Week 12

This week I noticed that one of my students although they were getting all their homework and in class problems correct could not do simply addition. This student had to count on their fingers in order to find the answer to every single problem. This was slowing down the student and hinder them from being in the extension group because although they knew the material just as well as the other students this student could not add 7 + 4 or any problem similar. As I began to show the student tricks like 10 + 8, well 10 + 10 is 20 so subtract 2 we get 18, I realized that they never actually learned basic addition skills they always counted on their fingers. I continued to look around the room and saw that many of the students in the classroom were counting on their fingers or were having to stop and think and count in their head.

It seemed like none of their prior teachers had modeled how to think through these problems aloud because they all were relying on strategies that are at  a much lower rate than what is required as fourth grade. When I first saw students counting on their fingers I allowed it because I had only notice the lower students and did not think too much of it as I felt that they were probably checking their answer. However, when I found out most students were using this method and it was to find the answer and their only way to find the answer, it blew my mind.

Being that my classroom is a fourth grade classroom there is no way that we can teach addition strategies or go back to simple addition problems to model for the students how to solve. However, with out doing either of those things I feel that some of my students are really going to suffer the end of the multiplication unit as well as the rest of the year in math because addition is present in a lot of math. It is because of that dilemma I feel that I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. I wish I could do something however I do not want to take time away from the fourth grade material that the students should be learning.