This unit is extremely important for my students’ development of their number sense and conceptualization of place value. These core concepts will be built upon for almost all of the following math in their lives. By supplementing math meetings for this particular unit, I am ensuring that all my students will achieve the learning goals listed. This lesson design allows me to pinpoint specific skills that each individual student could improve upon and then address them. It is a great way to deliver small-group instruction to those students who need more scaffolding in order to be more successful during each new lesson. It also allows me to extend and push those students in need of a challenge in math. The learning goals have been drafted straight from the Pearson EnVisions lessons but modified to reflect the exact reinforcement and extension activities in this unit. Students will be practicing their technological skills while sharpening their number sense, grasp of place value, skip counting skills, etc. These learning goals will make math meetings more intensive and engaging, increasing student interest and involvement. 

The essential question, “How do mathematicians think about place value?” connects the Mathematical Practice Standards to Topic 9 in Pearson EnVisions textbook (Numbers to 1,000) while incorporating brief technological use and practice. Students will be expected to work in small groups and use their speaking and language skills to communicate their understandings in writing and verbally.

I am considering many aspects of my students’ readiness surrounding their mathematical abilities as well as their interests and desires in math. I noticed in math, many students who need intervention and small-group instruction fail to get it until the later parts of our lessons. I also noticed that they often have to get pulled through a lesson even if they express misunderstanding early on. They often watch a lesson unfold and retain and engage with minimal parts of the bookwork. When we send them off for independent practice, their hands shoot up and we then pull them aside for the explanations they need to grasp the concept. This has occurred frequently throughout the year across many different units. 

I have also noticed on the other end of the classroom spectrum that my students who are quick to pick up concepts in math feel as if we move too slowly through the content. Sometimes they try to sneak in doing problems ahead of the class or peaking at lessons to come. These students might be overconfident in their depth of understanding at times. That is why in this unit, I want to push them to develop their thinking around the lessons instead of moving quicker through them. These students would benefit from mathematical challenges and puzzles. Finding patterns, predicting, applying reasoning, and other mathematical practices could be tapped into and strengthened even more with those students. 

This division in our class has begun to affect management. Those students who tend to have difficulty lose interest in the lesson quickly and resort to foolishness. Those who understand the lesson quickly and easily want to move faster and also tend to act out from boredom. Knowing that some students need more front-loading to access the upcoming lessons is the main needs my students projected which made me design the new math meeting. In addition to wanting to help those struggling before they face the struggle, I wanted to also provide a time for those high-flyers to challenge themselves not with speed but with depth of knowledge around the topic. 

My learning community values our math meeting after lunch and recess highly. It is our time to relax and refocus. We talk about how many days we have been in school and update our calendar. Previously, we worked with concepts we were covering such as odd/even and making the number with coin money. By condensing the meeting, I will maintain our routines surrounding days in school and working with calendars but allow more time for direct interventions and small group work. I recognize I could not just eliminate or change the math meeting drastically because it serves as a social-emotional regulator for the class and is part of a consistent routine we have already established. 

In addition to the academic abilities of my students, I also recognize that I have students with special needs, and a lot of English Language learners in my class. This is important to how I addressed the supplemental activities in this lesson. I want my ELLs to be able to own the vocabulary involved with place value and be able to articulate their thinking in multiple ways. They would work on their speaking and listening skills while strengthening their use of relevant math vocabulary. All students being able to improve their math skills is extremely important as we begin thinking about place value in a more in depth way. This unit is a key building block for the math we will be doing for the remainder of the year.