Numbers to 20

Strand: Number
Outcomes: 4, 5, 6

Step 3: Plan for Instruction

Guiding Questions

What learning opportunities and experiences should I provide to promote learning of the outcomes and permit students to demonstrate their learning?
What teaching strategies and resources should I use?
How will I meet the diverse learning needs of my students?

A. Assessing Prior Knowledge and Skills

Before introducing new material, consider ways to assess and build on students' knowledge and skills related to numbers. For example:

Using the overhead projector, display between 1 and 10 counters for three seconds and ask students how many counters they see. Then ask, "How do you know?"
Ask students questions such as, "John has two more books than Brian. If Brian has four books, how many does John have?"
Ask students questions such as, "I have pennies and nickels in my hand. There are eight coins in all. Three are pennies. How many nickels do I have?"
Have students hold up both hands, showing 10 fingers. Ask them to show you seven fingers. Ask them to show two more than seven and have them tell you how many that is. Ask them to show you one less than that amount. Have them tell you how many fingers they are holding up.

As you do these kinds of activities, it is important to have students verbalize their thinking whenever possible.

If a student appears to have difficulty with these tasks, consider further individual assessment, such as a structured interview, to determine the student's level of skill and understanding.

Sample Structured Interview: Assessing Prior Knowledge and Skills Word Document

B. Choosing Instructional Strategies

Consider the following strategies when planning lessons.

Provide students with many opportunities to represent numbers concretely.
Allow students to make a purposeful link between pictorial, concrete and symbolic representations of numbers.
Use objects that are familiar to students whenever possible when representing numbers.
Students need to know that it is important to understand numbers between 10 and 20 because they are used every day; e.g., eggs come in a dozen, which is 12.
Expect students to explain their answers about numbers verbally.

C. Choosing Learning Activities

Learning Activities are examples of activities that could be used to develop student understanding of the concepts identified in Step 1.

Sample Learning Activities
Teaching Number	Download Activities