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Paula Finlinson
Math Lesson Analysis
Dr. Murray
I talked to my mentor teacher at the beginning of the semester and let her know that I
would be teaching an observed lesson during. I also informed her that it was going to be recorded
because I needed to do an assignment and upload it onto my e-portfolio. We discussed which
lesson would be the best for me to teach and we decided that I would teach the students how to
compose the numbers 8 and 9. I am in a kindergarten class so the math that the students are
learning is very basic. I looked through the slides that were available through the scripted math
program. My teacher always uses a few of the slides and I didnt want to deviate too far from
what she normally does during math. I chose the slides that I wanted to include in my lesson and
I grouped them together so that I wouldnt need to flip through unimportant slides while I was
teaching my lesson. Manipulatives are very important in all math classes but I feel that they are
crucial for the kindergarten students. They need to see what they are doing for it to make sense to
them. While preparing my lesson, I brainstormed different ways that I could use manipulatives to
compose 8 and 9. I decided that I would demonstrate with them first then I would pass out 8
cubes to each person. I buddied up the students and made sure that partners didnt have the same
color. I would then call out a number for them to compose. The students were required to use
some of both of their cubes to compose the number. I felt that I prepared the lesson well and
knew exactly what I was going to be doing and when.
With every lesson there will be strengths and weaknesses. I felt that I had many strengths
exhibited throughout my lesson. I was well prepared for the lesson. I had all of the students
worksheets on their desks before they came back from library. I had the slides organized in the
correct order and the manipulatives were organized and ready to be handed out at the appropriate
time. I also felt that I did a good job of pacing myself throughout the lesson; I didnt move too

quickly, or too slowly. A weakness during my lesson was classroom management. A few times
during the lesson the class got a little wild, which they always do during hands-on activities. I
felt like I had to say class class to get their attention too many times. I got sick of hearing
myself say it.
I adhered to the lesson plan for the whole lesson. I didnt teach the lesson until one of the
last weeks of the semester so I knew the students very well. I knew which activities they could
handle and which ones would make them get out of control. Having been in the classroom on
multiple occasions before I taught my lesson helped me design a lesson that would be easy for
me to adhere to. I feel that I did a good job of staying on pace and making sure that I hit every
point that was written on my lesson plan.
I used a few different types of assessments throughout my lesson. The first formative
assessment that I used was questioning. I asked the students if they could tell me what were some
different ways of showing numbers, what it means to compose a number, and what numbers I
could put together to compose 5. This formative questioning allowed me to see what the students
already knew and ensure that I wasnt teaching them a lesson that was too advanced for their
current level of understanding. The next formative assessment that I used was when I had the
students compose either 8 or 9 using their cubes. After I told the students the number that I
wanted them to compose and gave them appropriate time to do so, I would look at all of the
partnerships cubes to ensure that they had composed the correct number. My summative
assessment was a worksheet that was found in the my math workbook. The front of the
worksheet asked students to show different ways to make 8 and 9 by circling the objects on the
page. The back side of the paper told the students to circle any of the objects that were in groups
of 8 or 9. The students did very well on the summative assessment. All but 3 of the students got

100%. The students that missed a problem usually wrote in a wrong number for the amount of
items that they had circled.
I used different forms of differentiation to meet the needs of all of my students. In my
classroom I have ELL spanish speaking students, 1 student with a behavioral IEP, and 1 GATE
student. Throughout the lesson I frequently used Spanish words for the numbers to accommodate
for my Spanish speaking students. I feel that this helped them do well on their summative
assessment. The student with the IEP is a high needs student. She needs a lot of attention,
motivation, and frequent redirection. I kept her at the front of the room while the students were at
the rug, then when I sent the students to their desks I made sure she was seated by students that
are hard workers and wouldnt intentionally distract her.
There werent very many unexpected happenings. I knew the students well and designed
a lesson that would keep the students involved the entire time. The only thing that was somewhat
unexpected was the students reaction to being filmed. I warned them before that my dyad
partner would be recording and they should just ignore her. This didnt prevent them from
continually turning around and looking at my dyad partner. It was frustrating that they kept
turning around and they werent paying attention to the lesson. After about 5 minutes they quit
turning around and paid better attention to the lesson. My student with the behavioral IEP was
also more clingy than normal so I had to deal with her grabbing at my legs throughout the lesson.
I had an enjoyable time teaching this math lesson. The students were engaged, listened
well, and responded to my questions. The preparation and thought that I put into the lesson are
what made it go so well. I enjoyed watching my students work together and talk about how they
wanted to compose 8 or 9. It was great to see that even though the students are young, they are
still able to communicate effectively with each other.