Challenge Three

Jim: subtraction, mental math, 7+6=9, 8+5="they didn't teach me that", 12 cows in barn-4 came outside. how many are left? "11 are left, just thought about it for just a minute", 4 cows in barn, 1 came outside 3 are left, 3 comes before 4

Lauren: counting up from the smallest number to add, uses dots & patterns to add, "i counted in my mind", counted backwards from 12

Elizabeth: guessed, memorization, counted cows, added 4+2 by counting up to 6

Derek: counted up to 7 starting with 5, did not know how to subtract, but he could add

Most of the students could match objects with numbers. They knew how to count objects and that numbers could represent the objects. Students also knew how to count. One of the students had memorized several of the answers to the problem which probably means she has had a lot of practice doing the problems. The students could add by using mental math or using their fingers to count. A couple of the students knew how to subtract. Sometimes the students had trouble explaining how they got an answer or why they didn't know how to solve one of the math problems.

As a teacher I would first make sure the students had a basic understanding of numbers, counting, adding, and subtracting. I would have the children to do math drills to make it easier for them to have most of the simple problems memorized so that they would not have to count of their fingers or spend much time trying to find an answer for the problem. Then, I would focus on teaching the students how to explain how they arrived at an answer.