Wednesday, November 26, 2008






November 7th, 2008

Today, I decided I would revisit multiplication to get a feel on how students’ understanding was with the concept. Throughout the last month, students have been using multiplication strategies to solve and work out various problems. Today, I wanted to use open ended questioning and assess their understanding of this very important concept. I began class by posing a question – I asked students to tell me a time in the last two weeks when they used multiplication outside the classroom. Some of them literally turned white, while others immediately raised their hands waiting to be called on. I called upon those that volunteered an answer and we discussed ways in which they had used multiplication. Some of their responses were good as it truly represented a multiplication situation, while others did not. I was convinced the activity I had planned was worthwhile.

I asked students to get in a group of two and take a piece of chart paper and a marker. They were then asked to think about everything they had learned about multiplication and write a really good multiplication question on their chart paper. I told them it could not be something simple, such as Bill has two dolls, each doll has two feet. How many feet? I encouraged them to think about their lives to come up with a question that they would have to face in the real world that would involve using multiplication to solve the problem. Then, I let them go. I did not intervene or suggest or guide. I wanted to see what they could come up with. I felt this activity was going to give me the necessary information about whether they really understood the concept of multiplication. Giving an example and coming up with their own problem, to me, is a good way to assess their real understanding.

Most groups were successful, with one group posing a problem that primarily involved division. I did not interject here as I wanted to see if other students would pick up on this. I then stapled each piece of chart paper to different places on the wall and had the pairs visit each question and answer it in a different way than was done previously. As students approached the division question, most recognized that it was not multiplication. Some began working it out by multiplying, but when they looked at their answer, they seen it was not reasonable. Some knew how to go about answering the question, and two groups even did it as an open frame by writing the multiplication sentence with the missing data as a part of the factors.

Students completed all questions, then the bell rang.

I found this really distracting. I wanted to engage discussion about the various problems and about the ways in which students solved the problems. Leaving it until tomorrow, in my mind, would be of little benefit as it is now fresh in their minds about how they went about solving the problem. I know how important it is to discuss activities at the end of the problem, but when you only have certain time slots allotted for math, and especially when students have to leave to class to go to another, it is very hard to have the much needed conversations.

No comments: