week.

Math 4/5 Task

-You explained the activity (I wouldn’t have said anything about the second one until they finished the first one
and then just given it to those groups that were done).
-Were most students able to understand?
-Were there groups that were stuck for a long time and didn’t make any progress? What could you have done
about that?
-What is your end goal…to have them all succeed? To have them all understand but not necessarily finish?
Albert was “defeated”…how did you respond to him?
-Did you anticipate this to go like it did?

Math 6/7 Task

-Got them started much quicker (One of Liljedahl’s “rules” is to get them engaged in the first 3 minutes if you
want them to be engaged all class…it was hard to tell with transitioning from recess but I’d say you were within
the first 3 minutes of them being in the classroom)
-When they say “how will this help us in life” - pick a numeracy skill that you’re building and tell them that’s how
(for example, today you could say “this is improving your reasoning skills, which you should use every time you
make a decision in life”)
-You gave hints to keep them engaged; I think at the end you started losing them; it’s a difficult balance;
sometimes you can even stop and then re-visit on another day because something they keep thinking about
things after you’ve done the activity

Math 8/9 Task

-Got them started quickly and into groups quickly
-Were they engaged all the way to the end?

November 27, 2023

Reading 6/7
-Seems to be going well
-Got students reading more quickly today and better start to the day

Social 6/7
-Transitioned to Social quickly without any wasted time; got students working on social and back to their desks
within a couple minutes
-Most students were on task and engaged most of the class
-What is your plan for students who are not finished the trading cards yet?
-Reminder to chat about SN
-Ended class well; quick closure and had students ready for next class (sometimes I wait for Desi to come in
and sometimes I go to her class first…either way is fine)

Math 4/5
-the joy of technology…maybe have a question in mind you can get them to work on while you get the
computer ready to go

-WODB clock activity:

- these activities are always good to get them talking about numeracy
- did all students contribute? Did you pay attention to which students participated in the discussion?
- you had thought about possible answers and some questions you could ask to build on their thinking

-Practice multiplying by 10s, 100s, 1000s

 - did you walk around and check to see if all students were able to do it? - this is a great chance for
formative assessment (even just observations so that you know which students to go to once it gets more
difficult); did students know if they were doing it right and what happened if they weren’t getting the answers
correct?
- at one point someone asked something and you said “you tell me” - great response; make them
explain their thinking as often as possible and focus on leading them to concepts instead of giving answers
- you can totally just choose students instead of waiting for raised hands; they’ve been pretty well
trained that they might be called upon at any time
- you may have to write some things down on the board because if a student says 130 000, does
everyone know what that looks like?
- formative assessment with “heads down, hands up”: by this point you should already have a good
idea of who understands, and their hands should match what you already know; if you can’t predict which
students will say they have it and which students need more practice then you need to do more checking in
with them throughout the activity; how can you use this assessment to guide your lesson (at what point do you
do more practice and at what point do you move on? If you decide to do more practice, what can you do with
the students who are struggling?)

*Around 10am at this point

-Area Model practice:

- you were walking around and checking the students more during this activity (maybe you had settled
into the lesson and were more comfortable at this point?)
- did you ask a variety of students for answers (have you called on Corney, Nancy, Tamara, Michael,
Adrian, Matthew? Maybe you did and I missed it?)
- you asked Aaron to explain his thinking when he got an answer of 220; it’s great that you got him to go
through the process even though you knew the answer was wrong…this is key to the way that the instruction
of math is changing; did you have a student explain the mistake…I missed that part; asking other students if
they agree with the answer instead of you saying if the answer is correct or incorrect….excellent!
- called on Tamara and Michael for the 20x12 question
- I usually try to leave all the different strategies on the board and erase as little as possible for each
question so that students that are still working through an example can continue to see it; this way you can
also refer back to other examples
- You had a hard time showing Albert’s thinking (sometimes it’s really hard to correctly mathematically
show student thinking)
- 8(110) question - a few students saw the first example and said “ohhhh that would have been so much
easier to do it that way” - this is exactly what you want students to do because we are aiming for efficiency and
understanding; this is why showing different ways and letting students explain strategies is so powerful (as
opposed to the “old way” of teaching math which would be to show the standard algorithm and then do the
same thing a million times until they memorize the process)

*10:23 am

-Multiplying decimals practice:

- a few students asked when math would be over…this may be a sign you need to switch things up a bit
(maybe switch to groups at boards?)

-You closed the lesson and had them clean up

*On Thursday you seemed a bit off your game…today you were definitely back on track. I appreciate the effort
you are putting into teaching math…I know it’s not your passion and you may not teach math in your career,
but these strategies and this style of teaching applies to all subjects and teaching outside of your subject major
is great for building your capacity as a teacher (as well, sometimes you can teach something better if you’ve
struggled with it yourself)

🙂
*This lesson went well! Pacing…maybe speed it up a bit? I’m impressed with how well you did for your first
math lesson! Good job

Math 6/7

-Dice activity:
- good start; you were explaining the activity by 10:47 and the transition to math went well
- I think you explained it fairly well, like you said “it will start to make more sense once you try it”; maybe
don’t even suggest how they organize the outcomes - sometimes they come up with really efficient ways once
they’ve tried ways that are not efficient
- random groupings - this is always a good option (there are advantages to making the random groups
while they are watching so that they know they are random); I know you were considering the new student
when you made the groups at recess, which is also good
- stopped the activity at 11:00 - could this have gone on longer? Some students were disappointed
because they wanted to finish it; did anyone get an answer that worked?

*11:00 am

-Terminating decimals to fractions:

- did a good job of not saying if an answer is incorrect (said “are you sure”); got students to explain
thinking
- you showed that ¼=⅛ but should have showed ¼ divided by 2 = ⅛ (be careful to be mathematically
correct…this will be hard because you aren’t used to teaching math…you’ll get better at this with experience)
- i think you may have lost them when you were doing lowest terms of 125/1000 and 875/1000…this
was a good strategy and probably worth showing…they just were struggling to make that same connection and
follow your thinking…if they are really falling apart just abandon the strategy and maybe there will be the
chance to re-visit it later

*11:20

-You started losing some of them…how can you keep them engaged?

-Relationship between fractions and dividing and fractions to decimals (part 2 and 3 of your plan)
- 26/43 - maybe ask them to write it as division…I think they thought they had to figure out the answer
- I think you were losing energy because they were losing energy…what can you do in that situation?
You got them moving around now because they needed to re-energize.
- It’s good for you to feel that frustration and then adapt; lessons don’t always go totally as planned;
being flexible and adapting is a good skill to build
- They were more engaged when they were at the boards
- Reinforce standing at the boards to keep them focused (some were sitting and not putting in much
effort at all)
- Back to desks at 11:39
*11:40

-Estimation percentages
- definitely choose random students to answer (forces them to try and come up with something)
- chose Kevin to answer and he had no idea (sometimes it’s worth it to make them start the question
and struggle for a minute and sometimes it’s better to just move on to the next student - if you set up the class
expectations that either of those options could happen they will be less likely to just say “I don’t know” because
there’s the chance you’ll still challenge them to do it anyway)
- some were focused, some were not…you were less frustrated by the end which was good.

*You got frustrated in this lesson. I think part of it was that they struggle on Mondays (this culture seems
particularly bad for Mondays), part of it was it wasn’t going as you thought it would, and part of it was your
comfort in this lesson vs the 4/5 lesson (content maybe is a bit more challenging to teach, age range is also
more challenging to teach). This is good experience for you! Most PS 1’s will not get the chance to experience
this. You have also seen me get frustrated in lessons…it happens sometimes…just be sure to reflect on it and
learn from it (I usually know when I’ve been grumpy in a lesson and it bothers me that I can’t always keep my
own frustration under control…but I reflect on it and determine where my frustration came from…lack of sleep,
tough morning, not prepared enough for my lesson, hadn’t taught previous concepts well enough, etc.)

*It will be interesting for you to observe other classes and also the experience of PS 2 and PS 3 because so
much of successful teaching comes from setting up class expectations and routines; you don’t get to see the
struggle of set up when you’ve come in part way through a semester; it’s good for you to see different classes
and decide what you think will be important to you in your own class one day (your class routines and
expectations also show what you value and your teaching philosophy).

November 28, 2023

Social 6/7
-Started the lesson by 8:37. Great start today!
-Debate topic was hard for the 7’s but it will be great to see how it turns out!
-When will they finish preparing?
-Good transition sending them to Science

Math 4/5
-Fairly quick start to class
-Good starting task (could you have separated Albert and Jaden and Trina and Boaz and made their questions

🙂
harder?)
-Be careful with how you show the calculations (you had 9(10)=30-3). You’ll get better with practice

Math 6/7
-Started class quickly
-Have them standing at the boards instead of sitting and get them to write on the vertical surfaces so you can
see their work and so that other students can see their work (you did remind them once, but be firm about the
expectations)
-Student with the marker should not have the ideas; they should be communicating their ideas to each other
-Careful with showing the math again (30%=42, but 30%=0.3 actually)
-Keep practicing moving them along quickly (always aim for them to be talking more time than you are in a
class) - this is hard I know because you don’t want to move on and drag students along when they aren’t
understanding but you also don’t want to spend too much time on each concept…in math we return to
concepts over and over again throughout the year so if they don’t understand YET they will still have the
opportunity…it’s hard to know when to move on but if most are on the right track then keep going
-You definitely have an easier time in 4/5 than 6/7 but I think it’s the comfort with the math and the difference in
their ages and the larger class size (more management is needed in 6/7 than in 4/5)…you’ve come a long
ways already and you’ll get more comfortable with 6/7 as you continue to teach them

November 29, 2023

Math 4/5
-My chaotic transition from leadership wasn’t helpful to you. Sorry about that!

🙂
-Baseball game was a cool idea! They seemed to buy into it and after it was over I heard Trina say “that was
fun”.
-Baseball game started around 9:37 and ended at 9:55
-Decimal practice (did 2 quick examples…they seem to be getting it?)
-Notes (sorry I forgot to tell you about table of contents)
-Around 10:20 you moved on to examples. This transition wasn’t as smooth as your others. How can you get
them back to being engaged again?
-Careful with your math again (you wrote 4(10)(10)(10) but that is not the same as 4(3)(10)...this would be a
good time to show them why these are not the same)

December 4, 2023

Social 6/7
-The debate did not go well…you thought that might happen. The question was definitely very difficult for them.
This was a good experience for you though. What would you do differently if you did this activity again?

Math 4/5
-30 scratch task - good start to class
-Multiplication - it’s tricky to teach but the more practice the better they’ll get. The ultimate goal is to be able to
do more of the processes using mental math to really build their understanding of how numbers work.
-Last week we talked about formative assessment and keeping track of who can do it - do you know who can
multiply? How do you know? How did Corney and Nancy and Michael do?
-Good job leaving the incorrect answer on the board and having Jaden do it another way and then having Tyler
do it also…the more answers the better because the goal is for them to figure out which one is correct and for
them to find their own mistakes. Go back to the one that was incorrect and see if the students can find out what
went wrong.

December 6, 2023 - full day teaching

Social 6/7
-work period - students were on task and calm
-we need to mark both social projects - remind me that we should do that this week
Math 4/5
-started with some practice at desks
-group practice
-multiplication went better than yesterday
-Keep pushing them hard…I know we try not to move on until most students understand, but we also have to
finish the curriculum and some of these students will not be able to successfully multiply until the spring. Have
high expectations for their behaviour while in groups and push them to work hard.

Math 6/7
-keep high expectations for behaviour at boards