Maths Inquiry - hands on follow up instead of worksheets

Teaching as Inquiry:  Hands on peer interaction instead of worksheets as a follow-up activity for a rotation task

27/03/15

My maths follow-up is worksheet based and frankly boring. My goal is to try a hands on approach by using more resources / equipment to practise what they have just learnt. I will endeavour to find BSM equipment and implement more resources.

28/03/15

I've begun the hands on follow-up (no worksheet follow-up). I sent my little group away to practise their learning intention (drawing a fraction of a shape) with a buddy. They had to take turns asking the question to their buddy (like I had just been doing to them) and the buddy had to record their answer on their little white boards (there are questions on PACT that ask whether or not a child can turn 3+4 into a word problem and/or write an equation). When it was time to move onto the next rotation and the children were putting their white boards away I heard 'Mr B' say to his partner "That was fun".  And I thought "Fabulous!"
Later on I did wonder why he thought it was fun, whether it was because they were in charge of their learning and they got a chance to ask the questions, or because they got to work in pairs, or was it because their was no pressure to try and complete a worksheet by themselves. So I will follow that up as well as end my lessons properly and get the class to re-join on the mat for recapping of learning intentions and get the children to reflect on what they enjoyed, I will ask how I could improve their learning, what worked for them and what didn't. So finding out things I need to follow up on ... piece of cake :)

 

22 May 2015
My Inquiry has shifted its focus slightly from providing hands on follow-up (no worksheets) and promoting maths as an enjoyable subject to promoting student discourse while doing hands on follow-up using equipment.  I want to find out if this sharing of an activity and talking about how to solve problems with their peers will help with their learning.  They are sent away to practise task we were doing as a group in peers.

How will I measure this as effective?
Through observations and conversations with my students,  I could get them to demonstrate how to solve a problem or get them to explain how to work out a problem e.g. snap shots. Once they can demonstrate how to solve a specific problem move them onto the next learning step.

After videoing three groups I discovered that most students enjoyed working with others. However, only two of the groups seemed to be working things out together as one child was explaining how he was working out the answer to the other student.

*insert videos

• Problem: One group wasn't discussing how they were working out the problem but rather working as individuals and solving the problem by themselves.

• Solution: Clarity in the Classroom - ensure everyone knows what the learning intention is and co-construct the success criteria, so everyone is aware of how to be successful. 
• Ensure children know what to do if someone in their group says "I don't know" or "I don't get it".  Model such predicaments and have children in the group explain how to work it out. Ensure that I - the teacher, do not dominate the conversation but to let the children do the talking.
• Ask the children what they would prefer to do (student agency), that is to work together or to each solve a problem by themselves while the other child watches and checks to see if they are on the right track.

25 May 2015
Reflection: I spoke to Ingrid about my Inquiry as she is doing ALL Maths and her focus is on student discourse.  I told her about my videos and what I discovered.  This inspired her to collect video evidence as well. So I don't know if I am on the right track ... but at least I inspired someone :)

15 June 2015
A few weeks ago we had to share our Inquiries to those teachers in our team.  These were all worth viewing and reflecting on. 
Last week I observed one of the teachers in my team and guess what? She was doing hands on follow-up with a peer for maths instead of worksheets or answering questions off the board. She was also implementing another team member's inquiry which was using the IWB as a hands on rotation task.  AWESOME!!  This inspired me to hurry up and to do the same thing. So the next day I moved the teaching station away from the IWB to clear a space in front of it so it could be easily accessed by the children.
Now my IWB is part of my maths rotation tasks, the children take turns at playing the basic facts/knowledge games.

Teaching as Inquiry - Co-constructing WALTS and Success Criteria

My school is at present using 'Clarity in the Classroom' to help improve priority students achievement levels.  We were each observed and videoed taking a reading lesson.
After reflecting on my observation my goal is to improve the use of success criteria in reading and to also ask the students why we are  doing this?

Plan of Action:

• Ensure the success criteria is recorded on the task board.
• I will record the WALT, Why, and Success Criteria in a modelling book which will be opened on the table to prompt me to constantly refer to these at the beginning of the lesson, during the lesson if needed and at the end of the lesson as a recap.
• I will also use the modelling book to record new vocabulary, contractions, vowel blends and rules, punctuation, main points etc, which occur during the reading of text.

First week: "WHY"
My first focus will be on "Why we are doing this?" as my students struggled to explain this during my observation.

Reflection:
The groups answer to WHY is to move up a level but with some further questioning and prompting I can now write things like ... to understand the story.
This small group of girls wanted me to write their names beside the WALTS so we could see who it pertained to.  This blew me away as they were showing ownership of their learning intention.


 It didn't take long for them to click on why we choose to do certain learning intentions once I got my modelling book up and running and asked them WHY each reading session.  So they now longer say we are learning this WALT so we can move up a level, they now say ... to understand the story. The photo below has an example of the children's answer to WHY and the WALT and Success Criteria is co-constructed.



They are getting the hang of answering why. So now I will shift my focus onto letting them know their strengths and what they need to work on according to recent running record results. Their weaknesses will now become their learning intention.

10 June 2015
Each reading group can now co-construct their WALTs and Success Criteria and answer WHY.
I have in included another aspect into my inquiry, as this group "Penguins"  were left with  questions that weren't answered after predicting and discussing each picture. So we recorded them down and these questions became the focus when we read ... we wanted to find out the answers to these questions:

 

 

Teaching as Inquiry - Priority Maori Students and Accelerating Reading

27/03/15 - Reading For Meaning

My Priority Maori students identified for reading are currently reading at Green 2.

Both are not reading for meaning or paying attention to what the text is saying.
My goals for them is to read for meaning and to know their learning intentions and success criteria.
How they are going to achieve that goal?
I intend to achieve this by using Alison Davis' suggestions of using cloze activities.  Even though cloze is designed to help improve comprehension it also requires one to read on and think what would make sense in the gap. I will be creating cloze activities from their instructional books to get them to read for meaning.  I will emphasise the learning intention and get them to verbalise it. I will ask them: "What are you learning to do today?"  "Why are we doing the cloze?" "What reading strategy do you need to use to find the missing words?"
They will know why they are doing the cloze sheet "to read for meaning" to improve their understanding.
They are both slow to get organised and come to the teaching station. So they will know my expectations of getting ready and coming to the table quickly.

*insert cloze example

15 June 2015
This term I am doing "Clarity in the Classroom" with all my reading groups.  All teachers were videoed while taking a reading lesson.  From the follow-up and self-reflection from this I was determined to co-construct the learning intentions and success criteria. I also wanted my groups to be able to express why they are leaning these WALTs.
Reflection:
I was impressed with my Priority group of 2 boys today.  They come to the teaching station quickly and come prepared with their book bags and reading activity books.  They can co-construct their WALTs and success criteria and can say why they are learning it.  They are reading with more fluency and are paying attention to what they read as they can retell the main points from each page.  They sound out their new words, blend these and (still need some prompting) will read on for meaning. They both seem to be more switched on and can predict, retell, and are decoding words quicker than before. They have finally moved off Green 3 and have just started Orange 1 today. Check out their co-constructed WALTs and Success Criteria.

*insert photo of modelling book

Writing Conference PD Auckland 2015

Gail Loane PD
Jeff Anderson: Effective Writing PD Notes

PaCT PD

Wednesday 3 June

Yesterday we had teacher only day on the assessment tool PaCT centred around writing.  PaCT supports teachers to make overall judgements on their students.  The aspects or set you select for each area is placed on a graded continuum and PaCT requires you to make a best fit judgement.  Once you have completed your judgements the PaCT tool then puts this information onto a graph and aligns the final result with National Standards. 

I was already familiar with the basic workings of PaCT as last year we used PaCT to make overall judgements for our students in mathematics.  Hence, I knew how to select an aspect, confirm judgement, and view the results of individual students.  I was that impressed with the maths examples that I implemented some of the ideas into my maths programme last year and again this year.

By the end of the day I had completed my whole class judgements for writing using PaCT, so it took around 3 hours.  I really like how PaCT has a range of examples to help you make the best fit and I liked some of the planning ideas I saw in the PaCT examples.  I wish our writing sample rubric had examples to help make a best fit and that there was a definite set of different criteria for students to meet when moving up through the levels, instead of a slight difference.