2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area.
2.2 Organise selection and organisation
Organise content into an effective learning and teaching sequence.
2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting
Use curriculum, assessment and reporting knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans.
On a three-week preservice teacher placement at a low socioeconomic primary school, I was with a year two class of 20 students. Students ranged in numeracy abilities from some students having prior exposure to multiplication, and some students still requiring support for basic numeracy tasks. As part of my assignment for university, I was required to select a learning area and gather data to make evidence-informed instructional decisions for the planning of three lessons.
Firstly, I collected diagnostic data to gauge the numeracy capabilities of students. After examining the year 2 mathematics curriculum and achievement standards, I spoke with the teacher about the term plan and what areas had been taught previously (2.2 and 2.3). For some students who were not in a composite class the previous year, this was their first exposure to the concept of multiplication. The school was using a C2C assessment which gave a specific learning target for the class (2.3). The curriculum content descriptor guided the teaching sequence which began with understanding multiplication as repeated addition, then equal groups, and then arrays (2.2) (ACARA, n.d., ACMNA031). Taking on a constructivist approach, I planned scaffolded lessons beginning with explicit whole-class teaching of repeated addition with visuals and manipulatives, using GRR to allow students to build understanding and application of the learning concept (Artefact 3) (2.1) (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983). My lessons started with a warm-up skip counting video and song which engaged students and prepared them for the lesson (2.1). Questions were scaffolded from I Do, to We Do, to You Do as the students would answer questions in pairs. The questions that we were answering were familiar numbers and used representation with either concrete manipulatives or visuals on the IWB to make the learning accessible to all students (2.1) (Artefact 2). Physical materials were used to understand multiplication before moving to visual and symbolic stems from Bruner’s experiential stages of learning (Larkin, 2016). Solving questions and sharing thought processes as a class collaboratively allowed students to explain different ways of thinking and solving problems (Reys, 2021). For example, when the question 4 x 3 was put on the board and students answered the problem on their whiteboards independently, when sharing their working out, some students preferred to draw grouped items, some preferred drawing arrays, and some found it easier to skip count. When students shared their answers with the class this helped consolidate learning, encourage peer learning, and allowed for misconceptions to be addressed and corrected (Reys, 2021).
As a result of hands-on, scaffolded lessons the students were able to understand and demonstrate their knowledge of multiplication. Students were equipped with a variety of strategies to solve problems which allowed for all students to solve single-digit multiplication questions independently using a method that supported their understanding.
References:
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (n.d.). The Australian Curriculum – Mathematics – Year 2. Retrieved December 29, 2023, from http://bit.ly/48qKy6U.
Larkin, K. (2016). Mathematics education and manipulatives: which, when, how. Australian Primary Mathematics, 21(1), 12-17.
Pearson, P., & Gallagher, M. (1983). The instruction of reading comprehension. Contemporary Educational Psychology.
Reys, R. (2021). Helping children learn mathematics (4th ed.). Wiley.
