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Introduction. Through My Time At Missouri Southern State

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Introduction Through my time at Missouri Southern State University, I have been preparing to be an elementary school teacher. I have been taught how to manage a classroom, lead guided reading groups, prepare lessons, and write objectives. Most of the methods classes focus around literacy and language arts. My future students will be required to take an end of the year assessment called the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) test. The MAP test’s main focus is on language arts and mathematics, but at Missouri Southern there is one mathematics methods class in comparison to the three language arts methods classes. As a life-long learner, I am curious of better and more effective ways to teach my students mathematics since I am not as …show more content…

Next, I observed for thirty-two hours solely in a fourth grade classroom. The mathematics time I observed in this class was spent working on problems out of a mathematics textbook. The students moved problem-by-problem and page-by-page through this textbook. Since this technique requires little to no critical thinking, it is not likely that they will recall how to solve the problems. Lastly, I spent thirty-two hours observing two sixth grade mathematics classes. The first class was students, who were performing at grade-level, and the other class was students who were performing below grade level, however both classes used the same teaching techniques. The teacher lectured, the students took notes, and then the students completed an electronic worksheet. The students then had to write their answers down on a physical piece of paper to turn in for their grade. The students were wasting time by having to copy down answers instead of learning more about mathematics. Students are not retaining what they have been taught because of the low level of critical thinking currently being used in schools. The lack of mathematical retention can be seen in the state of Missouri’s MAP test scores, and I chose to focus on fourth grade because of the low performance that is seen in the test. The state of Missouri’s schools are assessed using the MAP test. This assessment shows students’ mastery of the Missouri Learning Standards (Assessment, 2016). Each year all of

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