Introduction For this assignment, I will be using twenty fourth graders from Appling County Elementary School.

These students will be learning 1 digit and 2 digit multiplication under the Georgia Performance Standard: M4N3 Students will solve problems involving multiplication of 2-3 digit numbers by 1 or 2 digit numbers. The classroom is set up where each student can easily see the Activboard from their desks. Their desks are in five rows of four with enough space between the desks for the teacher to walk comfortably through. Also, the students are seated in alphabetical order to make collecting data less confusing. Each student has also been given a number to protect the students identities. Demographics Grade Level 4th Age Range 9-10 Class Size 20 Gender Male: 9 Female: 11 Ethnic Background African American: 5 Asian (Specify) Oriental : 1 Caucasian: 10 Hispanic: 4 Location Rural: 12 Suburban: 8 Special Needs 1 visually impaired

After getting to know my students and from my observations, the above chart shows my students demographics. The twelve students that live in the rural parts of the county live either on a dairy farm, a produce farm, or by the Altamaha River. However, the eight students that live in suburban areas live two minutes from the school whereas the rural students live ten to fifteen minutes from school. At the beginning of the school year I did not have any special needs students, but after coming back from Christmas break I added a student that has a vision impairment. Also, a new male student from Japan has enrolled in our school and was put into my class. He is one of the students that live in the suburban areas of the county. The students who live next to the school seem to be more awake and alert when they first get to school than those students who live further out. It is difficult sometimes to get those students going in the mornings. Sometimes I do an exercise routine to help them wake up in the mornings. My four Hispanic students are all related. Two are sisters and are cousins to the boys who are brothers. They come from lower income families, but it seems like the girls are motivated more than the boys. My Japanese student comes from a middle class family and is motivated very hard to be the best that he can be.

Entry Skills & Prior Knowledge Student Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Level of Independence High X X Medium Low X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Level of Participation High X X Medium Low X X X X X X X X Degree of Interaction High X X Medium Low X X

The chart above represents the students ability levels pertaining to math class work and assignments. The X represents where I think each student falls in the three categories. I observed most of my students over a course of four days of instruction and seat work. As I observed my students, I noticed that students 2 and 11 were not easily grasping the material given even though I marked them as high in each category. However, student number 20, who has an X marked in the low column seemed to grasp the material quickly, but still needed some help completing the work. Each students ability level seemed to correspond along with their educational level except my Japanese student (10). He seemed to be behind in where we were in our math textbook. He is still having trouble catching up to us, but he has come along very quickly. He still does not work very well independently and he doesnt participate much in class discussions. However, he is a hard worker and prefers to work in groups along with half of the class. The students have learned how to multiply 1 digit by 1 digit multiplication and 2 digit by 1 digit multiplication in previous lessons and in the third grade. I had to work one-on-one with my student 10 to be able to catch him up far enough to be able to go on to more challenging material. I was able to do one-on-one with him for twenty minutes before school started and thirty minutes after the school because his parents would come and pick him up after they got off from work.

Academic Motivation Before I begin my unit on multiplying a one or two digit number by another two digit number, I call back each of my students to answer five interview questions concerning the upcoming unit. After looking at my students previous math scores and listening to them through out the year, this unit will be more difficult to some than to others. It will be difficult to get my students motivated to do more challenging math computation. Also, half of my students told me that they didn't see a need to learn 'this stuff' because it didn't pertain to their everyday lives. One student, who reminded me of myself when I was her age, told me that she didn't like math because she couldn't do it or understand the material. **Interview questions in Appendix** Motivational Strategies Trying to get students' attention in math is difficult. However, by using John Keller's ARCS model, I will motivate my students in a more positive and productive way. Attention Math is boring to some students because there is no 'fun' way of introducing new concepts. However, by coming up with different hooks for each lesson I will be able to grab my students' attention from the start of the lesson. Also, showing the students the concrete steps of the multiplication process will also help them to feel as though they are learning little by little so they are not overwhelmed by it. Each lesson I will call on different students to work problems on the board with the rest of the class telling the student at the board what to do next. This way, they can help each other learn. Relevance The first day of the lesson I will model each step for them. By using different colored markers for each step I will be able to model the steps better for them. They will be able to see each step clearly instead of one dark blob on the board. To connect the lessons to every day life, I will begin the lesson with a word problem using the material from the previous day's lesson. This way they can see how it will affect their everyday lives and their future. For example, Mrs. Bowers has 20 students in her class and she wants every student to have 13 slices of pizza. How many pieces of pizza must Mrs. Bowers buy? Confidence If students don't know what a teacher expects of them, then how are they supposed to have the confidence in themselves that they are completing the work correctly? To completely dissipate this I will have a goal written on the board each day that I want the class to reach. If we do not reach that goal in one day then I will continue to work with my students until they have achieved said goal. That way they know that I want them to learn the material and that I will be there every step of the way and not leave them behind. For some students, that's all the reassurance they need to feel more confident about themselves and the work that they are doing. Satisfaction It was very hard for me to learn math and want to do math when all I received was negative reinforcement. A positive outcome I could have for my students would be for me to give them extra recess each day that I see them working hard towards our daily

goal. However, if I saw that some students were working harder than others I would give them a piece of candy to have at lunch. At the end of the unit and if I saw that the students deserved it I would have an unexpected pizza party for them on a Friday afternoon. We would stay in the classroom at lunch and eat the pizza while enjoying a movie. To be able to achieve our daily goal and to help them to work hard I need to schedule my lessons so that they build on one another instead of jumping around. Students need structure so they can see how one lesson will be building on another lesson. That means scheduling review times at the beginning and end of each lesson so they students will be confident in what they learned for that day. Learner Characteristics Through teaching my students and completely a variety of class work with them, I have come to see how each student learns the material better. Having twenty students makes it difficult to see how each one learns, but listening to them and observing them has made me put them into categories according to Gardner's Multiple Intelligences. I will list them below and then explain how I reached my decisions. Students 2, 5, and 17 --Visual Students 1, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 15 --Kinesthetic Students 3, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 16 --Interpersonal Students 6, 18, 19, and 20 --Intrapersonal The students, who learn best by visuals, love to draw and like to stare into space. When I call on one of them they almost always know the answer even though it appeared to me as though they weren't paying attention. When I would use graphs in other math lessons these students seemed to catch on more quickly because they could see the desired results with the data given and be able to reproduce it. Much like the next set of students, we learn best if we can get our hands on the material. They also learn by visual, but when they can see and touch manipulatives they comprehend the material better. For example, when I did a review lesson on place value for our new student, he was able to catch on very quickly when I let him have manipulatives to help him finish his work. The light bulb went on in his head as he pushed a hundreds block, three tens blocks, and seven single blocks to make the number 137. My next set of students also asks me to go group work. They want to work with a group or a partner to do seat work. All of them are friends and have many friends outside of class. Most of the time, these students will want to work together, but I have to separate them so they can help their peers with their work. The last set of students includes my vision impaired student (19). She likes to be at a computer with her software going at her own pace. These students prefer to do work on their own and when tried to do something that they don't want to, they tend to find a way to get out of it. Outside on the playground, I've noticed, they tend to play by themselves or with each other. Students 6 and 18 like to go around and find insects to show me. Every student likes their own time, but these students seem to content to be

own their own to study and play. I don't have to worry about these learners having their homework or their materials. I am worried about my four Hispanic students. The two boys are hardly neither self-motivated nor motivated from home which is opposite of the girls who are motivated to do their best at everything that they do. When the boys fail a test, the parents just sign it and return it wanting no explanation on why they did so poorly and how they can help them to improve. I spoke with their father and he said that he didn't push them because his father didn't push him. He also stated that no male family member in his family had ever been to college. It occurred to me that maybe the male family members are expected to learn in school, but are not pushed because they are more focused on manual labor. The two boys are very strong and well mannered because they do work in blueberries in the summer to help out the family. Having to do more difficult math computation makes me wonder if they will shut down on me. When anything difficult comes before them they try it one time and if they don't get it then they shut down. They don't receive any help from home so they don't see a need to try hard to comprehend the difficult material. It will be more difficult to keep these student motivated during the lessons. I will have to give them unexpected rewards during each lesson to be able to keep their confidence up. My Japanese student is expected to have A's on everything. In Japan, boys are still held more important than girls. His father pushes him in everything. He wants his son to be at the top of his class. He wants extra work sent home so he can make sure his son understands the material. I have spoken with him through his wife and he is very supportive of his son. It will be less difficult to get him to pay attention in class and to do his work because I know he is getting support at home. Accommodations My student who has a vision impairment has accommodations already in place in the classroom. She has adaptive software on the computer that helps her to see the notes and material more clearly. When she is reading a story or working on multi-step math problem, she has a screen reader that helps her keep her place. I would also recommend the use of screen magnification software (Griffin-Shirley, 2011). This software enhances fonts to where the user can see the screen more clearly. During a math lesson that has word problems, I will use taped material, as suggested by Fraser & Maguvhe (2008), allow her to sit in the back of room where it is quite to listen to the word problems while she works it out on the computer. At first I wasn't confident in myself about having a student with a visual impairment. As most teachers from a smaller county I had never had the experience of having a student with a visual disability. I had to do research to be able to help her learn in my classroom. At times, I read a story to her and ask her questions about the story. Her tests are in large print and are read to her by me on a tape. The other students don't mind her having those accommodations since sometimes they can hear the questions being read. Instead of giving her a normal worksheet like I will give to my students, her problems will be on the computer in a font that she can see clearly as well as the notes. She is a very smart young lady and catches on to math very quickly because there isn't much to read. As long as I go at a slowed pace during the steps, she will be able to follow

me. Also, Ann Corn (2002) suggests tutoring after school. By tutoring this student at least three times a week, I can monitor and review the math concepts that we have learned. "A culturally relevant or responsive curriculum is one that allows students to learn from a familiar cultural base and through which individuals can connect new knowledge to their own experiences" (Bergeron, 2008). Instead of looking at my students by their culture background, I will have to look at each of my students as an individual. I can't say that this student won't get it because she's black or because he's Japanese. I have to treat every student as an individual to be able to create a working class environment. Since Appling County is a small county, we don't have a lot of money to spend on the more sophisticated adaptive software. We have to rely on what we have at hand to be able to help our students with special needs and students from other different culture backgrounds. I know a little Spanish and I work some Spanish into my teaching especially the numbers. The first time I gave a multiplication step in Spanish, my Hispanic students were amazed and then told me that I said one part wrong and corrected me. I would recommend trying to see if teachers can immerse some different languages in their teaching to expose the rest of the class to that culture. We need to make all students feel welcome (Vaughan, 2005). They couldn't believe that I knew some Spanish since most of the teachers didn't. Sometimes I let the Hispanic students help us do multiplication problems in Spanish to emerge the rest of the class with the Spanish culture. One of my Hispanic girls learns better if the work is explained to her in Spanish first. "Scholars advice for implementing cultural relevance in highly diverse classrooms centers on attending to a range of learning styles by implementing multiple instructional methods and opportunities for interaction that honor both an alternative and a mainstream worldview" (Balf, 2008). I plan on pairing her with one of her cousins to help her through the difficult multi-step process this unit will be covering. For my Japanese student, I will have to spend just one-on-one with him during the more difficult parts of the unit. His English isn't very good so I have asked his mother to help me come up how we can help him. She said that she will come after school one day to record the directions in Japanese so he can hear it first in Japanese then learn the process in English at school and at home. When I told her and her son that I wasn't trying to learn Japanese he seemed interested. I told him what I knew and he said I was pronouncing it wrong. So by working closely with his mother and him, we will help him through this unit so that he can be successful. References Balf, R., Dutro, E., Kazemi, E., & Yih-Sheue Lin. (2008). "What Are You and Where Are You From?" Urban Education, 43(3), 269-300. doi: 10.1177/0042085907305177 Bergeron, B.S. (2008). Enacting a Culturally Responsive Curriculum in a Novice Teacher's Classroom. Urban Education, 43(1), 4-28. doi: 10.1177/0042085907309

Corn, A. L., Erin, J.N., Huebner, K.M., Lewis, S., Sacks, S.Z., Wolffe, K. E. (2002). Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments: What Are They Teaching? Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 96. Retrieved from http://proxygsugso1.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=a9h&AN=31714339&site=ehost-live Fraser, W. J. & Maguvhe, M.O. (2008). Teaching Life Sciences to Blind and Visually Impaired Learners. Journal of Biological Education, 42, Retrieved from http://proxygsu-gso1.galileo.usg.edu/login? url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=a9h&AN=31714339&site=ehost-live Griffin-Shirley, N., Li Zhou, Parker, A. T., Smith, D.W. (2011). Teaching Life Sciences to Blind and Visually Impaired Learners. Journal of Biological Education, 105. Retrieved from http://proxygsu-gso1.galileo.usg.edu/login? url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=a9h&AN=31714339&site=ehost-live Vaughan, W. (2005). Educating for Diversity, Social Responsibility and Action: Preservice Teachers Engage in Immersion Experiences. Journal of Cultural Diversity, 12. Retrieved from http://proxygsu-gso1.galileo.usg.edu/login? url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=a9h&AN=19700936&site=ehost-live Appendix Interview Questions 1. Is math one of your favorite subjects in school? Why or why not? 2. What do you like most about multiplication? 3. What do you like least about multiplication? 4. Do you think learning to multiply a 2 digit by another 2 digit number will be difficult? 5. Do you think that learning to multiply a 1 digit number by a 2 digit number first will help you learn how to multiply a 2 digit number by another 2 digit number?