Author: Mathew Needleman  Date Created: 8/9/2003 9:27:12 AM PST
Collections: Addition: Bringing Objects Together
Grade/Level: 1
Students: 20 students. 10 boys. 10 girls. 16 ELL students. 1 student mild autism.
Subject Area(s): Mathematics
Concept(s): Addition means bringing sets of objects together. Addition problems can be illustrated through pictures and/or number sentences.
State Academic Content Standard(s): CA- CCTC: CSTP's (Standards for the Teaching Profession) • Standard : Standard for Assessing Student Learning Teachers establish and clearly communicate learning goals for all students. Teachers collect information about student performance from a variety of sources. Teachers involve all students in assessing their own learning. Teachers use information from a variety of ongoing assessments to plan and adjust learning opportunities that promote academic achievement and personal growth for all students. Teachers exchange information about student learning with students, families, and support personnel in ways that improve understanding and encourage further academic progress. • CSTP Key Element : Using the results of assessments to guide instruction.  Question: "How do I?" or "Why do I?" : use informal assessments of student learning to adjust instruction while teaching? CA- California K-12 Academic Content Standards • Subject : Mathematics • Grade : Grade One By the end of grade one, students understand and use the concept of ones and tens in the place value number system. Students add and subtract small numbers with ease. They measure with simple units and locate objects in space. They describe data and analyze and solve simple problems. • Area : Algebra and Functions • Sub-Strand 1.0: Students use number sentences with operational symbols and expressions to solve problems:  Standard 1.1: Write and solve number sentences from problem situations that express relationships involving addition and subtraction.  Standard 1.2: Understand the meaning of the symbols +, -, =.
Objective(s): After watching a brief electronic movie of an addition story, students will complete a picture that illustrates the story and write a number sentence to solve the problem with ninety percent accuracy.
Prerequisite Background Skills/ Knowledge: This should not be students first exposure to the plus sign and it's meaning. Students will, however, need to know what a number sentence is though they have previously seen number sentences but might not have called them that.
Vocabulary/Language Skills: Addition: putting objects together (will be illustrated through the movie) Number sentence: will be modeled through the writing of number sentences together.
Materials: Television Laptop Appropriate technological connections Teacher-created animation movie Paper
Classroom Management: Discuss appropriate TV watching behavior. Model worksheet completion and circulate to provide help.
Models of Instruction: Direct Instruction
Procedure
Open: Introduce the teacher created animation short to students. The short will depict an owner of four dogs receiving three more dogs a birthday present. Dogs will each have amusing names and be introduced one by one to ensure one-to-one thinking on the part of students. Play the movie for students using the laptop and television hookup.
Input: Discuss the movie with students. How do we figure out how many dogs the owner had all together. Students should arrive at addition but then turn the question around and ask what does addition mean? Students should arrive at the conclusion that addition means bringing collections of objects together. Ask how we could draw a picture of the situation that's happening in the movie. Model the drawing of the movie on the board. Next, ask how we could write a number sentence to explain the picture and then write this on the board.
Guided Practice: Show a different but similar movie to students. Have a few students come up to complete a drawing of the movie's situation and a number sentence to explain it. If students complete this successfully proceed to independent practice. If not, more modelling and discussion may be necessary.
Independent Practice: Present another movie to students. Ask them which numbers are important to remember. They should arrive at the number of dogs in the scenario and teacher should write this on the board. Next, distribute paper to students and ask them to draw a picture that goes with the movie and write a number sentence. Circulate to help students.
Close: Have students share their drawings and summarize the meaning of addition as bringing collections of object together.
Assessment/ Reflection
Assessment: After watching the movie, students will complete a drawing and a number sentence which depict the movie's addition story with ninety percent accuracy. Teacher will examine writing and provide additional assistance to students who are unable to compete theirs successfully.
Reflection: Student interest in the computer movie I created was high. It was also nice to be able to show the movie again and again and nice to have a TV to now make this kind of lesson possible. Unfortunately, creating the movies was rather time consuming but now that I have a few created I will not have to create the movies again in the future. More than half of he students were able to complete an illustrated depiction of the story correctly (I did tell students that they could draw snakes or hearts or anything they wanted instead of dogs if it was easier). However, there were several who needed some prompting to complete their pictures. This was what I needed to know. Although students are all able to complete simple addition problems. Many of them still do not understand conceptually what they are doing because they have already learned addition by rote in kindergarten. This is a hurdle to overcome but emphasizing the meaning of addition consistently as we continue will increase student comprehension.