It's fantastic to be back! This is my first week back after five weeks of recovering at home after a craniotomy. Tuesday was my first day back in class, and I'm still feeling a bit wiped out afterwards despite having yesterday at home to rest. Having been out of class for half the term, I'm eager to set up some great systems again, while not flipping everything on its head from what has been happening. Fingers crossed I'm still upright this afternoon.
I'm hitting the ground running, catching up with what has changed in my classroom in my absence, as well as what I've missed in my MPI absence. It's exciting to think that what we are focusing on is exactly what is on point for my class NOW. I'm nervous about how my PCK fits with what the RTLB's, who have been working with my team in my absence, are wanting to implement. I believe that doing the above is what the kids in front of me really need.
I'm in a particular quandry because my class and atepped back in time. Their learning site has not been utilised, and their devices are not being harnessed to amplify their learning. I'm also mindful that we are changing our classes next term. Currently, we interchange for math and I teach all of the Year 5's. Next term, based on recommendations from the RTLB's it sounds like we are moving to retaining our home class and teaching to the split year levels, which for me means Year 5 and 6. I don't mind this change, however, I am mindful that it will mean a change to any timetabling and groupings set up. It's quite a daunting situation to be stepping back into mid-term, along with all the other changes coming into effect around planning, assessment and reporting. It's a lot to get through in three days of teaching each week.
Do we gatekeep these skills? Or do we harness it as a tool for students to understand the steps they aren't embedding to get to the end point.
These can be confidence boosters for teachers as well.
We need to be factoring all of these things in for our teaching to really harness the power that digital affordances can bring to our classrooms.
I love the idea of kids creating a podcast using Google Vids to share their methods for solving problems etc. I can see this really being lapped up by the kids in my class! It's also a great formative assessment opportunity! I have been wanting to get my kids actively podcasting anyway, and had been focusing on other areas, such as Literacy and Inquiry... but why not Math!? In my absence, my class hasn't been blogging much, so this is a great opportunity to merge these needs to amplify the impact.
Number Talk
Math TalkI have seen fantastic growth in the learners' skills to verbalise their thinking. They are sharing ideas more and are less afraid of being wrong. Explicitly teaching students to use the math Processes and language.
Math talk is like the practice of communicating, using Ground Rules for Talk, so that it becomes a default for the students throughout the entire Math Lesson (and wider classroom learning). In my absence, the learners have gone back to putting their hands up and being passive in discussions. I need to get the Math Talk Move posters back up in the classroom and have them back at the forefront, setting an expectation for how we operate as a class.
Number Talk must be a problem that can be solved mentally in a number of different ways. Students get excited about coming up with a different way than their peers... or figuring out how their peers came to see it in a different way. It's another really empowering exercise for learners who don't always see themselves as successful mathematicians.
Examples of kids showing different representations of their thinking. By sharing with each other, they are opening it up for other ideas and ways of thinking.
Algebra is absolutely everywhere in authentic purposes. It links to absolutely everything. This could easily be tapped into throughout the year to make connections. I'm not sure my current class actually understands the proper meaning of "=". I specifically taught it last year to year three's, but I have just assumed that they have that understanding this year. We have been converting mixed numbers to improper fractions, using an equals sign, under the assumption that they know what that most basic of symbols means.
The progression of algebra.
This is a really key foundation for children to develop. If they haven't had the exposure, they often need to roll back and explore to have a foundation to build upon. While working with Year three last year, patterning was the core skill that most of the learners were lesss developed in. It would be easy to draw an assumption that many of our older learners may also be underdeveloped.
The = equal sign is probably one of the best examples of the assumption of understanding. People see the equals sign and automatically think "answer," whereas it's so much better to link it to the balance of scales. Both sides of the scale have an equivalent value.
Explicitly teaching the vocabulary is crucial. In planning for a rich curriculum, I need to be including create activities for key math vocabulary
The equal sign indicates a relationship, NOT A RESULT.
Add a
maths dictionary to the learning site and get them to create their own Math dictionary.
Symbols and Expressions
Some of these symbols, I haven't actually encountered!
By using lots of different ways to express our thinking, it's really important to use the CPA approach. This enables them to transfer understandings.
It's really concerning that only 30% of Year 6 students got this answer correct. It's also a stark contrast to the message that the government keeps sending, saying that evidence is showing how successful the new curriculum implementation is.
Sometimes we are asked to "underline the keyword", but it often isn't what we need to make sense of the problem.
I love this idea of removing the numbers to help the learners make sense of the problems. It really hones in on "what is the problem asking us to find out?"
BODMAS (or BEDMAS) - This is one of the things that actually still sticks in my head from back in the dark ages, when I was at school!
Same understanding, just a different format for a new generation:
Learners need to understand that an unknown isn't always the answer!
Our learners really need to learn this EARLY!
The difference between adding zero AND adding a placeholder (zero).
The sum of three numbers stays the same, no matter the order we do it in.
This is really important when incorporating brackets.
Looking at the progressions really highlights the importance of ensuring learners are exposed to the Year level learning so that they are building learning in layers. Once a layer has a gap in it, it weakens the structure.
Variables and Linear Relationships
Based on what we have looked at today, the elements I need to focus on harnessing these to plan for rich create tasks, which include those different opportunities to engage with the problem to cater to the differing ways of students' thinking.
I have set myself a rather large elephant to start nibbling on. I'm currently sitting at my dining table surrounded by post-it notes... with things to explore; what to include in my planning and taskboard; Links to the Long Term Plan, noting where we are now and where we need to head; what the week's structure might look like to factor in the days that I'm not there and someone else is in. Particularly noting that I may not know who they may be!
I've also mapped out a new math taskboard (on paper), including rewindable learning and independent tasks to be completed.
I'm going to "whip" all of this. up tomorrow, ready to hit the ground running with next week (although it has just dawned on me that there is no Monday due to King's Birthday). I hate feeling like there isn't a clear plan. I need framing to be able to work within the fences, so to speak.
So... While some of these changes that I plan on implementing may have already been covered and been previously planned changes... It's like wiping the slate clean and moving forward intentionally!
