Avery Finch Mathematics Lesson On Place Value Core Decisions What?

The content of this lesson is the base ten system and the concept of place value. The activities herein will give students practice manipulating two-digit numbers such that the relationship between place value (tens and ones places) and actual units (groups of tens and individual ones) becomes more apparent and concrete. At the end of the lesson students should understand that two-digit numbers are made of groups of tens and ones, and that they can use the digits in a numeral to determine how the number breaks down (for example, that if you have 13 objects, you can split them into one group of ten and have three left over). Fosnot and Dolk (2001) define the idea that a numeral can represent ones or tens or hundreds, depending on where it is placed as the big idea of unitizing (54). These concepts align with Common Core State Standards for mathematics content in first (two digits) and second (three digits) grades (CCSS.Math.Content.1.NBT.B.2; CCSS.Math.Content.2.NBT.A.1; see lesson plan). Students will also be working on several Standards for Mathematical Practice. As will be discussed further below, I am undertaking all lessons in the Term III Assignment with an eye toward inviting productive discussion amongst the students, so this lesson will give students practice in constructing and critiquing mathematical arguments (CCSS.Math.Practice.MP3). They will also represent mathematical concepts using a model (Standard 4), and, similarly, use appropriate tools strategically (Standard 5). How? Both my pedagogical focus for this lesson and my overarching question for my Term III Assignment are about the value of effective discussion in supporting learning and inspiring further inquiry. The questions I intend to ask and the environment I aim to create during this lesson are based on recommendations from The Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics (NCTM, 1991). Most important, in my opinion, is that the students will have many opportunities to share their thinking, which inherently allows students to hear their peers thinking as well. As Hiebert et al. (1997) write, Reflecting and communicating are the processes through which understanding develops (18). Asking students to justify their reasoning and comment on the ideas of their classmates and the teacher will hopefully encourage both engagement with the material and critical thinking about how best to approach it. It will also help students to expand on their own ideas and open them up to others. During this lesson the students will be responsible for making their own meaning (using tools provided them by the teacher). This, too, is an important part of a desirable classroom discourse. It is not the teachers word, but the work the students do themselvesspecifically, the Bean Counters grouping activitythat will serve as evidence of the relationship between place value and actual units. They will first be asked to determine an unknown value based on clues about the numbers tens-place and ones-place values. Then, working with manipulatives, students will demonstrate that there is a direct correlation between the numerals in a two-digit number and the groups of tens and ones contained in that number of objects. Finally, we will chart our findings and wrap up with a discussion that hopefully calls attention to the correlation between groups of tens and ones and the numerals in the tens and one places in a number. I am

Comment: fave: I added reference to the first grade standard (1.NBT.B.2) because this lesson deals only with two-digit numbers, a first grade standard that my students have yet to master.

Comment: fave: My initial lesson began with students discussing place value in a somewhat abstract context. I have revised the "Hook" so that students now work with what they know about place value in order to solve a real problem, i.e. how many cookies are in a jar.

hopeful that talking about the relationship between what the students already knew (that twodigit numbers have a tens place and a ones place) and what they have shown with their Bean Counters activity (that the number breaks down into a very particular number of groups of tens and ones) will help to solidify a deeper, relational understanding (Van de Walle, 2003) of the meaning of place value and the base ten system. Why? My choice of lesson topic was determined largely by what my classroom mentor and I perceive to be a need among our students. Many of our second graders struggle with the concept of place value and the base ten system. Although most do not hesitate to identify the tens and ones place in a two-digit number, even some of the most confident mathematicians among them are unable to predict how many groups of tens and ones a number will break down into. A solid understanding of the base ten system and the meaning of place value is a crucial foundational piece on which students will build future math knowledge. Chapin and Johnson (2006) explain, Students early understanding of number involves making sense of counting, decomposition, and place value. These ideas are the foundation of mathematics [emphasis added] (29). As such, any and all practice is valuable. As for the activity itself, I chose to use the Bean Counters activity because I believe that it fits Chapin and Johnsons (2006) description of tasks that highlight relationships and properties as well as that focus on skills (30). The Bean Counters activity both allows students to see relationships and properties of numbers, and it also provides them with valuable practice in decomposing numbers. Additionally, I believe that manipulatives, in making numbers more tangible and visible, can also make them more concrete and therefore easier for young children to understand. However I also know that tools are only as effective as the use to which they are put. Manipulatives are often seen as being inherently meaningful, when in fact the meaning must come from the students interaction with them (Ball, 1992; Hiebert et al., 1997). The Bean Counters activity is an effective use of manipulatives because it allows students to create and then see for themselves the connection between the groups of ten before them and the number in the tens place, and same for the ones place. It is my belief that, in constructing their own meaning from the activity, students will develop a relational understanding of the mathematical concept at the heart of the activity (Van de Walle, 2003). The activity also gives the students a shared referentthat is, a tool with which all students will be working and about which they can communicate together, so that they can work toward clearer, better articulated, and more widely shared understandings (Hiebert et al., 1997, p. 58). Using the same tool to solve different but related problems (namely, breaking a group into tens and ones) will allow students to more easily talk about their methods because it creates a shared language around the work, thereby improving the quality of discussion. The original lesson plan on which Bean Counters is modeled (Basically Base Ten; see Works Referenced) calls for base ten blocks and rods (or, because our class does not have those, I considered using linking cubes), but I opted instead for dried beans in cups. I felt that it would be valuable to use something that is familiar to students from their everyday lives but that they have never used in a mathematical context. Working with beans instead of cubes will hopefully get students out of the math class mindset and help them see that these principles of grouping always apply, not just when they are in the classroom and working with objects designated as math manipulatives. It may also open them up to the possibility that the skills they are practicing are not just relevant in school, but also in their daily lives. Additionally, base ten

blocks come already grouped, whereas students will need to group the beans themselves. This should allow for more active reflection on the important underlying concepts of the base ten system.

Comment: fave: Caroline Ebby pointed out this additional important benefit of using loose beans. Comment: fave: I removed reference to students having a take-home artifact of the lesson after I modified the lesson design.

Lesson Plan Date/Time to be Implemented: Tuesday 11/26, 11:45 am Students: Second Grade at the Penn Alexander School Anticipated Time: 40 minutes Pedagogical Focus Facilitating mathematical discussion around mathematical ideas by eliciting, clarifying, and following up on student explanations (using talk moves). Goals/Objectives Students will be able to: ! accurately split an unknown two-digit number of manipulatives into groups of ten and individual ones. ! use what they observe about the groups of ten and individual ones (and their relationship to place value) to determine how many total units they have. This is in order to: ! develop understanding of the true meaning of place value, i.e. that the number in the tens place represents groups of ten, and the number in the ones place represents individual units. Common Core State Standards in Mathematics Content: ! CCSS.Math.Content.1.NBT.B.2: Understand that the two digits of a two-digit number represent amounts of tens and ones. ! CCSS.Math.Content.2.NBT.A.1: Understand that the three digits of a three-digit number represent amounts of hundreds, tens, and ones; e.g., 706 equals 7 hundreds, 0 tens, and 6 ones. Practice: ! CCSS.Math.Practice.MP3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. ! CCSS.Math.Practice.MP4: Model with mathematics. ! CCSS.Math.Practice.MP5: Use appropriate tools strategically. Materials and Preparation ! several small pieces of paper ! picture of a cookie jar in a protective sleeve (works as a whiteboard surface) ! piece of poster paper with chart (Cups of 10, Single Beans, Total Beans) and marker ! bag of dried beans ! 4 paper plates ! package of small cups ! 4 Bean Counters sheets ! 4 pencils Classroom Arrangement and Management

Comment: fave: I removed the goal "guess a two-digit number when given the values of the tens and ones places" because, first, it is more a task than a skill (as Caroline Ebby pointed out), and secondly, my "Hook" activity has changed.

Comment: fave: Added first grade standard; see "What?," above.

The four participating students may choose their own seats at a round table. I have purposely chosen students who typically get along well with their peers and have no trouble working in groups. Rather than stand at the front of the room in front of a board, I will also sit at the table, which will hopefully establish a conversational, non-threatening atmosphere. I think this is particularly important because although all the students I have chosen appear to be at grade level, a few are prone to become anxious in what they perceive to be formal testing environments. As such I will also be sure to remain positive and non-judgmental throughout the experience (as always). Any activity involving many small parts runs the risk of moving quickly into messy territory. As such, before I distribute materials I will remind students that we need to respect the space and the materials, and that any mess they make will be their responsibility to clean up, so they should do their best to minimize it. Plan Launch Hook: How Many Cookies? (3 min.) ! Teacher begins by reminding students of the group norms (i.e. raise hands to speak, respect everyone and everything in the room). ! Teacher holds up a picture of a cookie jar. She tells students to imagine that there is a certain number of cookies in the jar, and that it is their job to figure out how many there are. Teacher explains that the game is much like the game Whats My Number?, which they play often with their classroom teacher. Teacher writes a two-digit number (24, for example) on a piece of paper and puts it face-down on the table so students cant see it. Teacher tells the students that the jar can hold up to 100 cookies, and that rather than ask yes-or-no questions like they usually do, they will be given hints. (When they play this game in class, students typically get at the number by narrowing down the range: Is it greater than 50? Less than 75?) Teacher offers hints of increasing specificity (and writes each on the picture sleeve), taking guesses after each (and writes each on the sleeve), until the students get the number: o The number of cookies has more ones than tens. o The ones and tens add up to six. o It has two tens. ! The group plays one or two more quick rounds with the following numbers: o 53: It has more tens than ones. The tens and ones add up to eight. It has five tens. o 44: It has the same number of tens and ones. The tens and ones add up to eight. Guided Practice (10 min.) ! Teacher puts the bag of dried beans on the table and scoops out a handful onto a paper plate. Teacher asks the students, How can we figure out how many beans we have here? Teacher collects strategies; possible responses include: o Count them all by ones (or twos, or fives). o Split them up between all of us and we each count a part. o Group them by tens. ! Teacher agrees to count them by ten. Teacher counts aloud and splits them into groups, narrating as she does so: Heres ten, and heres another ten. And we have eight left. Can we make another ten? Teacher solicits student responses and an explanation as to why

Comment: fave: After I taught my literacy lesson with six students, I was worried about classroom management becoming an issue, so I decided to work with four students for this lesson. I also felt that it would be better to give each student more individualized attention in a content area in which they need practice.

Comment: fave: On Caroline Ebby's recommendation, I revised the Hook activity in order to be more challenging, less directive, and more directly related to the overall topic of the concrete relationship between place value and groups of tens. "How Many Cookies?" is a modified version of "What's My Number?," a game these students have played before.

Comment: fave: Rather than discussing the Hook activity in too much detail, I decided to move right into working with beans, so that students could begin making the connection between what we talked about during the Hook (the value of each digit) and concrete groups of tens and ones. As such, we now dive right into working with the manipulatives, which I think will allow for less direct instruction and more discussion and experimentation.

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not. Teacher asks another student if he or she agrees, and to explain in his or her own words. Teacher says, Keeping them in piles is fine, but its hard to tell which piles have ten and which dont. Can we use these cups in any way to help us keep the groups straight? Teacher takes suggestions. After a brief discussion, during which students will likely suggest putting the tens in cups (and if they dont, the teacher will), teacher puts a group of ten in each cup, and leaves the rest loose. Teacher hangs chart on wall and introduces the columns: Cups of 10, Single Beans, and Total Beans. Teacher says, Well use this chart to record how many beans weve counted. What should we put under Cups of 10? How about Single Beans? Teacher asks for students to explain their reasoning behind each answer, and checks for group agreement. Teacher records tens and ones on chart. Teacher asks if any students want to predict the total and share their reasoning. Teacher suggests they count the beans by ones to determine the total number. Teacher asks for a student volunteer to count them aloud (while retaining the groupings); for example, a student may: o dump out all the beans; count out ten and put them back into a cup; continue counting from 11 and put those in a cup; and finally count on from 21. o acknowledge that the first cup has ten and put it aside; dump out the second cup and count on from eleven, then put those back in a cup; then count on from 21. Teacher asks if all students agree with the total, then records it on the chart. Teacher puts those cups and loose beans aside, then puts another, larger handful of beans on the plate. Teacher asks if anyone wants to guess how many beans are on the plate, then asks, How do you suggest we find out? Teacher takes student suggestions. Teacher agrees to group by tens, this time putting tens directly into the cups. Teacher asks the students to fill cups with ten beans each (from the plate) until they cannot make any more tens. Students group the beans, then line up all the full cups and any loose beans in the center of the table. Teacher asks, How many do you think we have altogether? Teacher asks students to think quietly for a moment, then turn and talk with a neighbor. Teacher listens in as students discuss in pairs for about half a minute. Teacher solicits predictions and explanations from students, asking, How do you know? and Serena, can you put what he just said in your own words? and Oliver, do you agree? Why [not]? o If a student says, I know there are [53] because there are [five] cups of ten and [three] left over, teacher asks another student to count the cups and loose beans to confirm, then asks students how she should show groups of ten and loose beans on the chart. o If no one offers a prediction based on groups of tens and ones, teacher still asks the students how many Cups of 10 and Single Beans they should mark on the chart. Teacher then asks how they would like to count the beans to get the total. If the students suggest counting the tens and ones, great; if the students suggest counting by ones, teacher asks, Before we do that, does anyone know how many tens we have here? And how many ones? What does that tell us about the total number of beans? Teacher marks total number of beans on chart. Teacher puts those cups and loose beans to the side, along with the first set.

Comment: fave: I added this chart at Caroline Ebby's suggestion. It seemed to both of us a good way to organize the students' findings and to highlight the relationship between groups of tens, ones, and total beans.

Work and Explore Introduction of Bean Counters Activity (2 min.) ! Teacher tells the students that they will each get a plateful of beans to count, and asks how they plan to count. Teacher takes suggestions. Students will most likely suggest that they use the cups to group by tens. ! Teacher shows students a blank Bean Counters sheet and shows them where to write in their prediction (before counting). ! Teacher asks a student to explain in his or her own words how to use the Bean Counters sheet to record the tens and ones and the total. Teacher also asks students to use the blank space under How did you find your total? to show their work and/or explain their answers. ! Teacher says that once everyone has counted their beans, we will put the data on the chart. ! Teacher reminds students to respect the space and avoid making a mess, being careful not to spill the beans! Individual Work: Bean Counters Activity (10-12 min.) ! Teacher gives a plate and a handful of beans (fewer than 100) to each student. Students group the beans by tens in cups, then write in however many tens and ones they have. They then write in their totals and show their work and/or explain their reasoning on the sheet. ! Teacher circulates among the students, listening in and helping as needed. When students pose a question that someone else in the group could answer (and that others would benefit from hearing explained), the teacher poses the question to the whole group, and whoever feels like looking up from their work can chime in. An example of a question that another student could answer is, What do I do with these six I have left? ! Students may talk to and help each other as they work. Sharing and Reviewing the Results (10-12 min.) ! Teacher asks for one student to show everyone how many cups of ten he counted, and how many loose beans he has left. Teacher reiterates his findings by pointing out the cups and loose beans on the table: I see, you said you have four cups of ten there, and that one was left over. And how many beans do you have total? And how did you find that? After student explains, teacher invites him to record his tens, ones, and total on the chart. ! This process repeats for each student. ! Teacher asks for students to talk about any patterns they notice between the tens and ones columns and the total number of beans each student found. Debrief and Wrap Up Reflection: Connection to Hook (3 min.) ! Teacher says, Earlier, when you were guessing how many cookies I had in my imaginary cookie jar, I told you about the number of tens and ones in the number. For example, when my number was 24, I said that my number had two tens. What did I mean by that? Teacher asks for students to explain in their own words. If students offer superficial explanations, such as, It meant theres a two in the tens place, teacher asks, What does it tell you about the cookies in the jar? Does it tell you anything about how we could group them? ! Teacher concludes by reviewing the chart and asking for a student to sum up what they noticed about the connection between the numbers of tens and ones and the totals.

Comment: fave: This used to be about counting the rest of the bag, but Ann Superfine pointed out that the students should be more solid with two-digit numbers before they get into three-digit numbers. I revised the lesson so that each student would count their own two-digit number of beans.

Assessment of Goals and Objectives Because my pedagogical focus and overarching question are about discussion, I have built many opportunities for questioning and discussion into this lesson, all of which will help me to assess student understanding. The group discussion during the Hook, as well as their ability to find the secret number, will demonstrate their baseline of understanding. The methods that the students suggest we use to count the beans will tell me how they are thinking about the composition of numbers. I will assess students on whether they are able to break their beans into groups of tens and ones, whether they find the total, and how exactly they do so. This will tell me something about their comfort level with and understanding of the concept that place value refers to groups of tens and ones. Anticipating Students Responses Based on what I know about the students in this class, I predict that students initial explanation of how they guessed the number during Whats My Number? will be somewhat superficial. In other words, it will probably focus on the numbers in each place, not the groups of tens and onesfor example, You said the 2 is in the tens place and the 4 is in the ones place, so its 24. If the student makes reference to a number being composed of tens and ones, like for example There are 2 tens, which makes 20, and there are 4 ones, so 20 + 4 = 24, thats great. Either way, teacher asks as for as many methods as possible. Accommodations Students who insist that they do not know how to make a guess during the cookie jar game will be encouraged to draw on any strategies they think might be helpful, and reminded that Im not looking for a right answer, but rather any ideas that students have. They will also have ample opportunity to share their thinking with their peers and listen to and question their classmates explanations. Students who are unsure about how to figure out how many beans they have on their Bean Counters sheet will be able to collaborate to find a solution. They will also be reminded that they can use whatever strategy they find most helpful: They can count groups of tens and ones, or they can count by ones to be extra sure. Students who find the Bean Counters activity easy might finish early. They may help other students count (this is a norm in their classroom), and/or talk with someone else who is done about what they found.

Comment: fave: I added more here about the ways in which discussion will help me assess the students' learning.