Assignment:
1. Mathematize the world around the children. We offer children the lens from which they can see the math living in their lives every day. You will comment on what meaningful situations would arise for your topic. Where would you see children experiencing this understanding of mathematical understanding?
2. Concrete learning experiences are paramount for young children to understand the connections to math concepts and their everyday materials and actions. Children need to be helped to use these materials for mathematical purposes. Strategize several materials found in early childhood classrooms that you could use in multiple ways to make these connections between concrete experiences, symbols, pictures and language.
3. Recognizing receptive understanding means we know that young children understand more concepts that she can speak. It requires us to figure out what the child actually understands and how we can help the child verbalize their understanding. Giving them more words to explain their mathematical understanding will be the next part of this assignment. What words can we communicate to scaffold their understanding of this topic?
4. Math needs to be multisensory. The more modes we deliver content within the deeper the knowledge expands. Explain the topic with experiences that involve all 5 senses.
5. We scaffold our young children to construct their own understanding of these mathematical concepts each and every day. Understanding can be captured by standardized measures such as checklists and written papers. They can also be measured by discussion with our young students. Comment upon how you would learn about the children's understanding of the topic chosen. Knowing what stage the child is in needs to be known and addressed to be able to help them to the next step of understanding.