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Field Observation Essay
Name
Class
School
Date
Contextual Factors of the School and Class
I conducted my field observation at Smith School in New Jersey. My observations took place in Ms. Clarke’s second grade class. There are 17 diverse students in Ms. Clarke’s class that come from various cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Additionally, there are some students in her classroom who receive accommodations through their IEPs. Ms. Clarke’s classroom is well-equipped with interactive whiteboards, manipulatives, and ample learning resources. Ms. Clarke created a supportive and inclusive learning environment which enabled her grade two learners to feel valued and encouraged to participate actively in their learning journey. I gained valuable knowledge and experience from being a part of Ms. Clarke’s classroom and observing the ways she implements the various Standards of Mathematical Practice.
Mathematical Practice 6
At the beginning of math class each day, Ms. Clarke would allow her students to participate in a routine of popcorn skip counting. Ms. Clarke would start the counting and popcorn around the room as students continued on—some days counting up to 500, and other days up to 1000 rotating each day whether they counted by 5s, 10s, or 100s. Not only does this directly align with NJSLS Mathematics Standard 2.NBT.2, but it also is “an important strategy that increases efficiency in counting and helps develop skills that will be useful in learning addition and multiplication” (Jones, 2012, p. 175). Regular engagement in this routine was one example of how Ms. Clarke regularly implemented Mathematical Practice 6: Attend to precision. This activity allowed for consistent check ins with each student to monitor their number sense, fluency, and skip counting knowledge. This continuous assessment is important to ensuring that students are meeting grade-level expectations as well as catching and clarifying any misconceptions as early as possible.
Another way Ms. Clarke incorporated Mathematical Practice 6 in her instruction was while modeling problems on the board. Ms. Clarke made sure to model the correct mathematical steps the children were learning but also the correct way to organize/write out their work. Organization is a big part of mathematics, especially at such a young age when the foundations of students’ mathematic skills are being formed and there is a large emphasis on place value. Disorganization is an easily avoidable possible reason for errors, and it is important as teachers that we model our work the proper way for our students.
Mathematical Practice 8
As Ms. Clarke’s class was emersed in their unit of measurement and time, I was continuously observing Mathematical Practice 8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. Throughout the day, not only during math class, Ms. Clarke would encourage students to use their skills of telling time.
Mathematical practice 1
Mrs. Clarke encouraged me to walk around the room asking students open ended questions like– why is/isn’t this answer reasonable? How do you know? Tell/show me how you got that answer. This helped to track students conceptual understanding of what they were working on.
Proposed Changes to Lessons
References
Jones, J. (2012). Visualizing: Elementary and Middle School Mathematics Methods. John Wiley & Sons.
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