When it came time for the lesson, I made a point to introduce the Essential Question. This helped set a focus as well as create a parallel to lessons taught whole-group. The four students I worked with were eager to interact with the white boards to demonstrate their work. I was even able to differentiate my lesson further by scaffolding one student (an ELL) while the others continued to practice on their own.
On Wednesday, I was responsible for leading another small group lesson, this time on using arrays for multiplication (gotta love 3rd grade!). I prepared an activity for the students to match a variety of arrays to the multiplication expressions they represented. Though much of our math block focuses on story-problem solving , I felt that these students in particular could benefit from more exposure to the basics of how the factors relate the the rows and columns of the array. As before, I introduced the Essential Question and some students picked up more quickly while I guided the others. By giving them the opportunity to handle pre-made arrays as opposed to constructing their own (as they had been doing whole group) I think it built their confidence in the representation. Also, they enjoyed using the cute sticker pages...and wearing one of their favorites home that afternoon.
By the end of the week, I was able to engage the whole class in the sticker array activity. In groups, they debated how the position of the factors impacted the appearance of the array. They were able to see how the same product could be represented in different arrays. It even previewed them to the Commutative Property of multiplication, which we will begin examining next week. Overall, it is definitely an activity I'd like to keep around.