Learner.Org Annenberg Media Video: Domino Math

http://www.learner.org/resources/series32.html?pop=yes&vodid=411348&pid=878#

In this Annenberg Media Teaching Math K-4 clip, Mrs. Wright, a teacher at William Monroe Trotter School, leads a multi-grade classroom of first and second graders in a number facts activity. Wright uses dominos and stickers as a manipulative to demonstrate using counting to understand the properties of sums. The students observe as Mrs. Wright demonstrates using the dominos and stickers to identify different combinations of numbers that produce the same sum, then break into groups of three to work on finding different sums. The students are given challenges and an extension activity, writing number sentences, as they finish their work.

Mrs. Wright's activity uses problem solving to teach "a lesson that doesn't need the teacher up front" (her own words) as described by Van De Walle in"Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally." As Mrs. Wright points out, the activity uses questions that are open ended, with no one right answer. Students work cooperatively to produce correct responses and explain why their answers work using number facts. The groups are carefully arranged with at least one strong counter in each, and second graders can be observed helping first graders clarify their ideas -- something I enjoyed as a third grader in a multi-age classroom when I was in elementary school. Wright encourages conversation using prompts like, "tell me what's missing," and circulates the room both to keep students on task and to encourage extended thinking. The dominos and stickers might also be a useful tool when teaching other whole number concepts.