Manaiakalani Hui Inquiry update

On Friday I was privilege to share my inquiry at the Manaiakalani Hui. At the event we our video played and everyone at the Hui got to choose a table to go to and talk with the people there. I really enjoyed the conversations had at my table and some of the questions and connections I made from this event.

I hope you enjoy this video summary of my inquiry. Please leave any question you might have as I would love to talk with you about my journey.

Feedback on my tool

Thanks to Zac Moran for sharing some insightful feedback on my tool. 

Today we got the opportunity to give Feedback to one of our colleagues tools that they have created.  Clarelle has created a site that is still in progress but nearly finished, this site is for learners and teachers to help build vocabulary in mathematics.

Clarelle has worked really hard over the last 6 months creating a tool that can be used to help learners build vocabulary in mathematics.  Not only will this help learners in mathematics but will go across the curriculum and help build vocabulary in so many different areas.

Clarelle has placed laminated cards around her classroom so her learners are able to go to them when they need help.  These cards have a QR code on them where learners are able to use their iPad to take them to her site where her learners have made short videos explaining what these words mean and how to use these different prompts.

The only problem that she is facing is that the videos don't open on phones via Google Drive, but her learners are using iPads so that won't be a problem.

This site will bless so many people and is extremely helpful with our new DMIC approach to mathematics this year.

MIT Tool feedback

Today the MIT teachers had another wonderful day at KPMG. As part of our day we explored our inquiry projects and talked about our next steps for amplifying these inquiries.

Rebecca's inquiry focuses on increasing critical literacy in her classroom through argumentation. She has also been using a range of prompts to support critical and inclusive discussion in her classroom. 

Her tool focuses on sharing the prompts and the discussion boards that she has used to provoke critical thinking.

Some of the collective feedback for Rebecca was to provide more description around how teacher can effectively engage students in using the discussion boards. We also suggested that she adding an about this tool page to provide more support for the users of her resource.

Inquiry update Term 3

This week I had a release day to work on my MIT (Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher). The focus for my day was to amplify my Inquiry and step up the interaction and conversation in my classroom.

As a result of this my students and I talked about the vocabulary we have been learning through our discussion based mathematics and created rewindable videos that children can watch to remind themselves of the words we have learnt.

We also learnt to use a range of discussion prompts which can been seen in my earlier blog post.

In order to make this accessible for the learners and other teachers. I created a site which makes all this visible and links to QR codes which students can scan and see a model to support them. Click here to see the site.

Please note that this is not a finished site and will continue to develop throughout the year. 

Building a common language

Now that our students know the class norms of DMiC (Developing Mathematical inquiring Communities) it is time to step it up and demand mathematical language and interaction from all students. I have been thinking about this a lot over the last three weeks and as a result of my observation in class and the professional learning we have had I am going to introduce some conversation scaffolds.

The idea behind these scaffolds is 3 fold. The first set aim to provide correct mathematical language and sentence structure for sharing an idea. They also aim to give students who still struggle to find a place to start or their voice to share a guide to join in.

These prompts are reminders of what the children already know but at times forget as this process is still becoming 100% embedded in our classroom. 

The second set of prompts is about increasing the level of back and forth conversation within the small groups. I have noticed that students in my class will take the first idea and stick with it without agreeing or disagreeing. 

I choose these prompts because it is clear that we need to develop more talk around the strategies being used to help the whole group understand the mathematical thinking. 

I added these prompts because of the professional learning we did yesterday and the need to now push kids to ask Why and think beyond the how of the mathematical thinking but why did we choose that strategy. I also provides the opportunity for critique and rethinking. 

My next step with these cards is to get students modelling how to use them and adding QR codes to the cards so that students how are unsure can watch the video and see how these can help them converse in mathematics. 

DMIC Professional learning

The Journey

As we begin to feel more comfortable it is time to let go of some of the things we have picked up. It is time to think more about what every child brings to the mathematics learning. 

When we think about our social group it is not as much about how 'good' they are at working with numbers but about all they bring. Do they talk a lot and are good at sharing? Are they all very quiet and need a chance to speak? 

It's time to:

-Think about how they work together

-Do the Boys and girls work well together

-Keep quiet and give the kids time to talk and 'wait time'

-Give opportunities to talk with turn and talk etc. 

-Try to keep your language inclusive, 'we' your groups learning. 

Justifying and Arguing Mathematically

This is about extending students thinking and pushing kids to reason and explain. It is time know to choose justification norms which we can now add to our mathematical discussions. I believe it is time to build on our group norms and add to the norms. This may be We provide reason for our mathematical problem solving, or We agree or disagree with mathematical thinking and explain why. 

As a school and a team we could build up and back of questions and prompts that will require students to justify and argue. 

Require that students prepare wats to re-explain in a different way an explanation to justify it. 

We talked about how we as teachers can make justifying happen. I have been using these reasoning prompts: 

Generalising: 
This comes towards the end and often the kids are struggling to focus. You may want to jump straight in a leave the warm up until the end. What questions with extend the generalisation.
-Does it always work?
-Can you see any patterns? What are the patterns?
-How is this the same or different from...?
-Would it work with all numbers?
-Look at multiple examples is the rule the same?
-Could you do this with.....?
-Does it still work...?

CoL Reflecting What Now? Conversation 3

So what now? I have talked about where I am at and now I believe this conversation needs to look at what next. 

As we come into term 3 I feel like some of the conflict is lifted. Now is the time to bring it together, step it up and keep moving forward! 

As I look at refining my intervention I thought of 5 things that I am doing but that need stepping up or changing. 

1. Focusing the activities even more to make sure they provide the best opportunity for recycling of language, use of language and development of understanding. I will do this by making the language central to the task. I have a few ideas about how I want to do this. Firstly making sure the language specific to the learning is visible in written and oral forms.  Secondly given students a chance to create example of language. A fraction is....... explainer videos. This could ideally big picture -My wish- lead to a word wall that is digitally interactive. 

2. Planning more closely at the language. This links closely to point 1. I need to think even more closely about the language in my problems and activities and make sure this is clear in my planning. 

3. Providing discussion scaffolds. I know that conversation and discussion is a struggle for many of our learners. I want to add to the stills our children have been learning in DMiC. I believe that students having a physical scaffold they can hold and touch will support this further. 

4. Providing texts that support mathematical language. This is around building a link between literacy and mathematics. I want to connect the mathematical language, concepts and ideas to a story or text. This would provide a context for problems that are real while building the knowledge that mathematic is across the curriculum. 

5. Using video recording and analysis to really understand at the quantifiable level the impact of the action that I am taking. This would happen over a two week cycle as we rotate or learners every 2 weeks to develop a classroom culture that we are all  one class with two teachers who learn in different ways each term. 

I believe this is accelerate learning because it is just stepping up and adding to what I have already been doing but really stepping it up!

CoL Reflecting on my actions Conversation 2

As we continue to explore our inquiries it is important to look at what has worked, what has changed and for who. I have been thinking about this a lot. What is my impact and how do I really know that I am having one. Yes I know that sounds a bit strange but it is really important to me that the things I plan and run through over and over in my head are seen by the children as having the desired impact and if they are not why. 

What have I done differently:
-I have introduced frameworks for discussing the norms of mathematics in the classroom. I have intentionally been discussing this framework daily with the kids to build a knowledge of the language and develop a positive mindset for my learners. This is something I first saw in Rob Wiseman's Class.
-I have been choosing vocabulary that I know the children struggle with and unpacking it for the learners in the launch of the problems. I have been thinking carefully about the vocabulary in the follow up activities for the children to ensure that language is recycling of language.

I know that I have done something differently because we are all taking on new a approach to mathematic. I am constantly reflecting and considering What Next?

I feel that I always want to do everything but that is not reality is it. For that reason I believe that a lot of the changes that have happened have been the intended changes however there is always times where things do not go to plan.