STANDARD 2

During my most recent practicum experience, I delivered several mathematics lessons to my Kindergarten class. For the purposes of this standard, I have attached a lesson plan as my artefact that focuses on data, specifically using tally marks to represent data. In order to ‘organise content’, I used the ACU scaffold and lesson plan format, so that the content was organised into the introduction, development and closure of the lesson (2.2.1). Both ‘learning sequences’ and ‘teaching sequences’ were integrated throughout the lesson plan, with the abbreviations ‘T’ and ‘Ss’ used to represent teacher and student instructions (2.2.1). There are different teaching and learning models for mathematics that are implemented in schools. On this particular practicum, I used the mathematics lesson format taught at university, where teachers launch, introduce, explore, summarise and review (2.5.1). With this format, students are first given time to explore the task without any teacher assistance, and explicit teaching occurs during the task to redirect students or at the end of the lesson to consolidate knowledge. Perry (2007) indicates that effective mathematics learning “relies on the teacher facilitating children’s learning of mathematics rather than telling them the mathematics they need to learn” (p. 283). Numeracy strategies that were used in the lesson include drawing on terminology, organising students into groups, using reasoning questions to prompt higher-order thinking and using manipulatives like paddle-pop sticks (2.5.1). I have become aware that “by always alerting students to the mathematics in every situation before we begin a task, we diminish the chances of them learning how to cope” (Hogan, 2012, p. 7). Since the traditional teaching of mathematics involves teacher-centred instruction, I am still working on creating experiences where students are autonomous and lead their own learning, to effectively emulate this new pedagogy.

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300 words