This is my mentor teacher’s comments after I successfully executed a mathematics lesson on angles to a Year 4 class in my second practicum teaching block. The artefact demonstrates my attainment of standard 2.1.1 through my mentor teacher’s feedback, commenting that I demonstrated good content knowledge and effective teaching strategies appropriate to the lesson including strategic questioning which is integral when teaching mathematics. 

 

It is crucial for teachers to have good mathematical content knowledge and understand how to teach it as this is inextricably linked to students educational performance and achievement gains (Hill, Rowan, & Ball, 2005). My knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of mathematics content (standard 2.1.1) was evident in my execution of the mathematics lesson and supported by my mentor teacher’s feedback shown in the artefact. This was evident through first having a counting warm up to lead students into the lesson, followed by an introduction to the topic and  reactivating students prior knowledge through appropriate questions. Students were then led through a series of appropriate activities throughout which I demonstrated to students multiple examples which they benefited from, and finally concluded with a plenary to revisit the activity, therefore following the appropriate structure of a mathematics lesson. This is all evident through my mentor teacher’s feedback, supporting my attainment of standard 2.1.1. When planning for my lesson, I first observed and consulted with my mentor teacher to discover how mathematics lessons are structured within her classroom and within the school, and planned my lesson following this structure which was positively received by my mentor teacher and by the students.

 

Furthermore, my understanding and use of effective teaching strategies when executing mathematics lessons is evident through my mentor teacher’s comments stating that I effectively called on many students for answers to get everyone participating, showed multiple examples which benefited the students and used strategic questioning to reactivate prior understanding and guide student learning. Using strategic questioning is crucial in mathematics lessons to stimulate learning, challenge students’ thought processes and fuel curiosity (Gast, 2017). Through this, I have also demonstrated an in-depth understanding of the concepts and substance being taught as this is essential in order to know what questions to ask and lead a successful classroom discussion.

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