The Rational Behind My Lesson

As seen in my written lesson plan and observed while performing my lesson, one might want to know the reason behind certain decisions I took for this math class.

The classroom setting was divided throughout the lesson. At the beginning of the lesson students sat on the floor to observe and participate in the activity. Then students sat on their tables in a u-shaped arrangement for application (paper and pencil). Moving the students into two different setting was to physically help differentiate between the activities and to keep them moving and prevent boredom.

First of all, one should keep in mind that the students I was dealing with are KG2 students, and their age varies from 4.5 to 5.5 years of age. There for, I focused on involving the students physically and mentally as much as I can to be able to deliver the concept taught (addition and subtraction) without losing their attention; where students of this age have a short attention span. Choosing students in pairs to jump on the number line was to make the lesson fun for the students and enhance their gross motor skills. To also, choose a third student to write on the board while the peers where jumping on the number line was to enhance fine motor skills and to apply collaborative learning. However, the reason behind having to colored set of number line on the floor, one was from 1-10 A4-sized paper and the other number line was from 1-5 in an orange A3-sized paper was because of the different levels of students I had in my class. The slow learner in my class had reached 1-5 in learning the numbers unlike the rest of the class. The bigger sized papers were easier to jump on for physical difficulties and her favorite color is orange to encourage her to participate, using self reference, and to make sure that besides the student's differences, the class would participate as a whole according to their individual learning styles. Yet, not to make the difference obvious between the shorter orange colored number line and the other longer one, I gave other students the option to jump on the orange number line as a second round if they pleased. In a way or another, making the students take over the activity through participation, writing on the board, choosing a teacher-helper, and having them decide and choose their partners were all for gaining the sense of responsibility, excitement, involvement, and having a student-centered classroom. Most importantly, relating the concept addition and subtraction through moving/jumping and forward/backward to the calendar (which is to one of our daily routine) was for reasons like:

-          Relating the lesson to real life experience starting from the calendar

-          Opening a window to the students minds indirectly to other ways one can use the concept of addition and subtraction

-          Students will remember this math lesson every morning while reading the calendar during circle time and keep the concept refreshed in their memory.

-          During the math class, students that liked to be challenged would find relating two different concepts like addition and subtraction to the calendar interesting

Finally, I believe that positive reinforcement is the essence of encouragement in and out of class for all ages. However, choosing the kind of reinforcement that suits the age and the interest of the student is the key element for right positive reinforcement. While teaching KG2 students, I used smiley face stamps on each student's hand who participates, to encourage and acknowledge their performance and to give them a good feeling. I chose stamps instead of stickers because stickers would quickly fall off, but stamps would at least stay till they reach home and their parents would ask them about it, and they would remember and would proudly tell their parents about their accomplishments of the day!

The centers or stations are always a part of my lesson. Students who finishes quicker than others has to be always doing something useful or else they would be unintentionally   distracting their peers. For that reason, students would finish their work/activity and choose which center they would want (drama, blocks, drawing, reading).