Teaching Subtraction in a Metropolitan Government School

This document discusses the teaching strategies used for teaching subtraction in a metropolitan government school. It includes information about the learner group data, planning, and teaching methods used. The document also provides details about the school's context, including its location, enrolment, socio-economic factors, and special programs.

1
SECTION 1: CONTEXT
Artifact 1 - School/Centre data that shape teaching and learning
School/Centre pseudonym Palm Tree Primary School
The traditional owners of
the land (The X People) and
how they are acknowledged
within the school/Centre
No acknowledgment of traditional owners of the land that I
have observed
Location type Metropolitan,
Rural, Regional, Remote
Metropolitan
School/Centre type
independent, government,
long daycare, etc.
Government
School/Centre values,
philosophical approaches,
and/or frameworks
Our school offers students a caring and nurturing learning
environment. Our dedicated and experienced teachers provide a
positive and enriching program, appreciating the individual needs
and interests of each child.
Enrolment 278 (Boys), 264(Girls)c
Socio-economic factors About 70% of the school’s students are in the top quarter in terms
of socio-economic status
% of students who have a
language background other
than English
29% of students who have a language background other than
English
School/Centre policies and
practices aligned with codes
of ethics & conduct,
including those to support
participation and learning of
students with disability
-Ensure that all students and members of the school community
are treated with respect and dignity
-Ensure that students are not discriminated against and where
necessary, are accommodated to participate in education and all
school activities
-Acknowledge and respond to the diverse needs, identities and
strengths of all students
-Provide equal opportunity to all members of the school

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community
Special programs Robotics, student leadership opportunities, peer mediation,
School sports, concerts, camps, excursions and incursions
Other features important to
the context
N/A
Artifact 2 - Learner Group data that shapes planning, teaching and assessing for the
Learning Sequence
Grade/Year/Age level Prep
Learning Area/ Subject/
Topic
Numeracy (Subtraction)
Number of learners 20
Range of learner abilities 2 Students that are 6 months below the expected level 0.5, 4
students 6 months above the expected level
Linguistic, cultural,
religious and
socioeconomic factors
2 ESL students - a range of nationalities- Chinese, Indian,
Italian, Greek, French and English
Learners who identify as
Aboriginal or Torres Strait
Islander
N/A
Support provided for
learners with a disability
N/A
Other N/A
The Palm Tree Primary School is situated in the CBD (central business district) of the city
of Port Elizabeth (Hunter, & Haydon, 2019). The Palm Tree Primary School is very spacious that
was donated by the city mayor to be used as a playing ground for the pupils as well as a classroom
for their physical education lessons. The school has about 264 females and 278 males (542 students)
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which increased up to 200 from the last year. Moreover, the current performance index of this
school is 1153 ICSEA, which is about 50% higher than the total marks. English is spoken by 1 % of
the students, while 29% converses in other languages like Chinese, Indian, Italian, Greek, French
and other range of nationalities (Graham, 2019). Additionally, the attendance register data of the
year 2019, reveals that 94% of total students have attended all the lessons throughout the year,
indicating that the students had good rapport with their school teachers as well as their peers. An
improved performances in the students have been noticed in their class assessment test as well as in
the ICSEA performance. Hunter, and Haydon (2019), have stated that high attendance in class is
associated with improved performance in academic. Since the school has no students with
disabilities, the school does not provide any such support.
The school is bestowed with some philosophies of life, one of which is to cater to the needs
of the slow learners. Slow learners are provided with special care by the school. Additional support
is provided to the slow learners. This is a public school and the government provides the students
with learning facilities. These facilities includes computers, which are used by students for
supporting their ICT knowledge. The school follows strict principles and policies on philosophical
tactics aimed at ensuring students are given efficient care and cultivate this translate to good moral
and discipline among the students. This school has different qualities of students. There are gifted
students as well as the slow learners who require special attention. Some are intellectually curious
who even visit the classroom after the class for the clarification. There are various Intellectual
learners, who were provided continuous encouragement to stimulate their imagination and
creativity. Mathematical creativity is normally rooted in the personal traits in the intellectual ability
of each of the individuals (Reys et al., 2015). Thus it is the intellectual capability of some of the
gifted students that helps them to understand mathematical concept. The educators help out the
students to work with open ended and ill posed problems to go with and make mistakes (Reys et al.,
2015). The school also has slow learners and the school employs several remedial methods to help
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out these students. The educators of the school employs various instructional designs for teaching
subjects like Math and Science. Innovative tactics are used simplifying the concept of mathematics.
For example, the students are already acquainted with the use of various unfix cubes models
made up of concrete for solving subtractions problem easily. It should be noted that, this is evident
from the way, how students play “less than” and ‘Race to 20’ using the unfix cubes in pairs.
Students can easily prepare die rolls and subtract the counters from each of the rolls, that they have
made. Furthermore, the students also showed their capabilities in using this strategy to handle
subtraction problems by sitting together in groups to share stories of mathematical problems
involving subtraction and work them out to come up with solutions.
All these information has been gathered analyzing the assessment reports of the children and
by carrying out several observation in the classes to find out knowledge of the students. A weekly
assessment of the math paper helped in analyzing the data.
SECTION 2: PLANNING
To ensure effective planning for my class so that every member of my class, irrespective of
the intellect and culture would feel empowered. I structured my teaching plan to accommodate all
types of students. We do not provide any take home task, hence I provided different levels of task to
meet their level in class, I walked around the room, supervising each children and asked open ended
questions to assess their understanding of the concept. Subtraction in math was the prime topic of
the learning sequence. This concept is necessary to develop in childhood as it helps children to
develop their skills in mathematical thinking. A simple knowledge of subtraction at the starting of
the Kindergarten can be helpful in the development of the mathematical skills. Simple tools have
been made for making giant leaps for understanding and explaining new ideas in science,
mathematics and the technology. The discovery of the number line can be dated back to the era of
the Ancient Egyptians. They used tied knots in the ropes to count the number of spaces. Children
normally makes a natural journey from simple counting to addition and subtraction. Number lines
have been a great way for accelerating the cognitive development in children. This concept would
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provide mental strategies for subtraction and addition. This provides the rationale for constructing
the learning sequence that would focus on subtraction by using the number line.
Number line was the central focus in this topic were given to students as a holiday
assignment to improve on their understanding on the use of number line for working out subtraction
problems. There are several activities that can be used by the teachers for teaching subtraction to the
students, such as the think board test, where students will encounter the common problems on
subtraction. Students will have to draw the number line on the think board for working out
subtraction. In section named "write it" students can write down the statements of sums like-" John
went to school with the 12 oranges, he gave five oranges to his friends. How many oranges will be
left with him? ". These tasks would not only enhance the numeracy skills of the students but will
also improve the English literacy. This would help the students to solve the word problems in class,
since word problem pose serious challenges, especially the English second language learners, as
they demand students to read and comprehend the texts of the word problems.
There are studies that have proved that ICT is an effective tool for teaching concepts of
mathematics (subtraction) (De Witte & Rogge, 2014). We used power point presentation tools for
teaching concrete materials and moving the objects to display taking away of the objects in
subtraction. ICT has been used cleverly to design games like the alien subtraction smash.
It was also important to have a strategy while handling students from diverse culture. Since
Middle park primary school is of such schools comprising of students from diversity my planning
strategy for the lessons ensured that the teaching plan and the study practices were integrated to
meet the requirements of every student. Differentiation is a learner centered approach that assists
the students to succeed regardless of the differences (Tomlinson, 2014). Hence, we used visual aids
such as power points for those students who are visual learners, hands on activities were also kept
side by side to cater to the kinesthetic learners. I could use my plan to critically identify various
learning needs and styles for each student. Through this, I could easily identify the learners with
specific needs or rather the slow learners and find the necessary strategies to help them.
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To successfully teach the topic subtraction to students, I employed the use several teaching
strategies to help students understand my concepts. First, I introduced the students on the use of
various techniques for solving subtraction problems such as the use of number line method, use of
think board assessment to test their knowledge on subtraction as proposed by (Tyo, & McCurry,
2019). I made sure that I use my fingers to teach counting. I also kept the abacus beads for easy
counting. The use of ICT games such as the alien subtraction smash, the alien at the picnic
subtraction games boosted up the students as it helped the students to find solutions to their
subtraction problems. I also employed the use of unfix cubes, use of counting bears, use of pencils
as well the use of tens frame techniques to work out subtraction tasks. Most students found this
teaching strategy so interesting and easy to use.
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SECTION 3: TEACHING
The games of subtraction were very clear to the students, most of the students could easily
use the alien at the picnic game to work out subtraction task in class by this the students could see
subtraction in action. In ensured that I employed inclusive teaching strategies for the diverse
learners. Inclusive teaching is an instrument to create and maintain a learning environment where
all the students have been engaged fully (Göransson & Nilholm, 2014). The color and the font of
the PowerPoint presentation chosen should be suitable for any students having mild visual
impairment. I employed the use of waiting time strategies when asking questions to be able to
identify the students who knows how to use concrete materials to make and to model a subtraction
problem and those who are slow learners. I also tried to engage more than one sense at a time, by
teaching them how to use their body parts especially their figures to solve subtraction problems. I
repeated the problems several times for assisting the slow learners. This ensured, that the students
stayed tuned throughout the lesson. I also used modelling strategies to pass concept to students, in
teaching subtraction, for example, I used unfix cubes and counting bear’s models to make the
student understand, subtraction techniques. I roamed around the classroom for observing the pace of
every students, how they are communicating or responding to my questions.
To ensure that my teaching met the various classroom management strategies, I took some
five minutes before starting the lesson to teach the students, some ideal behaviors like staying
disciplined and not to shout together and answer to the questions one at a time (Aasheim, Reedtz,
Handegård, Martinussen, & Mørch, 2019). I prompted the answers for those who were unable to
answer for the first time and insisted them to repeat the same. For those who went against the set
rules during my lesson , I gave them mild warning and promised them to give them rewards, if they
maintain good conduct throughout the school (Davis, 2019). This ensured that the friendly
atmosphere that I had created with them was not jeopardized. Moreover, I employed the use of non-
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verbal communication in teaching subtraction especially in the use of think board which most do
not understand as this boosted content delivery for their easy understanding of the concept, students
could stay focus throughout the entire lesson (Simonsen et al, 2019). I also tried managing the class
during my lesson by giving tangible rewards to students who performed well to solve subtraction
problems. This can be related the incentive theory of operant conditioning, which states that
individuals are motivated to a certain action due to an outside incentive (Graziano, 2017). I did this
by developing a very strong behavior management plan which ensured all students regardless of
their diversity felt included in the lesson. I also implemented a collaborative planning and teaching
method as a teaching and communication strategy to open up rooms for different professionalism in
the teaching of subtraction. This ensured all the students from a different ethnic background, the
Chinese, the Greek, and English natives fully understand the concept of subtraction (Hunter &
Haydon, 2019).
I also made it possible to know every student from my class by their name and cultural
background to ensure that every student’s learning needs are catered for and they feel that each of
them are valued. Finally, I used universal design (ULD) where I used different instructional designs
for teaching subtraction to students with different learning needs, especially those who don't
understand the English language. I used ICT games mostly the use of alien at the picnic subtraction
game to deeply bring the concept of subtraction to students as showed in (Nagro, Fraser, & Hooks,
2019).
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