5.3 Grade 2: Classroom observation
5.3.3 Lesson 3: Mathematics Lesson
of counters on the one side of the line. This time he found it easier to count out the correct amount of 15 counters on each side of the line. She then asked him to attempt the next sum of 28 squares.
Ms Miya had visually and kinaesthetically shown Asanda a technique of halving a set number of counters by placing them, one at a time, on either side of the line. He was sharing the counters between the two sides. She was extremely patient and encouraged Asanda by gently prompting him through the process.
Some of the learners followed the way Ms Miya had demonstrated with an example on the board, and drew the number of objects to be halved in their text books, such as 10 diamonds, then drawing a line half way between these drawn objects (after 5 diamonds), representing halving them. They used semi-concrete drawings to help them visualise the halving of the objects.
The lesson ended with Ms Miya’s asking the learners to line up to get their hot meal of the day. Asanda and a few other learners had not yet completed their work.
The learners responded enthusiastically, some with the correct answer of 16 and others with incorrect answers. Ms Miya then guided them through until they had established the correct answer. She was demonstrating the process of “adding on” in a fun game and continued to play this game using several other examples.
Ms Miya then handed out to each learner in the class 6 large colourful Lego blocks. There was great excitement with all the learners talking at once. Once the learners had received their 6 Lego blocks and settled down, Ms Miya proceeded with the lesson.
Ms Miya: Put one Lego on top of the other. Leave it like this. (She held up the 6 Lego blocks which were stacked on top of each other). What do you notice about your Lego?
Learner: Rainbow colours.
Learner: 3D shape.
Ms Miya: What 3D shape do they remind you of?
Learner: A rectangular prism.
Ms Miya: Yes. What else?
Learner: They are the same number, 6
Ms Miya: Yes, each of you has 6 Lego. Now give 3 to your friend.
The learners worked in pairs and one learner handed the other learner 3 of his or her Lego blocks.
Ms Miya: How many does your friend have?
Learners: 9
Ms Miya: How many do you have now?
Learners: 3
Ms Miya: Now take 5 from your friend. How many do you have?
Learners: 8 Learners: 4
Ms Miya: How many would you give your friend for your friend to have the same?
Learners: 2
Ms Miya: Put your Lego in the middle and keep your hands away from them.
Listen carefully.
Ms Miya: I have 12 blocks and my friend has 6. How many more blocks do I have than my friend?
Learners: 6
Ms Miya: Yes, I have 6 more than my friend.
Ms Miya was demonstrating through a paired activity how many more than or less than the learners each had, learning visually to compare their Lego blocks. Ms Miya went through a couple of examples and then asked the learners to get out their workbooks. She wrote a word sum on the board and the learners began to work it out.
Word sum: Tom has 16 marbles. His friend has 9. How many more marbles does Tom have?
Ms Miya went and sat at Asanda’s group table (the desks of 6 learners were pushed together).
She asked the learners to make one stack of 16 Lego blocks and another of 9 Lego blocks to represent the 16 marbles and 9 marbles. They then held the stacks next to each other so as to see the difference. They saw that the longer stack had 7 more blocks than the shorter stack.
This was an effective way of visually and kinaesthetically recognising the difference between the blocks (see Figure 5.5 below).
Ms Miya: Answer: Tom has 7 more Lego than his friend.
Figure 5.5: Visually seeing the difference between two amounts with two stacks of Lego Blocks
Observing some learners at another table, who had calculated their answer as 16 + 9 = 25, Ms Miya realised that they had not understood what was being asked of them by the word sum. In deciding to illustrate further, Ms Miya wrote another word sum on the board, and demonstrated the process of working out the difference the same way she had done at Asanda’s group table, but now to the entire class.
Word sum: Anne buys 12 bananas. Nick buys 8. How many more bananas does Anne have?
To illustrate the workings of this sum to the class, Ms Miya had two learners come up to the front of the class. She had the one learner hold up a stack of 12 Lego blocks and the other learner hold up a stack of 8 Lego blocks. They then held the blocks up against each other, so that the learners could see the difference between the two stacks, and that the longer stack had 4 more blocks than the shorter stack had.
Ms Miya: Answer: Anne has 4 more bananas.
The lesson was interrupted at 09h40 as the learners had to line up to get their hot meal and they then went into first break. At 10h30 the learners resumed their lesson by sitting at their desks
to continue their Mathematics word sums for another 20 minutes. Ms Miya spent further time with a girl, Nceba, who continued to find it difficult to understand the concept of more than and less than. In observing some other learners in the class, I noticed that the number sentences in their books illustrated that they had also not understood what the word sums were asking of them. One learner had written 9+7=2 and another had written 9+7=7. This illustrates the difficulty some of the learners had in interpreting the word sums.
At 10h50 Ms Miya asked the learners to place their books in the middle of their desk and she went on to her English lesson.