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Change Agent Assignment

Background and Objectives

For this assignment, we will be focusing on a third-grade math unit that introduces

multiplication. This unit is from the Bridges Curriculum used by St. Mary’s County Public

Schools, and it has been used for the past five years. This instruction will be geared towards a

group of twenty third-graders, two of which have Individualized Education Plans. Students will

be activating prior knowledge, such as the number line, thinking of multiplication in different

ways, and making use of a variety of models. These models will consist of equal groups, arrays,

the number line, and ratio tables. Students will also be using prior knowledge of solving story

problems and addition equations as a foundation to fully understand multiplication.

Revisions

As a whole unit, there are many potential revisions that would meet the students needs

and interest. First, we would like to migrate some activities into online spaces, with the intent of

making the content both more accessible, easy to correct, and even more fun to complete.. In

addition to digital technology, we would also like to add more movement pieces. One activity

that Jenny had done in years past in another county was during floor time, where students used

masking tape to find the area of a rectangle or square. This activity improved engagement,

mathematical understanding, and got students out of their seats.

Using the wisdom of past teaching experiences, Jenny would spend less time on story

problems, because she believes students should focus on how to set up a multiplication equation,

practice solving this equation with more than one model, and learn the difference between an
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equation and expression. With the additional practice, she thinks the student’s comprehension of

how multiplication relates to addition would be easier for her third graders to understand. On the

post unit assessment, they ask students to write a division equation, which seemed out of place

because the unit did not address it. This would be removed in our revision.

Revised Unit of Instruction

The Introduction to Multiplication unit for Bridges, is composed of four modules.

Module one is Multiplication in Context, is composed of six sessions. Module two, Multiplying

with Arrays and Number Lines, has five sessions. Module three, Ratio Tables and the

Multiplication Table, is composed of 5 sessions. Lastly, module four is called Story Problems

and Multiple Operations has four sessions. For this assignment we will be looking at module

one and how we can revise it to fit the needs of Jenny’s students and the technological demands

of the modern classroom.

Session 1: The Pet Store

The lesson plan states, “This lesson lays a foundation for developing a deeper

understanding of multiplication.” For students to reach that goal, this lesson provides students

with the ability to use images of arrays to begin to solve multiplication equations. Students are

relating their prior knowledge of arrays and shopping in a store, to be introduced to

multiplication.

Students will begin this lesson with being presented with an interactive picture on

Nearpod, where they will be able to identify and label different arrays that are presented. They

can use the drawing tool to label the arrays (rows and columns) and if they wish, they can give

the total amount of objects in the individual array.

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Once the students are done with their own pet store picture, each student will leave their

computer on their desk and leave the work up on the screen. All students will then partake in a

gallery walk around the room, looking at peers' work to notice different strategies and arrays that

their peers were able to use. At the end of the gallery walk, we will come together for a class

discussion to review what they notice, what they wonder about how this work ties into what we

will be doing in the unit and we will close with an introduction to the next module.

Student work on Nearpod:

Session 2: Unit Pre-Assessment

The students will be presented with the unit 2 pre-assessment, where they will use their

prior knowledge. This assessment will be given on paper but students will be able to use

manipulatives, such as linking cubes and their rulers to help them on questions if needed. This

will provide for a hands-on assistant to difficult questions they may not understand.

Students work:
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Session 3: Stamps

For this lesson, students will deepen their understanding of arrays and repeated addition

by using stamps. Students will have the groups of stamps in front of them. They will be given the

option to keep the stamps on the colored paper, or to cut them out so they can be more hands-on.

The colored paper will help students from mixing up the stamps.

Students work:

Session 4: Stamps continued

This module will be a continuum of the previous lesson and students will now tie in their

ability to use the double strategy. This lesson will take place on Jamboard where students will be

assigned a slide and this will be where they can outline their work. Below is an example of the

work they are expected to show:

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For differentiation, students who are still struggling with the multiplication concept will

only be expected to show repeated addition. For those who need more of a challenge, they will

be required to show repeated addition, their double strategies being used, and the multiplication

equation.

Student work from Jamboard:

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Session 5: Workplace 2A: Loops and Groups

This workplace game was introduced in the Number Corner lessons for the month of

September. For this lesson, we will have a teacher versus students round before the students

break out with partners to play. This game will be played with the technology components for

the teacher versus students round and then when they are with partners, they will use a paper

copy of the game board and any other materials will be provided by the teacher. This will be a

great game to work on representing multiplication with equal groups before moving onto Module

2 for the next lesson.

A video of one players view for the game:

Loops and Groups

TPACK

The technology integration model guiding our technology use is TPACK. TPACK

describes the interaction of technology (T), pedagogy (P), and content knowledge (CK) and how

they intersect with one another to inform the selection of technology in the classroom (Koehler,

2012). Researchers have long studied similar conceptions, but it wasn’t until the early 2000s that

the term “TPACK” came to prominence in the field of education (Koehler & Mishra, 2009).

Supporters of TPACK suggest that the model is both theoretically and practically sound, with its

concepts being easy to understand, apply, and study (Koehler & Mishra, 2009). We chose the

model because we wanted to ensure that our technology was chosen with student needs and

content area requirements in mind.

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The model is portrayed as a tridirectional venn diagram, with each of the three

components intersecting with one another, suggesting that these components should not be

considered in isolation (Koehler, 2012). For instance, when we wanted to provide a means for

students to show their work, we intentionally chose a piece of technology that was compatible

with mathematical expression. By choosing Jamboard instead of something like Google Docs,

we provided greater creative liberty, wherein students could freely move around the digital

components on a page, draw shapes and lines, and express themselves as they might on paper.

Using content knowledge and age-appropriate pedagogy, we chose an easy-to-use tool that

possesses the flexibility required for mathematics.

Universal Design for Learning

Several efforts have been made to adapt this unit using the Universal Design for Learning

(UDL) guidelines (CAST, 2018).

Multiple Means of Representation

We ensured checkpoint 2.5, illustrate through multiple media, by using a range of visual

alternatives to the numbers in the multiplication problems. This can be seen by the use of images

of stamps and pet store items, which were hosted primarily through digital means.

Multiple Means of Action and Expression

We highlighted checkpoint 5.2, use multiple tools for construction and composition,

when we offered different ways of completing assessments. In the case of the pre-assessment,

students were permitted to use manipulatives to aid their understanding if they needed it.

Multiple Means of Engagement

Having students show and explain their work is in line with checkpoint 6.2, support

planning and strategy development. The students are not all expected to use the same means of
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explaining their work, and they are encouraged to see how their classmates might have done

things differently. Having students show their work gives them a sense of ownership over the

material, and it can be used with different skills in the future.

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References

CAST (2018). Universal design for learning guidelines. CAST. http://udlguidelines.cast.org

Koehler, M. (2012). TPACK explained. TPACK.org. https://matt-koehler.com/tpack2/tpack-

explained/

Koehler, M., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge?

Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 60-70.