41/180 Three-Phase Lesson Structure for Math with ETK

So our school is working on developing grade-level lessons for the Three Phase Lesson for math. I used 3-phase math weekly with my kindergarteners last year and loved it! Our grade-level created a lesson together last week, but I wanted to modify it for our ETKs.

Small Groups

1. Shared a story.

2. Pose the problem/question story.

3. Review and checked for understanding.

3. Let the kids have at it!

4. Observation and questioning.

5. Students shared work with me and I asked probing questions as needed.

6. Recorded observations and took dictation.

I wanted to begin this way because in ETK the only time we are in whole group is during circle time.

Most of the time it's small groups. Eventually we will transition to some whole group activities during the last trimester, but for now, I get so much more in smaller groups. Never more than 5.

As the students become more familiar with this structure, I will add some of the more formal elements to the lesson and eventually, we will do some sharing out, but for now this was our first attempt. I plan to do one at least every other week to start and then move to a math journal format.

Story/Problem Posed to Students:

Mr. Almonte went trick or treating. 

When he got home, he counted his candy. 

He counted 4 candy bars.  

Show what he counted.

 D: Almonte's stash is on the left and he wanted to draw his stash too! He never counted 1 to 1, he is already visualizing the numbers.

D: He started right away to draw a hand and I noticed 4 fingers. Then started drawing tallies, which he says are candy. He knows his numbers, but wasn't interested or focused on showing the 4, but he did understand parts of the question/story.

J: After hearing the problem/story, he drew four circles right away. He didn't take as much time in coloring his 4 candies!

A: Understood what was being asked, but lost track of the number. She was able to draw and count 1 to 1. Partial understanding, but didn't focus on the 4. 

 Samples of students that were able to find the "answer," although the answer wasn't the main focus on the lesson. I am more interested to see how students went about solving the problem... what strategies they used...did they have 1 to 1 correspondence... were they able to answer my question: "How do you know?"

These samples show partial understanding of the story/problem and is a wonderful initial sample for me to have and use to show growth later on! I just love observing!

#ProcessOverProduct