Laura Obs #2 January 30, 2019

8:40 Laura has demonstrated some examples on the Materials/Technology

elmo and a model of subtracting fractions on the Content Accuracy
number line. During announcements, they are Varied Materials
asked to do a problem in their notebook.
Laura says: “Feedback for Emily?” Reminds them Active Participation
they can use a sentence stem if it is helpful. Accommodations (sentence
Another student comes up and changes the stems)
representation. Laura and Ms. Balaban ask the
students what they think is the right Higher-Level
representation and they discuss. Thinking/Questioning
Laura then re-draws her representations and
Laura asks what they think. Active Participation
Ms. Balaban says they want to look back at their
mistake. She then redraws the number line and Promotes Self-Assessment
labels each point on the number line (eighths).
So, Ms. Balaban helps them to think about what
the second number is telling you in the problem Modifies Teaching
and how it relates to the number line.
I wonder if the students could have explained
“why” and it if would help them to think about the
conceptual und. of the operation?

8:49 Laura helps to say the name of fractions by Academic Language

emphasizing “ths.” She then asks the students to
walk her through the problem. They solve it Active Participation
together.
She then says that the next problem will be a
number sentence. She asks them to think about
sixths like a number sentence. A student mentions
that the numerator is bigger than the
denominator and you relate it to a previous Connects Content
lesson- help them with decomposing. Relates Connects Content
fractions to real life (pizza pieces) to help them
think about a fraction as a whole.
They were able to walk you through the
conversion of a fraction larger than one to a mixed
number. She then gives them another fraction
with a numerator larger than the denominator
and demonstrates the decomposition.
When a student makes a mistake, could you ask Promotes self-Assessment
him why he did what he did (in this case, he put
 10 as a denominator instead of 8)? I wonder if he
then might notice his mistake?
Ms. Balaban drew a picture of the fraction which Modifies Teaching
was a great move to help connect between the Varied Materials
unit fraction and the given fraction.
9:00 Next problem of an addition problem with
fractions.
They work with her to represent it on a number Active Participation
line.
The fraction is now 9/8 and they are asked to Higher level thinking
convert it with decomposition. A student wants to
come up and show her representations. She
writes 8/8 and 4/8 and you ask why, which is Questioning
great! She gets a chance to explain her thinking.
Another student explains and then they ask if the
original student understands. Laura helps by
having her think about just the number in the Scaffolding
numerator. Ms. Balaban shows it by writing 1/8, 9 Varied Materials
times. They then write the mixed number.

9:08 They do one more before the problem set.

They ask, “How did you know that?” and the Questioning
student explains. Laura scaffolds by re-stating Scaffolding
their ideas with gestures to help students identify Varied Materials (models)
mistakes or critique the reasoning of their peers. Active Participation
They then are assigned problem set.
9:14 They get out their books and start working. Varied Delivery (Small and
Laura takes a small group- they start to go through large group/independent).
problems together and work through a
representation of 3/10-3/10 to understand the
problem.
They work through all of the problems together.
Laura asks a student to share her solution to a
problem- the student doesn’t say anything out Scaffolding
loud, but Laura watches what she does and then
tells others what she did out loud.
Gives positive feedback to student who come to Feedback
ask questions.
A student has a misconception and Laura asks
questions to help her find her own error.
Ms. Balaban has a group and circulates to help the
ones working independently.
Students are asked to help others when they are
done.
 On the next page, they work more on their own
and review problems together.

9:40 Laura calls the class to attention and they all Routines
respond. She asks for their input and they work
through the problem together.
Finished with “Feedback for me?” and “what did I Questioning
do correctly?”
Ms. Balaban asks them to show it again with a Varied Materials (models)
number line since they have time left. A student
who had made a mistake before, represented it
correctly. Teachers ask her to tell them what they
are doing.
Scaffolds the students demonstrating the number Scaffolding
line to help them work through the
representation.
Debrief Laura started Eureka Monday- and this was a new
module. Some of what they were doing
(misconceptions) was because the problems they
had done were tens, hundreds, etc…
Whole Group lesson is challenging because of the
amount of on the spot thinking- Laura realized she
could have prefaced the lesson with a connection
to what they had done before and what to watch
out for with this lesson- how it is different.
Use of precise mathematical vocabulary is
something Laura would like to work on- Eureka’s
math terms are challenging, so it is important to
include them.
They have clickers to do a few problems together-
which they didn’t get to.
Review at the end was useful- and tying in the
number line to bring up the conceptual idea of a
fraction.
Mistakes are a part of learning in this classroom- it
is evident. The classroom management is very
smooth and seamless. Students respond quickly.

Laura was using precise vocabulary throughout

and helping student use vocabulary. Emphasizing
explaining thinking or getting feedback whether it
is right or wrong.
Small Group work went well- helping each other
and Laura scaffolding for students as needed (ex:
Cozy).