This week you are a first grade inclusion or ICT special education teacher planning for math! Often teachers are given packaged curriculum like the two samples in the module – Go Math and EnVision – and are asked to teach concepts through this curriculum. However, often the packaged curriculum and resources fall short of meeting all children’s needs. Here is the scenario: you are using one of these packaged programs to teach either adding with pictures (Go Math) or adding doubles (EnVision) and while the materials are strong, you see that a number of students aren’t quite getting the concept while others catch on quickly. Because so much of math is sequential, you can’t move onto the next concept until you know all children are grounded in this knowledge and you want to ensure you are supporting the students who need additional help. Choose one of these packaged materials. The class is an ICT class of 25-32 children. Create a supplementary lessons. You may choose to split the class in levels with those needing extra help addressed in one lesson or you may choose a full class lesson with differentiated guided practice and independent/small group practice that help all students get to where they need to be. Consider what we know about differentiation and what we know about mathematical thinking and include what you’ve read about math in the previous module. You may use some materials laid out in the packaged curriculum but there should be pedagogy and methods of learning what children know and can do other than the material/worksheets provided. Have fun with it – math is often best taught with games!
