IMB Observation Form

Fall 2019 MAED 3224

Watch 1 lesson and fill out the following form.

Teacher Name: Boone

Grade: 4th grade

What was being taught? Fractions and Decimals

What was the format? Small groups

Was the lesson focused on conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, problem solving,
and/or reasoning? (Select all that apply) Provide evidence that supports your claim.
The lesson started with a fluency chant and game. The class sang the multiples of 9 in a song
using the Addams family tune and then they deconstructed 2,314. They went around the room
using a ball and said the different ways they broke up the number.
Then they went into their group work flag creation for conceptual understanding and reasoning.
They designed a flag on graph paper then for each color, they would write what fractional part of
the whole that color covered and write the decimal written as hundredths. They are
understanding parts of a whole with fractions, writing it in decimal form, and understanding that
parts can be separate but still included in the answer. When they were done, they had to explain
to the teacher why the fractions and decimals were what they were.
After the teams finished their flags, fractions, and decimals, they went into their breakouts.
Breakouts are independent or group math work on computers. Breakouts are on google
classroom. they breakous focused on conceptual undestanding, procedural fluency, and
problem solving. In their breakouts, they watch math videos then do an activity that goes along
with the video. They earn learning points for each question they get right.

What questions did the teacher ask to elicit thinking and check for understanding?
How do you know?
Show it to ___.
Explain it to me.
Why is ___?

What struggles in understanding did you see? Explain the struggles and what you saw that
made you think students were struggling in this way. Take pictures of student work if
possible, otherwise describe in detail.
Struggles I saw were in their explainations of the answers and using the correct terms in the
correct order. It was confusing some students to see 0.25 and say “zero and twenty five
hundredths”. The students would forget to say the beginning “zero”, say “and”, and they wouldn’t
add the word “hundredths” at the end. The students would say “point twenty five”.
What supports were given to students? This includes support from the teacher(s),
manipulatives, visuals, anchor charts, scaffolding, etc.
Visuals: They created their own flag on graph paper and used that to decided the fractions and
decimals of each color.
Teacher: Coming around asking questions and making sure everyone is on task.

What are your key take-aways from this observation?

Math can be fun and can be enjoyable for every student. Groups can be teams instead of groups
to make it more together. Each student wanted to answer questions and the multiplication
songs are engaging for the kids.