Mathematical Tasks

I found the Smith and Stein article to be interesting on selecting mathematical tasks.  The article stressed that it is important to begin with a task that has the ability to engage students at a high level in order to help their thinking and problem solving skills.  The task that you select should match the goals that you have for your student learning.  This makes me wonder about the math tasks that I see my Kindergarten students complete in the placement that I am in.  The only two math tasks that I have seen them complete is learning to write their numbers and matching coins up with the correct value.  I know the school that I am in has a primarily language arts based curriculum, but I'm wondering if having the kids write their numbers matches the goals that my teacher has for math learning.  I've seen that a couple of the kids know how to do this really well, and could use a different task that uses more thinking and reasoning.  Matching coins up with the correct money value is really only memorization and does not require any higher level thinking.  According to the article, this would be considered a lower level demand because it involves producing previously learned facts to memory.  Also, the Kabiri and Smith article really made me think when it said that the students that displayed the most persistence or interesting solutions were not necessarily the best students.  I think it is important when planning lessons to think about all of the students in your class.  Thinking about whether you have students who are above the concept you are trying to teach and students who are below the concept that you are teaching.  Engaging all of your students really is the ultimate goal and having the most approaches or solutions to a problem really opens that up.

Louzon_Week 2

From the Lester article I was really surprised to see math as being taught through a conversation. Not only did she just give them problems, she also asked them if they felt “comfortable” with the answers that some of their classmates gave. She asked them why/why not they did/didn’t feel comfortable with the answers given by other students. I think that this type of math really allows for a deeper level of thinking. What surprised me was the way she got the students engaged and comfortable with talking about math. I have never experienced a “math discussion.” When I think about math and my past math classes, I think of worksheets and story problems full of math problems, not math discussions. On page 17 in the Rosebery, etc. reading they talk about the importance of knowing your students and their families. Students learn a lot better when they are able to build off of prior knowledge. Along with this, students learn best when they are interested in the lesson. Therefore, the best way to allow students to learn to their full potential is to get to know students and their interests. In the Allsopp, etc. article I was really surprised to find out that it was a misconception that students with attention deficit disorder do not focus on anything. Instead, the students focus on everything that trouble their senses. After reading this, I realized that I have seen this going on in my placement. Whenever there is anything on the desk, a student with an attention deficit disorder is always pre occupied. For example, he will stack the markers or bang the markers against the desk. The only time that he pays attention is if he has everything cleared off his desk. Even though he has an easier time paying attention with everything off his desk, he still does things such as rocking his chair back and fourth or tapping his foot.