Reflection

For my IMB clinical placement, I was in a third grade classroom in a Title I school. Most

of the students in the class were below grade level for math. Being a Title I school and a

classroom that will be testing for the first time, math and reading were very important and

implemented all day. The morning was devoted to reading, and the afternoon was sectioned off

just for math. This equaled roughly 2-2 ½ hours of math each day. In addition, students had one

to two questions for morning work everyday. Most mornings, these were math questions

reviewing what they had done earlier in the year.

While I was in their classroom, they were learning fractions. Apparently, they had been

working on fractions for a good amount of time by the time I joined their class. They we working

on the standards 3.NF.1, 3.NF.2, and 3.NF.3. Each of these standards deals with understanding

what a fraction is, understand a fraction as a number on a fraction line, and comparing fractions

and understanding equivalent fractions. The teacher mostly was working on comparing

fractions, rarely using a number line to do this, while reviewing what a fraction is and what it

represents during the explanation.

The class had a class set of foam fraction bars that they used almost daily. The time it

took each student to set up his or her fraction bars could be considered a waste of time. The

students would be sitting at their desks with their fraction bars in front of them while the teacher

was at the front of the classroom. By the time the fraction bars were set up, they did not have

much time left to actually work with them. After they did have them set up, the teacher would

have the students compare two different fractions by comparing the size of the fraction bars, or

she would call out a fraction and the students had to find all of the equivalent fractions. She did

not incorporate a lot of number lines, since they further confused the students at the time.
The third grade team had three days of planning time each week. Two days were 45-minute

sessions of planning and once a week they had a 90-minute planning period. This allowed the

teachers to come together so they are all roughly on the same page, but also to share ideas of

what to do in the future based on all of their classrooms. The school also had a math specialist

that worked closely with the third grade team. He was a part of every planning period, as well as

a co-teacher in their classrooms as they needed help. He worked closely with third grade

especially to better help prepare the students for their end of year test. He was able to hear the

struggles the teachers faced in their classrooms and offer possible solutions. One day while I

was there, he came into my teacher’s room and co-taught a lesson using the number line. He

took over in the middle of the lesson, and the students saw a lesson that was different from

what they were used to. He pulled them all to the carpet and used an anchor chart paper to do

the problem with them on the floor. The students enjoyed this and gained a different perspective

on fractions.

During her lessons, my teacher would activate prior knowledge by asking questions. The

teacher may ask questions such as, “Who can tell me what an equivalent fraction is?” She

would then briefly model what she expected of the students. I am sure this is because they have

been working on the same activities and the students should know what to do. After modeling,

the teacher would ask the students to solve a problem at their desks. She would usually write

the problem on the whiteboard. The problem could relate to finding equivalent fractions or

comparing two fractions and being able to state which one is larger. The students did not have

to write anything down, they would just have to show the teacher their proof with their fraction

bars. While the students are figuring out the problem, the teacher is going around and helping

the students who are behind put their fraction bars together. She did not have a lot of time to

walk around and see the progress of the students work or answer any questions. After giving
the students a few minutes, she would call on someone to tell her the correct answer. She

would ask how they figured out the problem and their reasoning behind it. The student was

expected to use the vocabulary they had been working on regarding fractions. If the student did

not use the vocabulary, the teacher would restate their answer using the vocabulary. The class

would be given three or four problems to solve. Sometimes this would take them right up to

dismissal. The students needed time to put their fraction bars away and pack up. A couple of

days the students were given an exit ticket to complete. The exit tickets would consist of one

problem that they had to solve and then explain their work. At the bottom of the exit ticket the

students had to rate themselves and a scale of 1 to 3. If students had no idea how to do the

problem, they would circle 1. If students understood the problem and could explain how they got

the answer, they would circle 3. Students would circle the 2 if they sort of knew how to complete

the problem. This system of the students rating themselves allowed the teacher to know who

actually knew what they were doing, who got the problem right out of luck but they did not know

how they got the answer, and those students who did not know how to complete the problem.

The teacher was then able to change her lesson for the next day based on the answers of the

exit tickets. Some students struggled with the exit tickets because this was the only time they

had to write anything down in math. The students had to draw a picture to show their work, but

they were not used to doing so in the rest of the lesson. Some students knew how to do the

problem, but not how to put their answer on the paper.

Since the class had been working and struggling with fractions, my teacher told me I

could teach comparing fractions any way I would like. She told me she would prefer if I could

incorporate a number line into my lesson. She also said I could use graph paper, since the

students will have graph paper for their standardized test. As I had been observing the students

throughout the week, I noticed they could compare the foam fraction bars, which are a set
length. However, they could not compare fraction bars that they tried to draw themselves. This

was evident on their exit tickets. Some students just resorted to tracing the actual fraction bars

for their picture. I decided to teach comparing fraction bars on graph paper by drawing the

fractions in a bar form. To make the graph paper look more like their foam fraction bars, I drew a

‘one whole’ at the top consisting of 12 squares. This makes the whole easily divided into halves,

thirds, fourths, sixths, and twelfths. To make sure all of the students were drawing their two

fraction bars the same length to make comparing easy, I had the students draw a big box of 12

squares by 2 squares. Then they had to draw a line cutting the big square in half, so they had

two bars of 12 squares by 1 square. Now they could draw one fraction in one bar and the other

fraction in the other bar. This makes it easier for the students so they are not drawing two bars

of different size and length.

I taught my lesson in the middle of the second week of IMB. For the next two days, the

teacher continued to teach comparing fractions, but she was moving away from the foam

fraction bars a little bit. The students received a worksheet with problems to solve. Some

students needed their fraction bars still and that was ok. Other students were using the method I

taught. They were not using graph paper, but they were drawing the one big box and then

splitting it into two fraction bars. This made me very happy that I was able to teach them

something they remembered and will be able to use on their standardized test. In that moment, I

felt like a true teacher. I was so proud of all of those students. While the lesson I had taught was

not the most exciting, because fractions can only be so exciting, the students had retained the

technique and steps to use it. The students still need work with number lines, but they are

making progress with moving forward with their understanding of fractions.

I am a person that loves math. I understand that most people are not like me and they

do not like math. I cannot wait to inspire students and show them that they can understand and
do math. They might even find out they like math. I did not like math until the seventh grade

when I had a teacher who could actually explain math in a way I understood. I hope to be that

math teacher to my students someday.