Running Head: Competency B

Competency B Planning, Instruction, Assessment Matthew Cheatham Regent University October 27, 2013

Rationale During my student teaching placement, I routinely aided my cooperating teacher in planning lessons, preassessing, instructing, and post-assessing our students. I had the opportunity to do all four of these actions for a low-level student for mathematics; it was completed on a oneon-one basis. The student had come to the class this year not knowing her basic addition/subtraction facts, let alone her multiplication facts, and desperately required more individualized attention in the subject. During math lessons, she would frequently raise her hand for clarification, count numbers with her fingers, and show obvious signs of frustration. The vast

Running Head: Competency B majority of the class understood the difference between prime and composite numbers, were fairly comfortable with multiplication, and were soon ready to move on to division; this particular student, however, was not yet ready. There was a clear indication that the student lacked general conceptualizations of numbers and how they interact with one another. During the planning stage for my individualized mini-lesson, it was easy for me to discern what needed to be clarified about prime and composite numbers to the student; the student had been taught the material last year in 4th grade, but any understanding of the concept

had been subsequently forgotten. Thankfully my presence in the classroom aided the prospect of benefitting the student with small group instruction. The SOL objective that the student would need to grasp by the end of the year is SOL 5.3 - The student will a) identify and describe the characteristics of prime and composite numbers; and b) identify and describe the characteristics of even and odd numbers. While the rest of the class moved past last years review of prime and composite numbers and onto double-digit multiplication, I gave the student a preassessment that I had created for the prime/composite numbers unit. Before allowing the student to begin, I asked what the difference between the two concepts was. Slightly unsure, the student regurgitated Prime numbers can only be divided by 1 and itself, and composite numbers have more factors. After a few minutes of the student attempting the preassessments completion, the only correct answers they had were for listing the factors of 12 (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12) and why 1 was neither prime nor composite. The student was completely unable to demonstrate prime factorization, and seemingly guessed most of the answers.

Running Head: Competency B During my instruction, I focused on prime factorization since it is a methodology to

determine whether a number is prime or composite. This was a difficult task because the student had difficulties with multiplying any numbers together other than 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. I decided to allow the student to use a multiplication number chart that went to 100 for their purposes. To show prime factorization, I taught the student to first write the number they are trying to factor, and then draw two lines sprouting underneath it for two numbers that can multiply together to get the root number (and one of the stems should be as low of a number as possible). With my guidance and encouragement, the student was able to factor a few different numbers not only the ones on the preassessment, but also the numbers 14, 26, and 32. I reiterated that prime numbers can be factored, but only by the number 1 and itself, and taught this concept with the number 5 (on the preassessment). The student seemed to make immediate improvements in conceptualizing the difference between prime and composite numbers, and also seemed more confident of their mathematics abilities. Next, I reviewed each question on the preassessment and encouraged the student to use prime factorization as a means to visualize the concept and apply it to various questions. We successfully completed both questions 1 and 2 with this method. As for listing factors of numbers, I noticed that the students listings of factors of numbers werent in sequential order, so that was the next objective we covered. I used the students correct answer for listing the factors of 12 as a launching point; the student incorrectly guessed the factors for the number 17 (they wrote 2 and 8, 1 and 17) and didnt write any answer for the number 22 on the preassessment. I taught the student that all even numbers (except for the number 2) were automatically composite because the number 2 can be a factor. Using prior knowledge, the student correctly indicated that since the number 22 is even, it must be a composite number, so we made a prime factorization

Running Head: Competency B chart to visualize how the number could be broken down with the number 2 as one of its stems. The student, while using both counting on their fingers and the nearby number chart, indicated that 2 can be multiplied by 11 to get 22, and then shortly after decided that 11 was a prime

number and could not be broken down any further, and so the only factors for the number 22 are 1, 2, 11, and 22. The student completed the same methodology to the number 17 and came to the correct conclusion that it was a prime number and therefore only had 1 and 17 as factors; I had to remind the student to list those numbers as factors even though it is a prime number. After the instruction, I gave the student a post-assessment that mirrored the instruction but featured different numbers; this would give the student a sense of consistency but also ensure that the student understood the concepts taught in the mini-lesson. Compared the 2 questions the student correctly answered on the preassessment, the student performed remarkably better on the post assessment, only getting 1 question incorrect (missing a pair of factors for the number 50).

Prime and Composite Numbers Preassessment

1.) Which of the following numbers is a composite number? Show its prime factorization. A. 2 B. 11 incorrect student answer C. 27 D. 19

Running Head: Competency B

2.) Which of the following numbers is a prime number? Show its prime factorization. A. 5 B. 9 incorrect student answer C. 15 D. 49

3.) List the factors of 12. 1, 12, 2, 6, 3, 4 4.) List the factors of 17. 2, 8, 1, 17 incorrect student answer (1, 17) 5.) List the factors of 22. No answer (1, 2, 11, 22) 6.) The number 1 is neither prime nor composite. Why? 1 doesnt have any factors

Prime and Composite Numbers Post Assessment

1.) Which of the following numbers is a composite number? Show its prime factorization. A. 7 B. 13 C. 25 D. 31

Running Head: Competency B

2.) Which of the following numbers is a prime number? Show its prime factorization. A. 4 B. 8 C. 18 D. 19

3.) List the factors of 15. 1, 3, 5, 15 4.) List the factors of 33. 1, 3, 11, 33 5.) List the factors of 50. 1, 5, 10, 50 incorrect student answer (missing 2, 25)