How does this unit develop key concepts and content understanding?
- Students will understand how to apply addition and subtraction skills in a new way: fact families and using multiple addend addition.
- Students will see that the skills they have learned can be used in new formats, but that the concept stays the same
- Students will have multiple opportunities to explore the concepts by completing worksheets, working with the teacher, using games and partners to complete problems, and creating their own equations.
How does my unit enable students to experience the power of their minds and their capacities as learners and doers (powerful learning)?
- I will introduce fact families with a poem and a visual of three little bears
- I will use a hook so my students have something to refer back to throughout the unit
- My poem is engaging and helps explain the rules in a friendly and exciting new way
- I will have us read the poem aloud together before each lesson and encourage students to say it when completing their work
- As an assessment students will get to make a fact family city, which they will decorate and I will put together at the end. This is a fun project and I want my students to feel proud when they see their work hanging up, and have it add value to our classroom community.
- To demonstrate adding three numbers I will have students watch their peers count books in their book boxes, using classroom materials and real life problems to make the concept more engaging
- Students will also get to make their own word problems, which will give them the opportunity to choose and illustrate whatever they want to add. This choice and ownership makes the work more exciting.
How does my unit develop intellectual and academic habits of mind, work, and discourse, including habits of independent or collaborative thinking and doing typical of readers, writers, speakers, creators, researchers and thinkers in the discipline (ways of knowing)?
- Students will be exposed to the subject through a variety of experiences during the week. Students will work independently, in pairs or small groups, and on the rug as a whole class.
- Students will have opportunities to absorb information in different ways to accommodate all types of learners, and strongly reinforce the subject.
- Students will complete worksheets to assess individual understanding, but will also work in groups at the games center, putting together fact family puzzles and completing 3 number addition games. This helps them talk about solving, and also teaches students to share and work together.
- Students will also work with a teacher at the teacher center, and during whole group instruction I will help students as needed. The variety of applications allow students to be exposed to the material in various forms, and gives them the opportunity to reason and discuss their answers. They can then apply them in group and individual settings.
- Students will work through word problems that they create, allowing them to connect math to their own lives.
How does this unit incorporate literacy development, including capabilities of proficient readers, writers, and speakers?
- Students will read a poem as a hook into the fact family portion of the unit. This involves reading and listening to for rhyming words, and using these to help solve a fact family. This is a fun way to incorporate literacy into a math unit.
- As an assessment for 3 number addition, I will have students write their own word problems. I will provide a template and they will make their own problems using writing and drawing. This, too, is a great way to incorporate writing into math, and have them think about what happens when adding.
How does this unit develop trust in the classroom as a learning community?
- Students will work in small groups learning new concepts, playing games or doing They will need to talk, listen, and share with each other.
- Students will make a fact family house that will become a fact family city, with everyone’s house on the wall. In the end they will have a class poster and show off their work.
- When learning about addition with three numbers students will watch their classmates model the concept, and make word problems to share with each other. Learning from peers helps students listen to each other and share knowledge.