Week 10: Noticing Blog

          Over the course of my guided lead teaching the past two weeks, I have noticed it has taken my students much longer to grasp each concept I have planned for the day. Many times, my daily lessons take about two days. For example, we have been working on rounding numbers to the 10s and 100s place since Tuesday. My students are not grasping the concept of rounding up and rounding down, and are having trouble understanding what 10s place is between a number such as 37. My students are not visualizing 37 as being between 30 and 40, but closer to 40, and we round up for that reason. I have provided my students with additional support in this topic and will continue to cater to their individual needs throughout my guided lead teaching. Furthermore, I will use my formative assessments daily to self-assess and so I can get a better understanding of where they are in understanding this concept. I have provided my students with additional support for rounding by giving them open-ended tasks, self-assessing, and homework problems (such as word problems and stories) to foster rounding.

          Today, I performed a self-assessment with my students. I gave them three numbers on the board and they had to round each one to the 10s place. I gave them time to work by themselves, then I had one student come up to the board and show the class how they rounded each problem. Then, I had a students hold a thumbs up by their heart if they got the answer correct, and a thumbs down if they did not get the answer correct. I explained that it was okay if they did not get the answer correct, it just means that we need to spend more time together on the concept. I told the eight students that felt as though they needed more help to go to the back of the classroom to work with me to help make more sense of rounding numbers. I enjoyed watching the students take responsibility for their learning and help themselves when they believe they need it. This is a strategy I believe I will continue to use throughout my guided lead teaching and into my lead teaching next semester. This was a very powerful tool for students to use to measure their own successes or struggles. I look forward to using this self-assessment system again in the future in all content.