In order to do this a teacher must look into the purpose of teaching certain math concepts. In doing this, children will begin to understand what they are doing and why. Teachers can accomplish this by relating different math concepts to students’ interest and real-life situations. Students will then understand why a math problem is used. In the video that was shown in class, the teacher gave students a math problem about buying erasers from a school store. Some of the children may have already come across this problem in their lives. If not, they can definitely relate to buying something from a store. So, the teacher played off of the students’ experiences in order to deepen their understanding for the need of dividing. In the movie from the text, in the lesson “Five Creatures”, the teacher relates the math topic to the students’ families. Students were provided an authentic instruction on mathematics, because they were able to relate to the math concept through the incorporation of their own families. In doing so, the teacher was able to increase the children’s understanding of the math …show more content…
This is key when having group discussions about math. Children need to feel confortable when expressing their opinions and answers in discussions about math. In order for this to happen, children need to feel that their interactions are positive. A teacher can achieve this by using all students’ responses and answers as a learning opportunity, whether the student’s response was right or wrong. Instead of telling the child that their answer is wrong a teacher might say, “I see where your coming from” or “You’re on the right track.” This creates trust in the environment, so children feel free to learn without judgment. Both of the videos in class demonstrate this concept. They gave the children a math problem to work on and as a group the teacher had a student say their answer. If the class agreed with this statement, the other students yelled, “Agree!” If the other students came up with a different answer they would yell, “Disagree!” The teacher in the second video shown in class, the lesson involving division, did this in a large group and small group setting. While the student worked on their division problem, the teacher roamed around the room and came across a student who wrote down the wrong answer. She asked the students sitting in the desks near by whether they agreed or disagreed the student’s answer. Instead of explicitly telling the student the right