Weekly Report & Reflection #3:

Weekly Reflection:

During this class, I learned how to add and subtract using large numbers and the mathematical blocks. I also learned the many different ways to answer a mathematical problem, proving that there are multiple ways to get to the final answer.

Jeff Heartwell, 2015

Some points that I would like to make about the class include, a better explanation of how to do the addition and subtraction problems using the blocks. I understood how to use the blocks doing addition, however I had no idea how to use the blocks doing subtraction. In the text book it explained how to complete these problems with blocks, however actually completing the problems manipulating the blocks was found to be a troublesome task. I also thought that better examples other than blocks should've been used, applying the lesson plan to all the learning styles. I also feel like a game could have been incorporated to make playing with/ using the blocks a more fun task. In my placement, I was given 5 students who had a learning disability a sheet of patterns they had to figure out. I was extremely lenient with the children, if they could not answer the question I told them to move on to the next one. Some children would move on and others would be stumped on what seemed to be a basic math question to myself. I would then get frustrated and eventually give them the answer. I could have used the block method in this situation to help aid the students into understanding the problem better.


Three questions that I would like to ask are:

1. How do I explain to kids how to do decimals with the blocks?
2. What is the best way to teach someone addition and subtraction, when they still don't understand after using blocks
3. If the child could not finish the question themselves, at what point to you give them the answer?

Weekly Report:

What I learned from the book was computational strategies with regards to operations with whole numbers. I also learned how to do algorithms, using the hundreds, tens, and ones learning how addition and subtraction "undo" each other by adding back the amount you originally subtracted. This reading showed a lot of methods to add, subtract, multiply, and even divide numbers using the blocks. It was really helpful when the book broke down the problem into steps, making it a lot easier for myself to visualize the problem, and figure out how to explain it to others. The reading did a

Google Image: [Image] Retrieved From:
http://www.eduplace.com/math/mathsteps/2/c/

really good job of explaining the common errors and misconceptions we have when doing these problems, which is something I could really relate to. When the text book went over all of the appropriate manipulative, it made a lot more sense of what I was doing. I had to use this website to accurately figure out how to properly subtract with the blocks, this website http://www.eduplace.com/math/mathsteps/2/c/ was extremely helpful and explained what I was doing step by step, which correlated with the text book.