Assessment Profile Documentation
During my first week at Collier Elementary, I worked with my cooperating teacher to find a student who was struggling in mathematics. After much discussion we found a male student that we thought would be best for this particular assignment. First, I observed the student working on different math skills. I found multiplication to be a skill that he struggled with the most. I wrote up some interview questions that consisted of open ended tasks, problem solving, and even two digit multiplication. I spoke with the student and told him what I was doing and that he was going to be a great help to me. He was actually very excited about the whole thing. We went through the interview questions together. I read them to him and then he worked them out to the best of his ability. After receiving the information from the first interview I wrote up the second set of interview questions. These were a little more difficult. I wanted to see if he was capable of completing any of these problems. I wanted to see how he was going to work them out and where he was going wrong. We also completed some tasks using manipulatives. We used base 10 blocks, a multiplication table, and cards. I also used calculators to see if he was able to compute a multiplication problem using this type of media.
My questions consisted of the following:
Interview 1:
1. 72×64
2. 36×10 (I wanted to see if he could complete a simple multiplication problem.)
3. Five children are planning to share a bag of 53 pieces of bubble gum. How many will each one get? (I wanted to see if he would use division or multiplication. I also wanted to see if he was just plugging in numbers or was he actually reading what the problem was asking for.)
4. Pies cost $7.50 each Paula bought 5 pies. How much did they cost in all? (I was looking to see how he would solve the problem. Was he going to realize that he needed to multiply?)
5. 276×37
6. 231×122 (These were more difficult)
Interview 2:
1. Express 423 in a number word problem using multiplication. (I wanted to see a level of higher order thinking.)
2. Sam Slick is really excited about his new clothing purchase. He bought 4 pairs of pants and a number of jackets, and they can all be mixed and matched. Sam can wear a different outfit consisting of a jacket and pants 12 days in a row. How many jackets did he buy? (I knew he was having problems with word problems and I wanted to see how he would work a problem out like this one.)
3. Maria earned $24.00. She earned 4 times as much as Jill. How much did Jill earn? (Again, how was he going to work this problem out? I liked this problem because one may try to solve it many ways.)
4. Show all 7 multiplication facts. (I realized he was struggling at the most basic level in multiplication. He was also struggling so much at understanding word problems.)
5. ?×? = 2,280 What might the missing numbers be? How many different answers can you find? ( I used this problem to see what angle he would approach such a different problem.)
I found the student to be struggling in multiplication on a very high level. I was very sad to see that had no strategy to solve the problem so he did what he knew he could. He either added or multiplied partly. He was not understanding what was going on in the class as well as what I was asking him on the interviews. His answers to the interview questions were very low skilled. He showed no problem solving in most of the problems that required problem solving. He seemed to have a hard time understanding what the question was asking and how to solve it. He did know most of the basic multiplication facts up to 10. He knew how to do one digit multiplication. When multiplying 3 digit numbers by two digit numbers he only completed one step. He is not holding enough information to complete this problem. If he can not complete this type of problem he will most certainly not be able to solve a multiplication word problem. While most of the class was working on two digit multiplication he was still struggling. He also lacks the skills necessary to be successful at problem solving and working out a word problem in math. Two digit multiplication is missing a lot of steps. Most of all I think he tries really hard to be successful and I think he just needs someone to work with him diligently. I noticed he looks around the room a lot when he is doing his work. Perhaps, he is having a hard time concentrating on the material being taught. He seems to have limited strategies known to him. The students seemed to excel when we worked on the hands on tasks. When I verbally asked him to solve a problem with the base 10 blocks and the connecting cubes he was much more apt to getting the correct answer or very close too. I verbally asked him to show me using the cubes how many dog bowls I would I have if I had 10 dogs and each dog had two dog bowls. There was one for the water and one for the food. This was a simple problem but he was able to solve it and provide feedback using multiplication. I had more of his attention as well as his feedback. The calculator task also worked well. When computing problems on the calculator the student was able to provide positive feedback.
In conclusion, I have found the student to need a great deal of help in multiplication. I believe the use of manipulatives will allow him to better understand the material. The use of manipulatives may allow him to better understand the written material of multiplication. The basics should be reviewed and covered again until he has full understanding. Two digit multiplication should be covered and problem solving strategies should be reviewed extensively. Word problems should be a huge part of the recommendations needed to better understand the concept. I believe a little hard work and resources will allow this student to have a much easier time in multiplication. Overall, the student needs help with multiplication. I hope to help this student over this Christmas break. I would really feel better if he had a better understanding of this concept. I believe he will fall behind in other concepts if he does not grasp this one thoroughly.
