Example of Early Math Coaching
Text on screen: Example of Early Math Coaching.
Logo: Count, play, explore—for early education.
On screen: Jonathan Dueck and Eva Zinzun sit at a table in a classroom. Four children face them. Jonathan holds a book open for the children to see. Jonathan reads from the book and holds up two fingers.
Jonathan Dueck, Early Math and Science Content Coordinator: That’s two each. Two each.
In this job, we do a lot of work directly with teachers of all grade levels. Coming alongside the teachers, talking about what a lesson design can look like, and also doing demonstration lessons. So, we go into the classrooms, we work directly with the students where the teacher is observing us.
On screen: Jonathan sits at the head of a low table. Eva sits to the right. Three children sit to the right of Eva and two children sit to the left of Jonathan.
On screen: How many kids are eating cookies?
Children: Two. Two.
On screen: Two. Will you point to them and count them?
On screen: Jonathan points to the child seated directly to the left.
Children: Two.
On screen: The child holds up two fingers.
On screen: Touch each one and count them. One -
On screen: Jonathan touches the page.
Child 1: One, two.
On screen: The child reaches out and touches the page.
On screen: Nice. And they’re going to share the cookies.
On screen: Off-screen Jonathan describes meeting with a teacher while a video plays of Jonathan and Eva sitting next to each other at a table. Jonathan holds the book that was read to the children open. Eva is talking and holding their hands out above the book, palm down, moving them around.
On screen: And then, we were able to meet with the teacher afterwards and talk about how the lesson went, what maybe worked well in their eyes or our eyes, what didn’t work well for either of us.
On screen: While Jonathan describes observing educators and providing feedback, a video plays of Eva sitting at the head of a table. Jonathan sits to the right. Two children are seated on Jonathan’s right and two children are seated on Eva’s left. A book sits on the table in front of Eva. Eva’s left hand holds cards against the chest. Eva’s right hand is in a fist in front of the left hand. Eva says something, a child responds, Eva nods and places the pile of cards face-up on the table. The top card is an image of a cookie with four chocolate chips on it.
On screen: And then we’re also able to observe the teacher and give them feedback as they present the lesson, as they work through it and talk about it.
On screen: While Jonathan describes the lesson, an image of the cover of a book appears on screen. The book is The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins. On the cover is an illustration of a child peering out of a door through the mail slot. There are many other children behind the child and an adult stands behind the children.
On screen: Today’s lesson was using the book, The Doorbell Rang, as it talks about there being 12 cookies.
On screen: While Jonathan describes the lesson, a video of Jonathan sitting at a table with Eva to the right and two children seated on either side of them plays on screen. Jonathan holds up a book for the children to see and flips the page.
On screen: I knew I could use the idea of the cookie as a different way to have a dot talk, have that number talk.
On screen: An image of the cover of the book and six cards appears on screen. On each card is a cookie with a different number of chocolate chips.
On screen: We’ve done dot talks with these students before, so they’re familiar somewhat with a little bit of the protocols and recognizing that and this would be an opportunity to read the book, get them interested in counting and subitizing, and then pull out the cookies and have them recognize how many chocolate chips were on each cookie.
On screen: While Jonathan Dueck talks off-screen, a video plays on-screen of Jonathan and Eva sitting at a table with children seated on either side of them. Jonathan holds up a card with a cookie on it quickly before holding it face down above the table.
On screen: So in a small group like that, we’ll hold it up for a little bit, put it back down, see what their estimates are, or maybe they have that exact number.
There was three. How many do you think there were?
On screen: Jonathan points to a child sitting to the right.
Child 2: Three.
On screen: Jonathan holds up a card with a cookie on it.
Owen: No, that was 50.
On screen: Owen, the child sitting to the left of Eva responds.
Eva Zinzun, PreK Educator: Look. Take a look.
On screen: Eva points to the card.
On screen: Are there three?
Eva: Take a look, Owen.
On screen: Eva points to the card again.
Child 1: Yeah.
On screen: Count them for us.
Owen: No, there are 50.
On screen: Owen sits directly next to Eva. Eva places their hand on Owen’s back. The child seated to Jonathan’s left points to the card.
Child 1: One, two, three.
On screen: Jonathan holds the card forward. The child seated two seats away from Jonathan reaches out and points to the card.
Eva: Either myself or my co-teacher will sit and observe the lesson.
On screen: While Eva talks off-screen, a clip of Jonathan holding the book up for children at a table plays, and then a clip of Eva holding the book up for children at a table plays. Jonathan sits to the right of Eva.
Eva: I’m hearing the language and the vocabulary he’s using. So that way, I could, if there’s anything I need to capture when I provide the lesson for the kids, I can also try and do my best to do that as well, to maximize the learning experience with the kids.
When it was my turn to do the book, that group of children were really interested in, definitely, the one-on-one correspondence. They each wanted to have a turn to count the group of children in the story.
On screen: Eva holds the book open on the table. The four children are seated around the table look at the book.
Eva: The doorbell rang. Ding-dong.
On screen: While Eva reads the book to the children at the table, Jonathan Dueck talks off-screen.
On screen: It was really nice to watch Eva do the lesson because she actually read the book in a really, not just lively manner, but interactive manner where she was asking the students a lot of questions as she went along. I didn’t read it as well as she did. I read it to them really with the intent of getting through it so we could do the activity, where she took the book and made it much more comprehensive into what we were doing.
On screen: Eva holds the book open on the table and holds a hand out to the side, palm up. Jonathan sits next to Eva. There are two children seated on either side of them.
Eva: See how many more. You think someone might join them?
Child 3: Yes.
On screen: Eva points to a page of the open book.
Eva: Let’s count.
On screen: The video of Eva pointing to the page and then flipping the page plays as Jonathan talks off-screen.
On screen: Sometimes when I demonstrate a lesson, a teacher feels the need to mimic completely what I do and not add or take away from anything, which is not the intent. We all want our teachers to be independent thinkers because we want our students to be independent thinkers that can work through things and solve things. So it was great to watch Eva take that book, expand on it, ask some really nice questions of the students, and work through that with them.
Mia: Seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12.
On screen: One of the children points to the page and counts the children in the picture.
Eva: So let’s see what happens when they come and -
Mika: 13.
Eva: - come sit together.
On screen: Eva and Jonathan sit next to each other at a table.
On screen: And so I was really pleased that you did it your own way. And you didn’t just read the book like I did, but you really made the book better by doing that.
Eva: Thank you. Thank you.
On screen: So, I was really happy to see that.
On screen: Eva and Jonathan sit at a table with four children. Eva holds a pointer finger up in the air.
Eva: Twelve altogether.
On screen: Eva points to the page of the book and uses a finger to draw a circle on the page. Eva puts the finger back up in the air.
Eva: And they each have how many cookies each?
Children: Two.
Mia: Only one.
Eva: One cookie each.
On screen: On-screen, Eva.
Eva: When it was time to do the cookie cards, they also wanted to do the counting individually. They each wanted to have a turn to do the one-on-one correspondence to counting the chocolate chips on the cookies.
On screen: Eva and Jonathan sit next to each other. Two children sit on either side of them. Eva holds cards against her chest, with the images facing away from the children.
Eva: It’s going to go very fast so keep your eyes on this cookie.
On screen: Eva quickly flips a card over for the children to see before turning it back around.
Mia: One.
Mika: One.
Eva: Show me. Show me.
On screen: Eva holds up one finger in the air.
Child 3: Could you do it again?
On screen: The child sitting to Eva’s left stands up and asks to see the image again before sitting down.
Eva: Oh, show me. One. Mia’s telling me she saw one cookie. How about you, Mika? One for you? What did you see? Did you get to see it? The next one you’ll see it, okay? You’ll see the next one.
Child 3: Can I see?
Eva: You can count this one for me. How many did you see?
On screen: Eva flips the card over. The child to Eva’s left stands up and points to the card.
Child 3: One.
Eva: One.
On screen: Jonathan and Eva sit at a table next to each other. Jonathan holds a card with both hands, with the image facing the table. Jonathan holds the card up briefly so the image faces forward before returning the card to its initial position.
On screen: So we’re doing this dot talk and the dot talk can be where you go, you hold it up, flash it, and put it back down, or sometimes you kind of ...
On screen: Jonathan flips the card up and moves it through space from the left to the right. Eva points towards Jonathan.
Eva: Yes, I like that idea.
On screen: - showcase it a little bit and so that’s something to think about also.
On screen: Eva points towards Jonathan.
Eva: Yes, so I think ... Yes, that’s a good point, because I think when I did mine -
On screen: Eva holds both hands up and makes fists. Eva flips both wrists forward. While Eva talks, a video plays of Eva and Jonathan at the table with four children. Eva flips the card up briefly.
Eva: - it didn’t allow all the children to see the card -
On screen: Eva and Jonathan sit next to each other at a table. Eva holds up one hand, with the palm face down, and moves it in a circle.
Eva: - so maybe that be something I could do next time too, where they all can be engaged and have an opportunity to see the card.
Text On screen: A special thanks to the children, families, and staff of the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools’ Lighthouse Development Center, without whose help these videos would not have been possible.
Logo: Count, play, explore—for early education.