As term 3 kicks off I've been reflecting on my inquiry this for this year. In this reflecting I was reminded of the inquiry that I did last year. I found that I have been so focussed on my inquiry this year that I have forgotten about the things I discovered the previous year.
Things like:
- How effective materials are for learning new mathematical concepts and knowledge.
- How hands on follow up activities are effective in concretising new learning.
- How combining create to learn tasks with hands on follow up activities and materials is effective in consolidating new mathematical concepts.
Problem
How do I keep inquiring into this years inquiry while still applying the things I learnt last year? The simple answer is to 'just do it' however when you're engaging in a whole new maths pedagogy (DMIC) this is easier said than done.
Possible solution
DMIC maths sees myself working with half the class while the other half works on independent activities. My plan is to incorporate my learning from last year into the activities the children are doing when they are not with me. I haven't quite worked out what this will specifically look like however I'm determined to put something into place so that my learning from last year doesn't go to waste.
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Hi Rob. I'm in England and thinking about next PD with PLG teachers and leaders - which led me to read some posts. Yours for one. I wonder if you have thought about exploring maths in the real world - what's the maths right here in front of us? In doing this, great discussions and thinking can ensue. For example: If you explored your school's adventure play area, there would be a number of stages you could take: a) Where is there maths? In groups, they sketch and chat and create texts about the potential maths that's there. For example: Straddling across the straddle bar - THE MATHS - a) The bar lengths and spaces - What would you have to do to measure these? b) The bar sizes - diameters and circumferences. How would you measure these? c) Weight and gravity. What effort is required to move one hand from one rung to the next? Does the weight of the person matter? What about arm muscle size? How could you measure this ETC, ETC. What I'm suggesting is that relevant, motivating, authentic contexts will generate much talk and figuring out....and when suggestions are shared, and justifications expected, rich maths and maths language dialogue will occur. Anyway...my thoughts right now. Take them or leave them. Jannie
ReplyDeleteHi Jannie, thanks for your thoughts. You have given me a lot to think about. I do like the idea of using real world maths. I try to do this with my problems, making sure the children can connect to the context but I have yet to take that next step of giving them a hands on/practical experience to engage them further. I can see this would give them much more of a rick experience which will hopefully motivate and generate greater discussion. Thanks for the advice Jannie.
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