Brittany Fitzgerald

Educ 345
December 8, 2016
Student Work Analysis Paper

I. Analysis of Whole-Class Understandings

Central Focus (Learning Objective(s))
The central focus of the first taught lesson plan was on conceptual
understanding/procedural fluency of place values. In the original lesson plan, lesson plan
objective stated, Students will be able to describe how many times larger a digit in one
number is than that same digit in another number. Additionally, students will have to
create a new number that shows that a specific number is a certain number of times larger
than or as large as a given number. Unfortunately due to time restrains, the lesson plan
objective got condensed to, Students will be able to describe how many times larger a
digit in one number is than that same digit in another number. We did not have enough
time to move onto the students creating their own number.
Learning Segment Overview
To begin the lesson, the students solved a word problem in any way that made
sense to them. While the students worked on the word problem, I monitored their work,
but did not interfere. I wanted to see how the students would solve the problem on their
own. Unfortunately, because of the way the word problem was worded, not one student
answered the question correctly. After the students handed me their work, I explained
how to solve the word problem. Afterwards, I went into the instructional piece of my
lesson. Where I explained how the difference between each place value is ten and when
comparing numbers we can see that the numbers increased by factors of ten.
Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we were not able to do any examples that involved
decreasing by factors of ten. As a result, we had five minutes left and so I handed them
the worksheet that we were supposed to do together and on their own before the planned
assessment, but instead this worksheet became our assessment. The students were still
unclear about determining the difference when comparing numbers and this showed
because they continually asked for assistance. I repeatedly told them to do their best. The
worksheet only had question involving increasing by factors of ten, but since we did not
get to cover decreasing by factors of ten, the students were not able to tell the difference.
Assessment
Due to time constraints the students completed a different worksheet as the
assessment. The first half of the questions had the numbers in a place value chart to help
the students identify each digits value. The second half of the questions did not have a
place value chart. The worksheet contained the following questions:
How much larger is the 2 in 200 compared to the 2 in 20?
How much larger is the 2 in .2 compared to the 2 in .02?

How much larger is the 2 in 2 compared to the 2 in .2?

How much larger is the 2 in 2,000 compared to the 2 in 200?
How much larger is the 6 in 6,782 than the 6 in 678?
How much larger is the 4 in 4.5 than the 4 in .45?
How much larger is the 9 in 8.9 than the 9 in .89?
How much larger is the 7 in 734 than the 7 in 73.4?
Students answered each of the questions on the worksheet individually and
without the teachers assistance. Each of these questions asked the students to determine
the how much larger a digit in one number is than that same digit in another number.
Since the lesson was condensed to only include increasing by factors of ten. The answer
to each of these questions was ten times. The students should have written X10 or 10X on
the line next to each question. Thus, this new assessment meets the new objective of the
lesson that asks students to describe the how many times larger a digit in one number is
than that same digit in another number. By looking at the results of the assessment below,
I can conclude that the students have not met the lesson objective and more time needs to
be spent with them on determining how much larger a digit in one number is compared to
another number with that same digit.
Question
Number:
Fraction of
Correct:

Total

0/5

4/5

0/5

1/5

3/5

3/5

3/5

2/5

16/40

Majority of the students realized that the difference between each place value is
ten. This is evident because the students answered 38/40 questions with the number ten.
As a result, the students know that when given two numbers that are in neighboring place
values, the difference is ten. However, the problem occurred when students had to
determine if it was multiplication or division. For each of the questions the students got
wrong, they wrote the division symbol instead of the multiplication symbol.

II. Analysis of Individual Student Work Samples

Three Focus Students
My three focus students are Yomal, Alyssa, and Emmy. The reason I picked these
students is because of the common trends in their work. For example many of them put
the division symbol instead of the multiplication symbol. As a result, I want to work these
students specifically about comparing numbers and determining if it is increasing or
decreasing by factors of ten. I would also like to review with Alyssa and Emmy on the
difference between each neighboring place value is ten because they both answered with
100 for question four.
Mathematics
Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we did not have enough time to practice
increasing by factors of ten, and were unable to cover decreasing by factors of ten. Since
students were not even exposed to the later part, the students did not have experience

comparing. Although the assessment only involved increasing, the students were not able
to see that. If the assessment did have both I would have expected the students to write
1/10 as large and not the division symbol.
Another problem with the assessment was that students had just been working on
multiplying and dividing numbers by ten. They had learned that you move the decimal
place to either the right or left depending on the operation. I think that students used what
they had just been learning and applied it to this lesson. This explains why the students
wrote the division symbol, when I did not tell them to do that.
Another reason why I think this way is because of the marks on the worksheets.
Many of the students drew bumps to move the decimal place. This can especially be seen
on Williams paper. The students could have used this knowledge to solve the problems
on the worksheet, but they would have to in a sense work backwards. When the question
asks how much larger is the first compared to the second, students can ask themselves,
how do I get from the second number to the first? As a result, I think many students may
have done the opposite and asked themselves, how do I get from the first number to the
second, and that is why they put divide.
In addition, I think the students applied the lesson from earlier to this one because
of the students questions. Many of the students asked me if the hundredths place is larger
than the tenths place during the assessment. Although I did not correct them, most of the
students got question number two correct. As a result, I think this happened because the
students thought the number was increasing from the first to the second, thus they put
multiplication.

III. Using Evidence to Reflect on Teaching (Re-engagement

Lesson)
Targeted Learning Objective
Based on the results of the first lesson, and the errors I saw among the assessment,
I have prepared a second lesson to reteach the topic. The learning objective will remain
the same, but I have taken out the second part of having the students create numbers. I
realized from the first lesson that, that is asking too much of the students to do in one
lesson. It states, Students will be able to describe how many times larger a digit in one
number is than that same digit in another number. Although I am re-teaching the same
topic of the lesson, I have changed the way in which I will teach it. Students were
confused about comparing the second to the first number so I am having them identify
the larger number first and then figuring out how many times larger the first number is
compared to the second. I am also having the students apply their knowledge of place
values to identify the place value of each number instead of telling them the place value
with a place value chart.
Re-engagement Lesson
Lesson Plan
The lesson plan is submitted in another location.

Description of Teaching It
The lesson began with a review of place values. I showed the group a place value
chart and asked them to tell me everything they knew about place values. The students
were unable to give me sufficient information and thus I prompted them with more
specific questions. Eventually we got to the point where we were able to determine that
the difference between each place value is ten. We also reviewed that in order to increase
the value, you multiply by ten, and to decrease in value, you divide by ten. For this lesson
the students were not supposed to use divide by ten but use 1/10. Thus I prompted the
students fill in the blank when I said that divide by ten is the same as multiply by ____,
and I explained that I am asking them to keep change flip. The students did not
understand what I was asking, so I used a different number and said that divide by 2 is the
same as multiply by because we changed the sign and flipped the number to a fraction.
So I brought it back to the original number 10, and a few students said that divide by 10
is the same as multiply by five because 10 times a is 5. So I tried another example
using the number 3. I said divide by 3 is the same as multiply by ____, and the students
came up with 1/3. When I asked why, they said that you flip the number into a fraction.
So then I brought it back to 10, and then they were able to tell me 1/10.
We then moved on in the lesson to determine how much larger one number is
compared to another. We started with the number 20 and 2, moved onto 2 and .2, and then
.2 and .02. I first asked the students which number is larger and then I asked them to
identify the place value of each number. Then the students were supposed to use this
information about which number is bigger and the value of each number to determine
how much larger the first number is. It took quite a while and a lot of explaining for
students to finally understand that the first number is ten times as large as the other. I had
to keep referring to the place value chart. Then we did the worksheet as a group where I
called on students to answer my questions as we walked through the problems together.
Once again this took a lot of explaining to get through the questions.
We then moved onto example problems with the answer 1/10. This is where most
of the problems occurred. The students and I followed the same procedure of identifying
which number is bigger and what the place values for each number is to figure out how
many times larger the first number is than the second. I started with the numbers 5 and
50, then .5 and 5, and finally .05 and .5. This took quite a long time to get through. The
students continually answered with 10 times. As a result, I continually asked the students
if it made sense to say that 5 is ten times larger than 50. I believe the students struggled
with this concept because they kept asking themselves, how do I get from the first
number to the second and thus the students answered with 10 times. However that is not
what the question was asking. We then moved onto the corresponding worksheet with
more example problems that we worked on together.
Even though, my teacher gave me 45 min for this lesson, we still ran out of time
and were unable to complete the assessment that was planned. In the plan, the students
were to answer a word problem where they compare two numbers to identify if the first
number is ten times larger or 1/10 as large. The planned assessment aligns with the
objective because the students would have had to describe how many times larger a digit
in one number is compared to the same digit in another number. However, due to time
constraints, the last worksheet will be used as the assessment. This worksheet contained

both types of problems that had the students determine if the answer was 10 times larger
or 1/10 as large. Thus this worksheet also aligns with the learning objective.
Three Examples of Student Work (from the 3 Focus Students)
The results for each student can be seen below. The student received a point if
they answered the question correctly, and zero points if they did not answer the question
correctly.
Student:
Question 1: Question 2: Question 3: Question 4: Total:
Alyssa
0
0
0
0
0/4
Emmy
0
0
0
0
0/4
Yomal
1
1
1
1
4/4
Both Alyssa and Emmy put the opposite answer for each question. For example the
answer to question numbers 1 and 4 was 10 times, and both students put 1/10.
Meanwhile, the answer to question numbers 2 and 3 was 1/10, and both students put 10
times. Yomal gave the correct operation and number for each problem.
The reason that both Alyssa and Emmy did not do as well is because they were
once again confusing what we were doing in the lesson to previous information that they
know. I perceive that the students were asking themselves what times the first number
gets me the second number. When the students ask themselves this question, then they
come up with the opposite answer to the question.
I can also see in both the students work that they had originally put divide by 10
as an answer to a few questions, but erased these. This can be seen in questions 1 and 4
for Alyssa and questions 1 and 2 for Emmy. Also in question number 1, Emmy had kept
the division sign, but changed the 10 to a 1/10. This is evidence that more time needs to
be spent on the relationship between divide by 10 and times 1/10.
Analysis of Effectiveness of Re-engagement Lesson
By looking at the assessments for the focus students, we can see that the lesson
was effective for Yomal. During the lesson, he was able to answer the example problems
successfully, and he was the first one to hand his assessment. This shows that his
mathematical understanding has changed because of this second lesson. However, the
lesson was not effective for Alyssa and Emmy. It is evident that more time needs to be
spent with these two students on the relationship between place values. As a result, there
mathematical understanding had not changed because of this lesson. They still have the
same misconceptions from the first lesson.