"Impact Burst" Child

As part of our PD yesterday, led by Dorothy Burt, we had to reflect on ourselves as teachers. What have we provided for our students as part of Learn, Create, Share Pedagogy. And how has this accelerated the learning for a particular child in our class. 

Putting PD into practice - Share/Model/Record

One of the 'gems' I shared in my previous post from Jo Knox's PD was how she worked her sharing time in small group situations. If one pair was sharing, another pair was modelling using materials (how that group solved their problem) and the other pair were recording it on paper. 

So I tried this out in class and it worked brilliantly! Previously, sharing time normally consists of the person(s) sharing to me but hardly anyone else in the group is listening. They are either distracted or trying to sort out their own problem ready for their time to share.

So this method of sharing is a great way to ensure that:

1. Everyone is engaged
2. You cover a triangulation of oral explanation, numbers being manipulated in an equation, and also what it looks like on hard materials. 
3. Once all 3 groups have shared, students would have been exposed to 2 or 3 different ways of solving 1 problem!

I'd encourage anyone and everyone to give this method of sharing a go. It definitely adds a much needed scaffold to the learning process.

Observing modelled lessons with Jo Knox

I have really enjoyed and found all our PD sessions with Jo Knox very valuable and applicable in the classroom. Today, Team 5 have been fortunate enough to observe 2 modelled sessions using a stage E6-6 group and a stage 7 group of students. Our area of need we asked to be addressed was how to deliver a lesson around finding decimal equivalents for fractions (e.g. expressing 1/5, 3/4, 1/3 as a decimal) using decipipes as materials.

There were so many treasures and learning points I took away from our sessions that I've tried to condense it down to 5 main points that I hope you will also find useful. 

1. Sharing/Co-constructing the WALT at the end of the lesson

As we observed Jo, we noticed that both times, at the end of the lesson she closed it off by encouraging the students to verbalise (exactly as they've been doing all session) what they have been doing. The first group had some trouble keeping the vocabulary consistent when explaining what they been trying to achieve. But the second group (Stage 7 group) were able to say exactly what they were doing. "We are learning to add decimals by taking some off one number and add it to the other to make whole numbers." I found this quite a good change of practice and as long as I have it clear in my head where I'm wanting the lesson to go, con-constructing the WALT at the end of the lesson is a great way to end off a lesson.

2. Decipipes magic

Every class needs them! They are the perfect tool when dealing with fractions, decimals and place values with numbers less than one. I watched students experimenting with tenths, finding out how many tenths you needed to make one whole. Students also used decipipes to show how a half and and quarter is written as a decimal as the only columns on the place value houses are 1/10, 1/00 and 1/000. Students used tenths decipipes to find a half, then needed the hundredths decipipes when they were trying to show a 1/4. This made it so much easier to record as they could clearly see they had 2 tenths pipes, and 5 hundredths pipes which looks like 0.25 = 1/4.

3. Teaching Model
We all know the teaching model, but at times in our haste to accelerate our students, we can sometimes miss out crucial steps in ensuring students reach that 'new knowledge/strategy' you've been aiming for. I saw these steps clearly happening in Jo's lessons and students left with 'new knowledge' and understanding. Student were given the opportunity to use materials if they needed to, or work out 1.98 + 0.65 using a strategy they knew (imaging).

4. Share/ Model/ Record
I love this method of sharing! While one pair is sharing how they solved a problem, the other pair is modelling it using the materials (in this case the decipipes) and the other pair is recording what they hear (equation format). This way, it ensures everyone in the group is paying attention, participating and forming their own understanding while others are sharing. Below is a short snippet of one group sharing while the group recording is trying to understand what they did and the modelling group is moving decipipes around to show what was shared.

5. Double number line - Equivalent fractions
This was a very effective way to show equivalent fractions as you teach your group. One of the things we've been reminded to work on to expose students to fractions that are greater than 1. This double number line was the perfect way to show 1 and a half is equivalent to 3/2. This is definitely something I will be using more often with my groups.

I have much more to share but I hope this summary can be of some help to others for now. My next steps would be to try these in my lessons and video the session to see how students respond to the learning and whether the learning is embedded for them. This would also be useful watching how patient I am in a normal class setting, with wait time, and trying to encourage student to use the correct mathematical vocabulary when explaining their learning. This should be interesting!

CoL Inquiry - SHARE checklist

I will be adding to the SHARE labels more next term as I work towards the end of year goals for my target students, extension students and my maths class as a whole.

One of the areas I need to be more explicit about is the Model/Guide section as this is split into 2 separate labels in the framework.

Publish	What happened as a result of the changes? Share evidence (artefacts of student learning, DLOs) and effective strategies.	Extensions students Hands on Geometry
Co-teach	What if my plans didn’t work? Are there different approaches?Who can help me? Peer observations, video analysis of my practice.	T3 checkpoint - Staff presentation CoL teachers leading staff meeting @ Pt England
Model / Guide	How can my findings and experiences support my peers? How is this shared?	Extensions students Strand data - pre test It’s the little things that matter
Feedback / Feedforward	What are my next steps? How will I sustain effective practice? Learner feedback? New goals?	T3 - Update on target students
Reflect	“Inquiry into the teaching–learning relationship goes hand in hand with formative assessment, in the cyclical evaluation process that goes on moment by moment, day by day, and over the longer term.” Assessment-in-the-classroom/Teaching-as-inquiry	T3 - Update on target students T3 checkpoint - Staff presentation Reflection on Geometry

CoL Inquiry - CREATE checklist

Organising my blog posts into our Manaiakalani Teaching as Inquiry Framework has enabled me to identify the gaps in my inquiry which I have not addressed. The table below clearly identifies this for me as being the Create - Innovate part of our inquiry cycle.

Create - Innovate: 
Are we capitalising on the affordances of the technology to support the Five Affordances of Learn Create Share (Engagement, Teaching Conversations, Visibility, Cognitive Challenge, Scaffolding) identified by the WFRC

Reflecting back on my inquiry, I can confidently say these things have been happening and overlap with some of my other topics discussed in my blog posts under the label "Ctry" - try new things. So I will try and distinguish the differences between the 2 labels next time and be more specific to ensure I cover this aspect of the framework.

Make a plan	What can I already do and  what do I need help with? Who are the learners? Group/class What are the goals for my practice and student achievement? Set up processes for capturing evidence about whether the strategies are working for my students.	Make a plan Teaching as Inquiry Framework PD - Creativity Empowers Learning
Try new things	It is a constant state of action, monitoring, reflection, and adjustment - and then more action. Failure may occur. Feedback from learners - how will I engage them with new learning? Do they know we’re trying something new?	End of T1 inquiry reflection Student Voice - what do they really think of maths? Rotations and half-time breaks Extensions students Strand data - pre test It’s the little things that matter
Innovate	Are we capitalising on the affordances of the technology to support the Five Affordances of Learn Create Share (Engagement, Teaching Conversations, Visibility, Cognitive Challenge, Scaffolding) identified by the WFRC
Implement	Just do it!	Success Criteria and self assessment Rotations and half-time breaks T3 - Update on target students Extensions students Strand data - pre test Hands on Geometry
Reflect	“Inquiry into the teaching–learning relationship goes hand in hand with formative assessment, in the cyclical evaluation process that goes on moment by moment, day by day, and over the longer term.” Assessment-in-the-classroom/Teaching-as-inquiry	Success Criteria and self assessment Student Voice - what do they really think of maths? Rotations and half-time breaks Mid-Year GLOSS outcomes Teaching as Inquiry Framework T3 - Update on target students Extensions students Strand data - pre test Hands on Geometry

Reflection on Geometry

As I take a look back at what we've covered so far for Geometry, and the types of hands-on activities we've been able to experience, I feel a sense of accomplishment. My goal was to try and 'create' more experiences involving movement and materials that would help imbed knowledge into learners so they would remember it further down the track. My gut feeling, based on observations and the learning conversations I've had with students , is that this has been achieved. We've still got our post test to do and mark next week, so keep an eye out for the results coming soon.

BUT...

There is a BUT to this. As I reflect and think about my 'where to next' steps, I realise, strand only makes up a small part of where students need to be at in terms of National Standards by the end of the year.

So how can I transfer these kinds of experiences, to teaching number, strategies, ratios and proportions?

I've got a plan forming in my head, after talking with members of our team, involving making punch to help with ratios. Will keep you posted on how this pans out. But for now if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear about them please.

It's the little things that matter

My inquiry has come to a point now where its the little things that matter. The small steps we take, the teachable moments in class, and the 'warm-ups'. These are the things that matter and I (and we - as a class) need to do well. Attending to these, and planning well for these will really help towards my goal of embedding knowledge into learners - for the long haul.

As part of this, I've been trying to think of engaging warm-up activities which require students to move around in order to create experiences which will help them remember the learning better.

Here is a warm-up activity we did for Geometry - Transformations last week.

Outcome - This activity really helped students to complete their set tasks and activities manipulating shapes by rotating them, flipping them or sliding them side by side. Students were able to use the warm-up activity to help them sort out what their shape will be doing based on the task they had to do. Check out some of the poses we had. 

So although we don't give warm-up games in maths too much thought, let me tell how useful it can be, as that 5-10minute game (especially if it relates to your lesson for the day) can do a world of wonders!