Download Reflecting on Mathematics Instruction: Growth and Improvement in a Master's Program and more Thesis Business Accounting in PDF only on Docsity! 1 MATH 6561 Reflective Essay Master of Science in Education, Walden University MATH 6561: Learning and Teaching Mathematics Reflective Essay Throughout this course, I engaged in meaningful conversations with peers and my professor about different mathematical strategies, misconceptions, and given tasks. Within the given discussion posts, there was research information that covered mathematical instruction and assessment. By engaging in weekly discussion posts and papers, I was able to find new ways to improve my mathematical teaching and learning. This paper will explain how I have grown within my own mathematics goals and how I can still improve moving forward. Within this course, I learn in-depth about mathematics and the different types of research- based instruction. A critical aspect of teaching mathematics is making sure that the lesson you provide to students is a high cognitive demanding level. By doing so, the mathematical task makes connections while being engaging and has multiple entry and exit points (Van de Walle et al., 2019). An example of a high level of demanding cognitive task is problem-solving. In our classroom, we do a word problem each day. When problem-solving, students need to solve using a representation, an equation with an unknown, and a complete sentence. When solving, students can use manipulatives, drawings, and writing, which would be considered high level cognitive as they are using many ways to represent a problem. An example of a low cognitive task is giving students multiplication facts to memorize. A better way for students to work on multiplication facts is to incorporate strategies. When students use multiplication strategies to solve, they can 2 use multiple ways to solve. For example, when solving 4 x 3 = N, students could use the four strategies: double, double, or the three strategies: to double and add a group. We can also use these types of questions for an assessment when assessing students understanding of multiplication. Working in an inclusion classroom means that we have students on different levels with different abilities. It is so important that we get to know each of our learners individually to meet their needs. In mathematics, as you are teaching and guiding, you must be following the five practices outlined by Smith and Stein (2018). The steps are anticipating, monitoring, selecting, sequencing, and connecting. When preparing lessons with my co-teacher, we understand the importance of predicting what the students will do. We plan for many different answers for solving the given task, correct or incorrect. As the solving is going on, I walk around and pull students that need that extra guidance. This plays a significant role in the special education students within our classroom and being able to monitor them closely and engage in conversation is critical to their learning. For selecting, I believe that I have improved on this since taking this course. My co-teacher also taught me that you do not always want to choose the student doing it exactly as planned. I have realized that if there is a misconception in a task within our classroom, many students will do the same one, so students must share errors. As students recognize their struggle, they learn, and now I understand why selecting is such an important technique. When selecting students to share, sequencing, and connecting come into play. Smith and Stein (2018) explain, "by selecting the order students to work is shared, teachers can maximize the chance of achieving their mathematical goals for the discussion" (p. 11). As the discussion is taking place, the students must make connections between their peers and what they have previously learned.
