Introduction
The principles and the set standards meant for school mathematics elaborate the skills that a student should get in their school experience from the pre kindergarten grade to twelfth grade. The system has well planed flow of lessons that teachers should follow in order to guarantee consistency across the state. The lesson plans are strategically planed out so that the students build up adequate knowledge about each topic that they encounter. The main aim of the standards is to incorporate various disciplines and merge them such that the students can identify relationships between the math’s and real life situations. The use of applications in the study of maths makes the students understand more on the topics they are studying.
Lesson plan description
The websites dedicated to the standards have found the standards to help the education system. Some lesson plans were used multi-lingual methods to solve mathematical problems with stories so that the students understand rather than cram the subject. The lesson plans are also dedicated to explaining numbers to the students. The students are taught of way to represent the figures. The teacher also emphasizes on the connection between the numbers and the number scheme. The described lesson plans use stories to make sure that the students’ attention is captured. The number sense in this method is used in the expression of actions in the story. The students are taught and given an exercise on the same to test them on their understanding on the topic taught. The other lesson plan is through the use of puzzles to capture the understanding of the young mind. The students are taught how to incorporate fun in their reading practices to be able to get the concepts of maths. The use of these puzzles normally starts out with the simpler puzzles ascending to the more complex ones. The aim of these is to create a foundation of knowledge so that the students can be comfortable with what they are learning. The use of number sense in the lesson plan is evident in the mode in which the student get to identify the numbers and get to differentiate between the odd and even numbers.
The use of math’s interview as a lesson plan is also useful in the dissemination of information to the young kids. The kids are given assignments to question people living with them like the neighbors or the family. The questioner tasks the individuals to learn about the use of numbers in real life application. The actual life application of numbers deals with the countable items used in the daily interaction between individuals. The countable objects can include coins, slices of bread or even number of cups. The lesson plan makes use of the sense of a number through being exposed to the countable objects. The student is able to relate to the numbers they learn from the objects they use daily. Lesson that they learn do normally stick because of its repetitive nature (Hatfield, 2007, p. 475).
The use of resources availed by the study environment is also a lesson plan that supports the standards have made use of. The study environment includes those resources that can be used to teach math. They include the time, money and the temperature. With evaluation of each sub topic in each group, the various units are studied and activities plotted out to enable the student to further understand the topic. With the help of various measuring devices the kids can create fun activities that can enhance their knowledge on the various issues. The activities can include games or other serious activities and this activity creates a base to the other learning topics.
The operations covered and the grades that use the sites
There are a variety of mathematical operations that are used in the application of the period plans studied above. The mathematical application of stories as part of the teaching effort for the lower grades uses some of the simpler operations. The retelling of personalized essays by the kids as part of their assignment ensures that they study these basic operations well. The basic operations include the totaling and subtraction of data. They lay out the basic foundation for the learning process and it is needed for the student to progress to other harder operations. The use of the interview to members closest to the student is a terrific way of encouraging the student top become memorable with low scale operations and the operations most tackled are additions and subtraction.
The use of puzzles is a more in-depth use of arithmetic and requires more complex operations. The puzzles require a combination of operations ranging from the simple additions to multiplication operations. They facilitate growth and allow the learner to have more options outside the taught parameters. The other lesson plan that encourages the use of complex operation is the use of resources like time and money availed by the environment. The inter-conversions between units of the resources enable the student to use fractions in his calculations also enable him to use divisions operations. The use of fractions and decimals is challenging and when understood enable the student to understand math better (Rosenberg, 2000, p. 4).
The websites that support the NCTM standards are meant for development of the student from the kindergarten level up to the twelfth grade level. The various web sites focus more on the specific grades while others focus on a group of grades to ensure continual development. The student has to follow a specific path of study to be able to understand the topics from level to level. The use of resources to aid learning is a method meant for elementary students. The kids are normally past the basic arithmetic level of kindergarten and students are beginning to venture into more complex mathematics as they advance to other bigger grades. The students are being prepared for more complex arithmetic as they grow older.
The use of stories is meant for a varying group of student levels. Simple stories can be used to improve the understanding of the lower grades and students in the kindergarten level can use the stories to get a deeper understanding of math. In relation to complex stories, the students have to extract useful information from the story and conduct mathematical operations on the data that they have got. This is more complex and the sixth to twelfth grade students are better suited for such arithmetic operations. The use of questions is from the websites meant for intermediate grades for those very young kids and questions help them develop a close relationship between them and the simple mathematical operations. The students’ use of puzzles also varies with increasing complexity from the intermediary level to the higher grades. The fourth grade allows the student to make use of operations such as multiplication and at this level the student has mastered the simple operations.
In the introduction of the lesson play there was an explanation regarding the topics addressed by the lesson plans and the kids that were targeted. The lesson plan identified the area in the plan that required a systematic follow up from the lower grade to the more advanced grades. The teacher is encouraged to follow steps to make sure that the students follow systematically. The diversity in the groups targeted is explained by the way various teachers use or methods that they use to tackle learning in various institutions.
Importance of lesson plan in math
The lesson plans are an important part of the curriculum because they need to be followed to ensure the growth of the students. The period plans contain simple formulae of getting to understand mathematics. The lesson plans are thus important to make sure that the student uses the easiest and the most practical learning methods. The students also get to have fun during their learning process and this helps them to understand what they have learnt rather than cram it. The lesson plans are also a critical part in the unification of the education standards throughout the states. The level of learning between the poor and the rich are unified hence better evaluation techniques. The understanding of math from the lesson plans creates a strong foundation on which a student can develop his mathematics skills and thus building more self reliant students who can changer complex mathematical situations into simplified solutions through application.
Role of lesson plan in performance enhancement
For a student who performs poorly due to low concentration spans, the activities in the lesson plans would assist the student to focus more. The activities which are interactive and fun are aimed at making the student understand the idea behind a given answer rather than cramming the answer. The plans encourage learners to find out more about the learning topics through interaction with the community and help the kids to learn from each other. The activities would also enable students to carry their studies home and be able to have fun with their home work. The learner will be able to enjoy on and off school learning time and this assists the child to nurture mentally. Positive growth in the area of study is crucial in the development of the young learners (Johnson, 2006, p.6).
Essence of manipulative
Manipulative were used in the early stages of learning in the lower grades. Manipulative were acquired by the school to encourage the young kids to study while having fun. The manipulative were also made by the parents of the kids during the weekend as a joint effort with the school to ensure that the kids get the tools necessary for the plans to work. The manipulative are simple objects that encourage the young students to understand rather than cram what has been taught. Introduction of the manipulative in each topic would help build a sequence of topics. This helps the student to interrelate the topics.
Conclusion
Lesson plans are necessary for teaching and learning process and teachers should make sure that the kids enjoy their learning experience. The students should try to understand concepts not cramming them. A variety of NCTM Standard concentrates on Number Sense and Operations from the various websites have been evaluated to yield positive results.
References
Burns, M. (2011). How to Make the Most of Math Manipulatives. Scholarstic. Retrieved from http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/lessonplans/instructor/burns.htm
Cassandra, H. (2011). The Importance of Lesson Plans for Home Schooling Materials. Cours- soutien-maths. Retrieved from http://www.cours-soutien-maths.org/the-importance-of- lesson-plans-for-home-schooling-materials
Hatfield, M. M. (2007). Mathematics methods for elementary and middle school teachers. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
Johnson, V., Hamaguchi, C., & Creative Teaching Press. (2006). Hands-on math. Huntington Beach, CA: Creative Teaching Press.
Lesson Plans. (2010, Jan 17th). Importance of Lesson Plans. Lesson Plans.ws. Retrieved from http://www.lessonplans.ws/general-info/importance-of-lesson-plans
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2010). Frequently asked Question about Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Retrieved from http://www.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/Math_Standards/pssm_faq.pdf
Rosenberg, M. (2000). How to add & subtract: Grade 1. Westminster, CA: Teacher Created Materials, Inc.
