Week 10 Andrea Delise

This week I have noticed how important it is to adjust your lesson based on your students. For example, I taught a lesson on making change. My MT suggested that I use the overhead projector and overhead coins. I modeled and asked them to follow along by doing the same with their coin toolkits at their tables. They stared at me like a deer in headlights. I decided to try something different. I started from the very beginning with a concept they were familiar with, the number grid. I wrote the item I was buying, how much it costs, and what I paid for it. Instead of jumping to which coin I would need first to count up, I asked students to find the next highest number that ends in a five and zero. We looked at the number grid and the students were able to answer. They would tell me how many "hops" it took. I would say, "So if it took us 3 hops from 12 to 15,  what coin could I start with?" They really started to understand when I put it this way. They were learning to count by ones, then fives, then tens, and eventually 25s, and then place the coin with it. I was surprised to see how different their attitudes were about making change. They felt more comfortable after learning it the second way, after I adjusted the lesson that I had originally planned for the following day. Because I know my students pretty well, I can decide when I should stop and re-adjust what I'm teaching and how.