REFLECTION OF FUTURE LESSON PLAN 1

Reflection of Future Lesson Plan: Strategies for Understanding Word Problems

Amy Manley

The University of California, Los Angeles: EDUC X 426.2

August 08, 2021

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From reading the textbook “Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The

SIOP Model” by Jana Echevarría and listening to the course PowerPoints, I have learned of

varied types of assessments and learning strategies that I am eager to use when teaching math in

the future. The lesson I created strives to help Pre-Algebra students better solve real world word

problems by using visualization and organization techniques, as well as practicing key

vocabulary that is necessary for discussing how to solve the problems. Although I will be

assessing student understanding throughout the entire lesson, at the end of the lesson I will use

three additional assessments. The students will show their proficiency by creating and solving

their own word problems, completing an exit slip, and eventually taking a quiz or test.

After students have learned the three strategies to solve word problems and practiced

those strategies with a group or partner, they will work in groups to write and solve a word

problem that they think they might have to solve in the real world. The students may use their

notebooks, where we solved other similar problems, as a guide. The groups will then trade word

problems and solve another group’s problem by using one of the three strategies. After solving,

the groups will talk and see if the group that created the problem agrees with the answer. If they

do not agree, the group that created the problem will explain their answer. During this time, I

will walk around and listen to the group discussions, listen to find out if the students are using

the key vocabulary while they discuss, and look to see if they are using one of the three

strategies. I will use a clipboard to record notes on each student’s level of understanding. I will

have two spreadsheets with each student’s name, one for math content objectives and one for

language objectives, and will record a number one through three for each student based on my

observations. A three means the student has met the objectives, a two means the student is close

to meeting the objectives, and a one means the student needs more help and practice (Echevarría,
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2000, p. 237). This assessment will help English learners because they will be able to work with

other students, encouraging them to speak and listen to English and allowing them to ask the

other students questions if they do not feel comfortable speaking in front of the entire class. It is

also considered an authentic assessment because the students are creating math problems that

they would expect to find in the real world. As Echevarría (2000) explains, assessments that are

authentic are meaningful to student because they are able to apply what they have learned to their

real lives (p. 228). This assessment is not stressful because the students get to work with other

students and it does not affect their grade. It will be used to help the students understand how

well they mastered the objectives, as well as help me know whether they are ready to move on or

need more practice.

At the very end of the lesson, the students will work individually to fill out an exit slip

(attached) to be turned in and reviewed, but not included in a course grade. The exit slip will

have three components: content objective, language objective, and reflection. The content

objective will be assessed by having the students complete a word problem using one of the three

strategies taught in the lesson. The students will have a choice of three word problems, with two

of the word problems being very similar to the ones modeled in the lesson. The language

objective will be assessed by having the students use a sentence frame to tell one vocabulary

word they learned and explain its meaning. For the reflection portion, students will choose from

five sentence prompts that will encourage them to ask additional questions or celebrate a learning

achievement (Echevarría, 2000, p. 231). This assessment will help English learners because they

get to pick the word problem they feel most comfortable solving and use their notebooks to help

guide them. The similar format of the problems will provide repetition, which will help them in

deciphering what is expected. The sentence frame helps the English learners write a complete
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sentence about a vocabulary word of their choosing so they can focus on the vocabulary word

and meaning without having to worry about sentence structure. For the reflection portion,

English learners will again benefit from choosing their sentence prompt because they can pick

the one they understand the best. The reflection portion also gives them a chance to think about

what they have learned or still need to learn and communicate that privately with me. This

assessment is slightly more stressful than the group assessment because the student needs to

complete it individually, but it is still not very stressful as it does not affect their grade.

At a later date, when the students have had more practice with word problems, they will

take an individual quiz or test where they will choose two word problems to solve from a choice

of four problems of similar form to those modeled and practiced in the lesson. For each problem,

the students will need to show that they have used one of the three strategies by either drawing a

picture, noting important information, or acting out the problem for me. Additionally, the

students will be given a key vocabulary word bank and will choose two vocabulary words to

write one sentence for each word telling how they might use that term when solving a word

problem. Sentence frames will be written on the board that they can use when writing their

sentences. This assessment will be scored and included as part of the student’s grade. It will help

English learners because they get to choose which two problems they feel most comfortable

answering and use sentence frames to guide them in writing their sentences. While this

assessment is likely to be fairly stressful for the students as it is an individual assessment and

will affect their grade, I hope that having problems that are similar to ones that they have

practiced and getting to pick the problems they solve will lower the stress level a little.

The learning strategies from the SIOP model that I plan to use in my lesson are

predicting, role playing, drawing pictures, noting important information, teacher modeling,
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scaffolding, repetition, group work, partner work, and sentence frames. I generally use teacher

modeling, scaffolding, and repetition when teaching a lesson, but I want to include more group

and partner work because I have learned that it helps English learners practice English and

reduces anxiety. For this lesson, I want to teach the students the metacognitive learning strategies

of visualizing and summarizing so that they can be aware of and track their thinking (Echevarría,

2000, p. 127). To do this, we will use role playing, drawing pictures, and writing notes. Role

playing is not a strategy usually used in math, but I am excited to see if it helps the students

better visualize the word problem. I often draw pictures and note important information when I

solve word problems, so I think these strategies will help students get over the initial anxiety and

confusion that often occurs when first reading a word problem. Lastly, I am looking forward to

posting sentence frames on the board as an optional aide for all students, but especially English

learners.

I believe this lesson will be fun for all learners because it is more active than a typical

math lesson. Hopefully the students will enjoy learning the strategies and will continue to use

them when solving word problems throughout their math careers. In addition, I will continue to

look for opportunities to use assessments that are less stressful and provide myself and the

students with meaningful information as to how they are progressing in meeting the learning

objectives.

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References

Echevarría, Jana, (2000). Making content comprehensible for English language learners: the

SIOP model. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Math-Aids.Com. (n.d.). Retrieved August 05, 2021, from https://www.math-

aids.com/cgi/pdf_viewer_12.cgi?

script_name=algebra1_equations_two_word.pl&fnums=0&language=0&memo=&a

nswer=1&x=135&y=24