MIAA 340 Student Thinking Analysis

Caroline Butler



K-3 grade span, 1
st
grader who seemingly got it one day and didnt the
next.
The student that I worked with seemed very confident initially with his work.
He was clear about finding groups of ten and circling them. He was also very
procedurally confident about counting the tens and ones separately and writing
those numbers in the appropriate blanks. Not only did he understand the counting
of the tens and ones, he was able to count by tens in order to get that total and then
switch to counting by ones in order to get that total. However, the next day when
the picture changed from many individual cubes (where the student counted and
circled all the groups of ten) to showing tens rods and ones cubes there was a
breakdown in understanding. He didnt connect the tens rod and the circling he had
been doing, which makes me wonder what his teacher calls the tens rod. He was
very upset because he didnt know how many were in the tens rod, so he couldnt
explain how his number matched the picture. This led to a mini-meltdown: hitting
the table, I dont know how much this is! (pointing at the tens rod). When I asked
him if there was a way to find out how many were there (pointing to the tens rod)
he calmed down, put his finger on it and said, I could count. As he said this I saw
his expression change and he immediately asked, what does this say? (pointing to
the heading). As soon as I said tens he lit up. Then I asked him, how do you
know? and his face fell just as quickly as it had lighted a moment before. He didnt
know how to answer the question. He just repeated how many ones and tens he
had. It was when I asked him what you do with the tens and ones that he knew how
to justify his answer: add them up! The relief and satisfaction on his face was
priceless. Not only was his answer correct but he had finally been able to explain his
reasoning for that answer. Through the course of our conversation I watched him
go from very confident to completely frustrated to vindicated, with many ups and
downs in between. Multiply that emotional rollercoaster times 30 and you start to
see why differentiation is not just good teaching practice, its critical for both the
students and teachers sanity.
This conversation with the first grader reminded me a bit of the situation in
Chapter 4 with Malik because the ability to express his reasoning was the biggest
problem. I understand that first grade is the year when children are learning to
read, so the place value words should be regularly pointed out, sounded out, and
read together. They need to be recognized when encountered later on. Just think of
how much less stress this child would have felt if he had been able to read that
word, tens, on his own. Imagine how much more he would have understood at the
first glance if he knew that the tens rod was equal to a group of ten ones. I wonder if
there is mathematical discourse with groups or partners or the teacher in this
classroom because he had very few mathematical language skills and was very
uncomfortable with being questioned about his work or thinking. Since he had very
good subitizing, counting, and adding skills, he could be extended to work with a
partner using reading and writing in math. This would force him to take more
ownership of the words on the page and how they can inform him, as well as cause
him to practice using and interpreting more mathematical language in speech and
writing. Working with a small group or partner would lower the stress threshold
and could lead to some positive competitiveness and reinforcement.

4-7 grade span, 4
th
grader who doesnt perform to ability
The student I worked with made some mistakes on a page about polygons. I
explained that he was to try and correct his errors and talk to me about his
mathematical thinking as he went. He seemed a bit annoyed with having to do this
at first, but cooperated. When he looked at his first error he started to erase his
work. I asked him to stop and tell me what he was thinking about that made him
want to erase and start over. He said he thought he drew the wrong thing, that it
didnt have the right number of sides. Then he counted the number of sides twice,
and it was correct. I asked him what needed to change if the number of sides was
correct and he redrew the part he had erased and started erasing part of his answer.
It was the number of verticies that needed to change. Only one part of his answer
was incorrect, but he was very quick to assume that the whole thing was wrong. It
makes me wonder if his teacher only asks questions about incorrect answers. Later
on in the conversation it became clear that a major connection had not been made:
the number of sides on a polygon is equal to the number of verticies. It seems his
teacher assumed that everyone made the connection and now she thinks these
errors in his work are from not paying attention. He became very frustrated that
this idea had not been explicitly discussed in class. As teachers we need to be
careful not to assume we connected with all just because we know we connected
with some. Even if you think the role of the teacher is to simply facilitate discovery,
there is a point at which you unnecessarily stop progress, when you do not help
your students discover the means by which to connect the dots.
I think this student needs opportunities to work with his more complete
understanding of polygons. His conception was not what his teacher thought it was
and therefore his work couldnt reflect what she expected of him. He should
probably work with another student or small group more frequently, followed by a
ticket-out-the-door or some other small comprehension assessment so that
connections like this are not missed in the future. It would be helpful for this
students comprehension and retention to have a math journal that had important
ideas like this with pictures, examples and explanations in it.

8
th
grade, Algebra students working in the hallway and therefore
accessible to me without flustering their teacher
I was not sure what they were working on before I met with these students,
so I struggled with knowing what to ask them in the moment. They seemed fairly
confident in terms of body language and being able to put work on the page quickly.
They both seemed comfortable identifying x and y coordinates and plotting them on
a quadrant graph. I wish I had asked which variable was known and which they
were solving for. I also could have asked why she chose to begin with x=-5 (when
solving for her x/y coordinates), and if she could have chosen another number, and
how that would affect the appearance of the graph. When questioned about how to
solve the problem algebraically or numerically they were much more brief and less
specific in their responses. One student said she was confident in her skills for
solving algebraically once you figure out whats going on. I wonder if her
conceptual understanding is as strong as her procedural skills are. If so, does she
have the mathematical language to express that understanding? I wonder if these
students have mathematical conversation at a higher level of complexity with their
teacher or peers than they did with me.