Kelly Collova

Dr. Bulgar

ELD 375

March 15, 2013

Lesson Reflection 1

On Tuesday, March 5, Mrs. Reil taught a lesson on fractions during the first

period of the day. The objective and goal of the lesson was for students to understand

that a whole can be divided into equal parts in different ways. I worked with a boy

named CJ during the lesson. CJ has low math skills and is always pulled out of Mrs.

Reil’s math class to work with the basic skills math teacher. However, the basic skills

teacher was not in that day so I worked with CJ. The worksheet Mrs. Reil distributed to

the class after introducing the lesson asked for the students to identify if the drawing

showed equal parts or unequal parts. If the parts were equal, the students had to name the

parts the figure represented, such as halves, thirds, fourths, fifths, and so on. I was happy

to see that CJ did meet the goal of the lesson. CJ was able to identify the equal parts of

the drawing and name the parts correctly without any help. He was also able to draw a

picture that represented equal parts of a fraction. For example, when he was asked to

draw a picture that represented fourths, he was able to draw a rectangle and divide it into

four equal parts.

I thought that the lesson succeeded because CJ understood that he needed to draw

equal parts of a fraction. However, when CJ was working on the worksheet that Mrs.

Reil distributed to the students, CJ had trouble representing sixths in a 10 by 6 grid. At

first he represented sixths by ten vertical columns in the grid. Since that represented

tenths, I had CJ recount the columns. After he recounted the columns I asked him, “Does

that represent sixths?” He realized that the picture did not represent sixths, but he was

having trouble seeing that he can represent sixths in the horizontal rows of the grid. After

looking at the diagram a minute, CJ realized that he could represent sixths by six

horizontal rows.

I thought the whole class was engaged in the lesson. When Mrs. Reil introduced

the lesson to the class, each student was paying attention and students were participating

when Mrs. Reil was asking the class questions. Several students were having trouble with

the 10 by 6 grid like CJ. When the students were working on this problem they were

collaborating with each other about this challenging problem. They were all trying so

hard to figure out the problem together with a partner. I loved seeing how excited they

were once they figured out the problem.

If I were to do this lesson I would not do anything different. I thought Mrs. Reil

introduced the lesson well and explained the concepts clearly. I like how Mrs. Reil starts

off the lesson by asking a question because it immediately engages the students into the

lesson. I like how she went over examples with the students on the white board and had

the students come up to the white board to do a problem. I think Mrs. Reil is a great

teacher and I am learning so much from her.

Before Mrs. Reil taught this lesson I thought the students had no previous

knowledge of fractions since this was the first day they were learning fractions in third

grade. When Mrs. Reil started off the lesson by asking the students to define a fraction I

was surprised that the students said a fraction is equal parts of a whole. I thought that the

students would be unable to provide Mrs. Reil with a definition. I was unaware that

students had exposure to fractions in second grade.

If this were my class, I would have a lesson on regions, numerator, and

denominator the next day since the class mastered this lesson Mrs. Reil taught. I would

start off by introducing the numerator and denominator. I would explain to the students

that the numerator shows how many parts are described, whereas the denominator shows

the total number of equal parts in a whole. I would as explain that the numerator is the

top number of the fraction and the denominator is the bottom number of the fraction. I

would then introduce regions by having the students write a fraction that represents a

diagram with shaded parts. For example, the students would have to write a fraction for a

rectangle that is divided into fourths and has one shaded part. The students would be able

to write the fraction ¼ to represent this diagram.