Transcripts

1
st
Graders (Ms. Villalobos and I were working with two students at John R. Williams
Elementary).

Mr. Cardenas: Can you make an addition problem using these symbols and the pictures
you have already drawn?
Student A: A ten frame. *He drew two boxes one cut in ten sections in but the other one had
twelve boxes, not ten*
Mr. Cardenas: What is a ten frame? How many are in them? *pause* Count how many are
there to help you out.
Student1: It is to long *student realizes he drew twelve boxes*
Mr. Cardenas: What can you do to fix it?
Student1: I can erase them.
Ms. Villalobos: How many did you have to erase?
Student 2: Two of them.
Mr. Cardenas: Good. Now lets count them to make sure it is correct. *Student counts ten
boxes*
Mr. Cardenas: So what other problems can you draw with the number 15?
Student 1: *He wrote two addition statements on was 7+8=15 and the other was 8-7=15*
Ms. Villalobos: Is this problem reasonable? *Ms. V pointing to the incorrect subtraction
problem* let try it out. In the ten-frame draw 8 then take away 7 what do you have now?
Student 1: Oh, one.
Mr. Cardenas: How many fingers do I have up?
Student 2: Eight.
Mr. Cardenas: How do you know that?
Student 2: You have five there and then three more, so that is eight.
Ms. Villalobos: So if I took scissors and cut off seven of his fingers how many would he
have up?
Student 2: *Counting down softly* One!















7
th
Grade Classroom (The Classroom teacher is going over Ratios with students). Here is an
interaction with this teacher and a student in the class.

Teacher: What are some of the different ways of writing a ratio
Student: you can write them as a fraction
Teacher: Good, what else?
Student: You can use the period on top of another period.
Teacher: Are you referring to a colon?
Student: Yes, that is it.

About 10 minutes later.

T: How do you know which number is on top in a ratio word problem?
S: First number in problem goes on top, second number goes down.
T: Ok, so where should the 10 and 12 go in this problem?
S: 10 is the numerator and 12 is the denominator
T: Write it down.
S: *student writes down problem*
T: Should I simplify it if I can?
S: Yes *Student simplifies to 5/6*
T: Good. So lets try another problem. How many times did you eat candy this week?
S: 5 times
T: How many times did you brush your teeth in the last week
S: 8 times
T: So I would like you to write a ratio of you eating candy to brushing your teeth.
S: *student draws a fraction of 5/8*; I drew 5/8.
T: Good. Can you simplify?
S: No
T: Good.

















Transcripts of 8
th
grade class discussing about Volume and Surface Area

S: I am confused about solving for volume?
T: What did we do last week? Where can we find that information?
S: In my workbook [student takes out workbook]
T: So what did we do according to last weeks notes?
S: We were looking at surface area and volume.
T: So how do we solve it?
S: [student paused, looking for answers in notebook] We learned about the formulas and
equations to solve the surface area and volume.
T: So according to you notes, how do we solve volume?
S: V= LWH
T: Good so what is a unique characteristic when writing the units of volume?
S: It needs to be cubed.
T: Good; So with this problem, how do we solve for volume?
S: We multiply 5*4*6*. It equals 120
T: So what is the answer to the complete problem.
S: 120 units cubed
T: Whats the unit?
S: inches so 120 inches cubed.
T: good.