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TLS 316
Math Lesson Analysis
The lesson I taught to my placement classroom focused on the students adding within ten
or twenty then representing their thinking by using number bonds. The students main task was to
play the “spill the beans” game with a partner then record their answers on a number bond
worksheet. I began the lesson by modeling how to play the game, reviewing ten frames and
introducing number bonds. This was the students first time being exposed to the game and
number bonds, but the students did have some brief previous experience with ten frames. After
introducing the task to the students, they partnered up to play the “spill the beans game”. I had
originally planned to partner the students up that were in the same grade level. But, my mentor
teacher wanted the students to be partnered up one firstgrader and one kindergartener.
Therefore, I had all the students begin with ten beans and once they finished with that I upped
their bean count to twenty. While the students were playing the game, I was walking around the
room supporting and extending the children’s thinking. The majority of the students were very
engaged with the game and working well with their partners. But, I was so caught up with trying
to get to every partnership I lost track of time. Therefore I was unable to pull the class back
together as a whole. Instead I had each partnership share and discuss their work with another
partnership near them. Although it was very short, I wanted the students to be able to share their
own work and hear other classmate’s ideas. Even though there were some bumps in the road, I
believe this lesson was successful in developing student learning.
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Student Learning
During this lesson, there were many students that had a deep understanding of how to
represent their knowledge of addition with number bonds and ten frames whereas some students
struggled to understand this concept. Below are work samples of a couple students that had an
understanding of how to add within ten and represent their thinking in different ways. Both of
these students were able to indicate their understandings through verbalization and written
representations. In their written work you can see that they successfully found three different
ways to add to 10 and were able to show these ways by using the number bonds and the ten
frames. Something I noticed in the second work sample is that she even added plus signs in the
number bond. Although it doesn’t seem like much, it actually gives me a very strong indication
that this student understands that in order to get the top number you have to add the two bottom
numbers. When I conversed with these students during the activity, they were also able to
verbally explain their representations. The first student said, “6 and 4 together makes 10, 5 and 5
together makes 10, and 8 and 2 together makes 10” and was able to show me this on her paper.
The second student used more mathematically terms. This student said, “6 plus 4 equals 10, 3
plus 7 equals 10, and 6 plus 3 equals 10”. I asked these students to tell me how they knew these
statements were true. They both referred to their beans and said “there are 6 red beans and 4
white beans which makes 10 beans”. Through conversation and work samples I was able to see
how my students were thinking and get a better idea of their understandings.
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In the work sample below, is one example of where I noticed a student struggling to
understand how to represent her thinking by using number bonds and ten frames. As I was
walking around observing students as they worked, I was confused about this student’s thinking.
Therefore I asked her to explain her work to me. I did this to see if the student didn’t understand
how to add within 10 or if she was just getting confused on how to physically represent her
addition on the paper. For the first representation she said, “I spilled three red and three white”
and pointed to both number threes in the number bond. Then she pointed to the number four and
said, “There are four spots left”. I didn’t know what she meant by this so I asked her to explain
further. She pointed to the four empty spots on the ten frame and said, “There are four spots left
here, so I put four.” Right as she said that I had an ahha moment and I began to understand how
this student was thinking. This is when I realized that she had confusion on how to use the
number bonds and ten frames. But, I still needed to figure out if she thought three plus three is
four because that is what her number bond representation suggests. So, I laid out 3 red beans and
3 white beans and I asked her “how many beans do you have all together?” Immediately she was
able to say six. This gave me the idea that this student had the understanding of how to add
within ten but her confusion came with actually representing her thinking with number bonds
and ten frames. This student was able to communicate her understanding of addition through
verbally explaining her thinking to me. On the other hand, she was able to indicate her
misunderstandings by completing a worksheet. If I was to just look at her work she did on her
paper I would think that she doesn’t understand addition within 10. But in reality she just has
misconceptions about representations such as number bonds and ten frames. Therefore it is
extremely important to understand that even though a student doesn’t represent their work
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“correctly” doesn’t mean they don’t understand a certain concept. It is crucial to ask your
students to explain their thinking in multiple ways so you can get a wider view of their
understandings and misunderstandings.
Power and Participation
During the beginning discussion, the power and participation was somewhat equal
amongst my students. I used the thinkpairshare strategy which is a routine that the students are
very familiar with therefore they know the expectations. They know that both students in the pair
get a turn to speak and share their ideas. By using this strategy every student in the classroom
was able to participate and hear the perspectives of others. But, during the lesson I noticed that
there was definitely a power differential. Since my mentor wanted the partnerships to be a kinder
student with a firstgrade student, I noticed a discrepancy in power and participation. As I was
observing the students while they were playing the “spill the beans” game I saw a pattern of the
firstgrade students asserting their dominance over the kindergarteners. Since all the students
started with ten beans, this was pretty simple for the majority of first graders therefore they were
getting the answers almost immediately whereas the kindergarteners needed a few minutes to
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think about the answer. But since the first graders were saying the answers immediately it didn’t
really give the kindergarteners time to think for themselves. Then when the partnerships moved
onto 20 beans this was a little too difficult for most kindergarteners therefore the first graders
took the reins once again. I also noticed that if kindergarteners got a wrong answer the first
graders would immediately shut them down and say “no, that’s not right!” instead of trying to
hear and understand the other perspective.
Extending Thinking
After analyzing this lesson, there are some things that I must improve on. One of the
major improvements I must make is pacing. This is a major aspect of creating an effective lesson
that includes all the necessary components. In this specific lesson, I was not able to get the whole
class back together at the end to have a final discussion. Bringing all the students back together
at the end of a lesson is crucial. Therefore in the future a more effective way I can pace is by
using a timer that goes off when it is time to transition from the launch, to the activity then to our
ending. Another area I believe I need to work on is extending lessons. Towards the end of the
lesson some students began getting antsy and asking me what to do next. I had already given
them the extension activity I had planned therefore I didn’t know what else to have them do. I
told them to continue playing the game but many students lost interest. I think this skill will
become more automatic as I have more experience, but for now it is important for me to think
about multiple extensions while lesson planning.
Through analyzing the students learning in this lesson, I realized that some students are
still confused on how to use number bonds and ten frames. Therefore in the next lesson, I could
have a mini review of these strategies so the students that need a little more practice could have
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more exposure. In this mini lesson I would use very simple numbers because the focus on this
lesson would be to understand how to use number bonds and ten frames not how to add. After
reviewing how to use these representations strategies, the next lesson could focus on word
problems. Word problems would be a more complex way to extend the students thinking about
addition. Word problems would also be another way for students to practice representing their
answers.