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A. TITLE OF LESSON: Elapsed Time Square Game (Start time and End time
given)
C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
KNOW How to solve elapsed time problems with the start and end
time given, and how to determine the elapsed time in hours and
minutes within a 12-hour period.
C. PROCEDURE
What will you be doing to ensure these
things happen
I will be asking questions that review the third grade
standards for elapsed time. I want them to know
what elapsed time is, that there are 60 minutes in an
hour, how to find elapsed time in hour increments,
and that 12:00am is midnight while 12:00pm is
noon.
o I will write elapsed time on the board
o What do you think of when you see the word
elapsed time?
o Which hand is the hour hand on the click,
Activate Prior
Before which is the minute hand? (using Judy Clock)
Knowledge o How many minutes are in an hour?
o If it is 9:00am now and we have lunch at
11:00am, how many hours until lunch?
(making sure they understand hour
increments)
o If it is 11:00am and we have math at
12:00pm, how many hours until math?
(making sure they know diff. between
midnight and noon)
Reflection
In general, I believe that all NCTM standards were addressed in my
lesson with problem solving, representations, communication, and reasoning
and proof being successfully focused on, while I struggled a bit more with
connections.
Problem Solving was a standard that was successfully addressed in
my lesson plan, because at the core of the lesson this is what I wanted the
students to accomplish. During the lesson the students were given an
elapsed time problem but no answer or explanation from me. They had to
work individually to grapple with the problem and try to deduce an answer
using representations as aids. Overall, the students had to problem solve to
participate in my lesson. In order to problem solve the students were asked
to use representations, which is also an NCTM standard. I believe I
successfully addressed the standard representations because I included a
variety of ways for the students to represent their mathematical
understanding of elapsed time. I provided Judys clocks, elapsed time rulers,
and I also stated that the students could create any pictures or diagrams that
helped aid their understanding during the lesson. I also used the
representations to help aid their communication in explaining their
understanding of the elapsed time problem they were to discuss. I also
successfully addressed the Communication. I had the students discover
how to solve an elapsed time problem on their own, share with a group, and
then one person from each group share with the class. The students were
able to share their ideas and clarify understanding of their ideas on elapsed
time. The students were also able to refine and amend their understanding.
There was one student who shared with the class who hadnt fully
understood how to solve the problem but we were able to discuss as a class
and for him to amend his understanding. There was another student who
shared with the class who only shared his answer. By asking him to elaborate
he was able to explain his rational behind the answer and not just give a
procedural description. He used his Judy clock in order to show how he got
the answer he did and I believe this allowed other students to develop their
own understandings. The different individuals who shared also allowed the
class to see that there is no one way to answer elapsed time problems and
they got to view different avenues toward the answer from multiple
perspectives. Having the students defend and explain their answers through
communication relates to another NCTM standard, Reasoning and Proof.
This was also a success within the lesson because the students had to think
critically about the elapsed time problem presented to them and think
analytically for how to solve the problem. In order to present to the class, the
students had to develop mathematical arguments for why their answers
were correct, especially if another student in their group had a different
answer than them initially. I hope this allowed them to see that elapsed time
makes sense and isnt just a procedural math question.
Addressing Connections among the NCTM standards was a little more
difficult. I was able to connect elapsed time to their everyday life such as
determining how much time is left until school is over and how long their bus
ride to Jamestown may be. I hope that this connection to their every day
experiences allowed the students to create a deeper and more lasting
understanding of math as a whole. I wouldve liked to somehow connect the
elapsed time to other strands of math or other standards. I like the idea of
creating the view of math as a coherent whole by connecting topics, but it
seemed like it would have been too much to try to do this during an
introductory lesson. I think this is the biggest reason for struggling with
connections. My lesson was an introductory lesson and I was worried if I
through too much in then the students would be confused and not
understand the objectives during the lesson.
I would say that both myself and my students were beneficially
impacted by me planning my lesson around the 5 NCTM standards. The
standards allowed for them to think conceptually about the concept of
elapsed time, instead of thinking of elapsed time as a procedure. These
standards put the responsibility of learning into the students hands, with the
teacher acting as a guide to aid and scaffold their learning. When I was
planning my lesson it was helpful to know these standards because it
allowed me to raise the bar of expectation of what I expected from my
students. I was taught in a completely different way from this in elementary
school, so the standards allowed me to branch away from what I felt
comfortable with. In general, I would say that I felt uncomfortable with
teaching math in this way even though it was beneficial for both myself and
the students. As I mentioned before, I was not taught in this way so I have no
history with this teaching style to draw inspiration from. It felt like I should be
doing more during the lesson than providing them with a question and
having them problem solve the answer individual, as groups, and then as a
class. I also felt like the students were uncomfortable with this teaching style
because they werent used to it either. I think it was hard for them to
understand why I would explicitly show them how to solve the problem/give
them the answer. It was also an uncomfortable teaching style for me
because if students didnt step up and take responsibility for learning they
can be accidently left behind in a way.
In my teaching career I can see myself incorporating elements of this
lesson into my classroom. I truly connect with the idea that math should
make sense to children and shouldnt just be memorization and rote memory
recall. I want my students to be able to problem solve, prove their answer,
connect to other strands of math, etc. I would want to incorporate individual
problem solving more often in my future classroom so my students could
begin to feel more comfortable with this concept. I also really enjoyed using
the game at the end to review what they discussed as a class and what they
learned about elapsed time. I want learning to be fun, so I am positive that I
will continue to use math games in my class to introduce and solidify topics
in an entertaining way.