This video study session wrapped up the second day of the institute held in Colorado.

1. Closing Session for Day 2
Balancing Higher-Order Thinking
with Basic Skills
Lesson Video Study From Singapore Classroom
Yeap Ban Har
Slides are available at
www.banhar.blogspot.com

2. key focus
of singapore
mathematics

3. thinking
problem
solving
conceptual
understanding

4. 21. 5
14 301.0
- 28
21
- 14
70
- 70
0

5. 70 tenths

6. Keys Grade School
Manila
Problem
How do we break 4816 up
when we are dividing it into 4?

7. 21. 5
14 301
- 280
21
- 14
7 0 tenths

8. CHIJ Our Lady of Good Counsel
Singapore
East Coast Primary School Singapore

9. Anchor Green Primary School
Singapore

12. Jonas making number
bonds for 32.
Anchor Green Primary School,
Singapore
The lesson began with this task – which number is
bigger? Bigger by how much? This is to help
students link subtraction with comparison situation.

13. A few observations made by observers.
• The students were excited.
• The students were usually not told if their
answer is right or wrong.
• The teacher got many students to publicly share
their answer.
• The students had to do mental math.
Some questions:
• How often does the students get to learn tricks
like this?
• Did the students asked how the trick works?
Did you observe the focus on thinking and problem
solving as well as a focus on conceptual
understanding of subtraction and the skill of
subtraction with renaming?

14. 32 = 20 + 10 + 2
Subtract 4 from 10
Two strategies
were evident. One
of them involves
10 – 4 + 2 .
32 = 20 + 12
Subtract 4 from 12
Anchor Green Primary School, Singapore
Review of Subtraction Procedure
6 minutes

15. There were also a few situations that we
discouraged teachers from doing – did you picked
those up?
Students were given 1, 2, 5 and 8 and asked to
make numbers and subtracting the smaller number
from the larger.