Contextual Factors A. I am in a kindergarten classroom of 23 students.

The content areas that are covered in my classroom are phonics, ELA, science/social studies, mathematics, reading and writing. There are three students who get speech therapy during the week, and one student who has physical needs. The classroom is set up where there are groups of 4-5 students at each table. The sitting arrangement changes once we start our day. For each subject, the table arrangement changes. They change based off of the strength and weaknesses of each student in that particular subject area. It is done that way, so that the higher students can work more indecently at times, the middle students may need some guidance, and the lower students can have that one on one instruction time that they need. B. There are three low students in my classroom who do not know numbers through 10, and who do not know all of the letters and sounds of the alphabet. These students impact my instruction; because I have to make sure that I meet their needs for assessments and not just focus on the middle and high students. When assessment time comes, I do have them orally tell me what they are thinking, and how they got the answer. If they are struggling with a number, I start from zero and count to that number. The student who has the mobility need I make sure that when she needs assistance. Her aid and I will be there for her with assistance. There is one student that is ESOL. He speaks English well, so there is not a barrier. C. The common socioeconomic status at my school is low class. More than half of the entire school qualifies for free lunch. This factor can affect many other things. This limits their resources at home; it can even play a role on their behavior. Some students come to school, and we do not know if they had a meal that night. This could be some of the behavioral issues that we may have to consider is the issue. There is hardly any parent involvement, besides a select few. Goals and Student Background A. The standards that I selected are appropriate for the lesson that I taught, because they come from the South Carolina Common Core Standards. They align with the school year layout of when each standard should be taught. The learning goal is appropriate, because it matches the standards that I chose. The standards that I chose was KOA1- Represent addition and subtraction with objects, mental images, drawings, sounds, acting out, verbal expressions, or equations. The learning objective was for the students to write a subtraction equation, and then represent it on a 10's frame. This was a strategy they used to help them find their answer. All of my students are very engaged when they get to work hands on. They also all love stickers, which is what they got to use on their 10's frame. B. My students background knowledge influenced the planning of this lesson greatly. We have been working on subtraction for a few days, and were

learning the different strategies that we could use to help us figure out our answer. They have already used 10 frames for addition, and fluent addition to five, so they were very familiar with the frames. I knew that all of them would be capable of representing a number and crossing out the amount that was being taken away. Instructional Strategies A. Allowing the students to think out loud is the strategy that I plan to use for student engagement in the overall content area. Doing this allows the students to work off of each others thoughts. This will be a good way to relate back to a real life experience when we get more in-depth with word problems. Telling them that they have already told me some word problems, and they did not even know it. For critical thinking, I will have the students help me come up with an example for the whole class. As they generate their example, this helps them see how they start with something they know, and end up using those numbers to figure out what they do not know. For student inquiry, the students will complete their own worksheet, which allows them to create their own subtraction equation, and represent it with a 10's frame. A reading strategy that I will use will be to have simple word problems to read to them, and we work them out together as a class. While I read, I will have them pay close attention to certain words in the word problem. They will have to tell me what words lead them to know it was a subtraction word problem. B. These instructional strategies will enrich my teaching abilities by providing me with feedback on whether or not the students reached the objective. For some strategies I will be able to take anecdotal notes, and others I will have an assessment providing me with information regarding the lesson. These strategies will also improve students overall learning by having them think on their own, instead of me telling them what they should be thinking. They use their minds to create number sentences, and sometime use trial and error to learn how to write number sentences. Example: If a student writes 510, and they try to solve it they will realize they cannot do it. If I tell them to still use those same numbers, and try it a different way they will see that the bigger number needs to go first in order to take away.

Lesson Activities A. The main activity of this lesson was allowing students to come up with their own subtraction equations. Students thought of a subtraction equation, and then they had to represent it using a 10's frame and stickers. My students work best when they get to manipulate during a lesson. That is why I chose stickers for the 10's frames. They all were

engaged when I showed them the different stickers that they were going to get to use. They loved creating their own unique 10's frame that represented subtraction. B. Students were observed in small groups allowing me to watch closely as they wrote their subtraction equation and filled in/crossed out on their 10's frame correctly. Observing in small groups was very ideal to me for this lesson, and many other lessons. I like being able to see how they come up with their answer, that way I can go back to where they went wrong or did something right. If a student starts to do something that is not right, I always ask them for us to work it out together, but for them to tell me what to do. Then when we get to the part that is incorrect, I ask questions and give other examples to point them in the right direction. C. The assessment sample that the students completed was the worksheet of 10's frames. This sample will provide me with feed back indicating if they got the concept of subtraction equations, and how to represent subtraction with 10's frames. I chose this for student work, because it will be a suitable documentation to have to base the next week lesson plans on. If the students completed the task successfully, then as a class we can move on. If there are some who are still struggling with the concept of writing subtraction equations and representing them with 10's frames, then we will stay on this for a few more days. Instructional Strategies A. For this lesson I used content area language by reading out different subtraction equations, and asking them what are the terms we use for subtraction. As I asked for the terms, they answered with minus, take away, take apart, and subtraction. I asked the students why these words are used for subtraction, and how are these words different than our addition terms? B. I feel that my instructional strategies worked efficiently. The students answered the higher order thinking questions correctly, and some even went deeper than I had expected them to. The students had to think of how these terms for subtraction were different from the terms we used for addition. They also had to think why it is important to start off the subtraction equation with a bigger number. C. The students like when I tell them to put on their thinking caps. They start twisting and turn at their ears. This always gets them engaged ready to hear what I am about to say. When the students were thinking of ways the terms were different, one student would answer with something and that would cause another student to think of something else. A student gave an example of how you should not write a subtraction equation, and that caused a student to raise their hand and tell me the correct way. I love seeing students feed off of each others thoughts.

D. I integrated reading in my lesson by reading out different subtraction equations, simple word problems, and reading the terms used in subtraction.

Interacting with the Students A. I monitored student learning during this lesson, by observing each student as they created their equations. As the students read their subtraction sentence to me, I paid close attention to make sure that they also read their symbols correctly. Doing this showed me which students were ready to move on, and which ones who were not ready. As I observed students writing and representing their number sentences, if they were doing this with ease I told them a word problem and had them represent it with the correct amount of stickers on the 10's frame. B. From this lesson one individual comes to mind. He wrote his number sentence and a few he wrote with a smaller number starting the equation. He told me that he was ready for his stickers, therefore I gave him them so that he could work them out. He attempted to complete an equation, but could not do it because he could not take a big amount from such a small number. Instead of me telling him from the beginning that it would not work, I let him see it for himself. I then asked him why it did not work, and if he could show me another way using those same numbers. C. My use of verbal communication is always positive. I am always giving them praise when they complete a task successfully. If a student does not complete a task the way it should of been completed, I still give them praise on the good, then we focus on what needs to be corrected. During the times that I am nonverbal, I want to see what the student is capable of doing on his or her own. As a student would successfully complete the task, I would give them a high five showing them that I was happy that they worked hard. For the moments I was nonverbal, if they asked me for guidance I would tell them that I know that they can do it, because they are super smart. This was a good intrinsic motivation source. Classroom Management A. During this lesson and all other lessons the classroom-management strategies that I used were setting my expectations for them as an individual and as a class. They got warnings if they were too loud once, then after that they were done. They knew what I expected from them, and they knew their consequence. The consequence was going to their seat during the lesson, so that they were not with their friends on the carpet, and that they missed math stations for that day. Overall, I

normally do not have to use these. If they get one warning, they understand what comes next. B. This always promotes a positive learning environment, because no one wants to miss out on math stations. That is a fun time for them, because they work with a partner to play different math games.

Students Work A. The two students work examples that I chose are from a high spectrum of learning, then the other student is on the borderline from low to middle. Their work showed me that even the students who were struggling earlier in the week had made improvement. B. The first work that I chose was from a student who I did not have to give any help to. She was capable of thinking of her own equations, then representing them all correctly using 10's frames. The other student who is between low and middle successfully wrote number sentences and represented them as well. Over all, the whole class accomplished this task. C. The feedback that I provided was extremely positive. I gave them big smiley faces on their sheets, and I hung them up on our door representing that they did an excellent job. The lower middle student really liked seeing her work on the door. The students who needed a different source of feed back such as correcting mistakes, I still provided them with a positive note of doing a good job and making it correct. Reflecting A. Each student did tremendously well on this lessons objective. They all met the objective. The students engagement during the activity was very effective. The two low students in my class who struggle with number to 20 did well at this as well. I had to assist making sure that they were counting right, but they understood what they were suppose to be doing, which was taking away and making the number smaller. B. The lesson required lots of teaching strategies. The students used their own thoughts to generate questions and answers, they had a worksheet to complete on their own, and they had to provide me with answers to my questions. I have grown in my questioning to the students, which I am happy about. The interactions that I created with my students during this lesson were done by whole group for a short period of time, and then mostly done in small group/ one on one instruction. All of my interactions are always positive, which shows my students that I am excited for them to learn. I struggled at the beginning with my management strategies,

overall at the end I am very happy with. The students knew my expectations and I always addressed them when I began my lesson. Over all, the lesson went very well. If I could go back and revise the lesson, it would be to ensure that students raised their hands before yelling out their answer during whole group instruction. C. I know that the students get tired of sitting on the carpet during review. Another thing that I thought I would change would be to involve the students themselves on a 10' frame. I would make the carpet into a 10's frame, then have one student write a number sentence on the board and have students represent it on 10s frames using their classmates. I would do this to make the lesson more engaging and more personal.