Some Baseline Data

PROBLEM: My kids struggle to explain and justify their thinking and reasoning in maths.

WONDERING: How can I develop the mathematical dialogic discourse ability of my children?

This week I recorded my target kids collectively solving a problem. My goal was to capture and measure their ability to explain their thinking and inquire about other's. I noted done each time each child used any of the phrases, or similar phrases below. The kids worked on the problem for 15 minutes and this is their results.It's worth noting that two of the target group were not there that day. Their row has been marked with a -. 

It's interesting to see that the children did try to express what they are thinking however it often wasn't backed up with a reason. The word 'because' was seldom used and the others were left to infer the mathematica thinking and process from what was said e.g "You add 20 to 100 and then you....". Equally interesting is that only one child asked for further information/explanation from others as they expressed their thinking.

This married up with what I have been seeing anecdotally so it's nice to have some actual data. We clearly have a long way to go in developing a community where kids can confidently express their thinking and inquire of others. My next steps involve explicitly teaching the kids how to express and justify their mathematical thinking. My kids need to view each other as both a learner and teacher. They need to connect with the idea that they can learn from their peers and that what their peers have to say is valuable.

Inquiry update: Let the recording begin!

PROBLEM: My kids struggle to explain and justify their thinking and reasoning in maths.

WONDERING: How can I develop the mathematical dialogic discourse ability of my children?

While I had every intention last term of recording my students in order to measure their mathematical dialogic discourse ability, due to the business of school life and external factors (a baby being born 5 weeks earlier than expected) this did not happen. 

However it's now week one of term two and I will be recording this week! It's going to be great to have some baseline data on my kids, a reference point to build from. I only wish I had done this earlier as anecdoatally I have already seen my target kids become more confident in their ability to engage in mathematical dialogic discourse. 

Measuring my kid's dialogic discourse ability

PROBLEM: My kids struggle to explain and justify their thinking and reasoning in maths.

WONDERING: How can I develop the mathematical dialogic discourse ability of my children?

As mentioned in a prior post,  to measure the dialogic discourse of the ability of my kids I will be recording my target group during their maths lesson and I'll be noting down each time a child uses specific justifying and explaining language and each time they inquire about others people thinking. Below is a list of questions and statements I will be listening out for. If you think I have left something out I'd be keen to hear from you.

My target group

PROBLEM: My kids struggle to explain and justify their thinking and reasoning in maths.

WONDERING: How can I develop the mathematical dialogic discourse ability of my children?

My target group is made up of 3 boys and 3 girls. They were selected because they struggle to vocalise what they are thinking but more importantly they are kids who work well when given a task and would be up for a challenge. Three of the children are naturally quieter than some which may be a contributing factor to them struggling to share their thinking.

My next steps involve hearing from the children themselves. I want to find how they feel about  sharing their own opinions and thinking, how easy they find it and if they find it a challenge what are the contributing factors that make it a challenge. Watch this space.

Back to the drawing board - My new wondering

As mentioned earlier my Manaikalani COL inquiry wondering was "How can I use Developing Mathematics Inquiry Communities (DMIC) pedagogy to develop the vocabulary of my kids? The focus was on developing my kids general vocabulary using DMIC maths.

Having done some research into vocabulary development I have since decided that trying to develop general vocabulary requires different pedagogy to that of  DMIC maths. I was also challenged by Dr Rebecca Jesson to think more about the problem I'm trying to solve before I think about how I'm going to go about solving it e.g vocabulary development pedagogy or DMIC maths. This was great advice and I have now identified the problem I wish to inquire in to.

PROBLEM: My kids struggle to explain and justify their thinking and reasoning in maths.

In fact the struggle to do this in other areas too however it is particularly poor in maths (my hunch is if it improves in maths it will also improve in other areas). This lead me to a new wondering. 

WONDERING: How can I develop the mathematical dialogic discourse ability of my children?

This year I will be endeavouring to find a solution to this problem. Any thoughts/ideas you have on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

Decimal place value knowledge - Materials, materials, materials!

Last week our team was fortunate enough to have a tailored session with Jo Knox about about assessing and teaching maths in Year 7 & 8.  While the whole session was very useful the part I found most helpful was Jo's take on teaching decimal place value knowledge.

For my CoL inquiry I'm inquiring into how I can significantly develop the math knowledge of my children. This term I am focussing on developing their decimal place value knowledge.

When I asked Jo how she goes about teaching decimal place value her response was 'Materials, materials, materials' She said using materials such as decipipes, decimats, chocolate bars and bundles of 10 ice block sticks are imperative in developing conceptual decimal understanding.

The idea of using materials to develop decimal knowledge is also supported by NZ Maths which states "In developing an understanding of decimal numbers and their relative size, it is important that the students themselves use equipment to create a range of physical representations of numbers". With this in mind I will be endeavouring to create rich learning experiences using materials. I hypothesis that this combined with rich create activities will develop my children's knowledge of decimal place value and other mathematical concepts. I'll keep you posted on how I get on.

Manaiakalani Community of Learning

“Recognising and spreading sophisticated pedagogical practice across our community so that students learn in better and more powerful ways...”

The Manaiakalani Community of Learning is working together on this task using the expertise existing in of our community of learning.

In 2017 for my inquiry I have selected the following CoL achievement challenge 

#6. Lift the achievement in maths for all students years 1-13.

More specifically my focus question is :

How can I significantly improve my Year 7 & 8 kids mathematical knowledge within a Learn Create Share pedagogy?

The teaching as inquiry framework I will be using in 2017 has been specifically co-constructed for Manaiakalani schools using our familiar Learn Create Share structure.
The elements in this framework share close similarities with other models New Zealand teachers use.

I will be labelling my posts as I update my inquiry throughout the year to make the content easy to access.

Labels:

LEvidence, LScan, LTrend, LHypothesise, LResearch, LReflect,

 CPlan, CTry, CInnovate, CImplement, CReflect,

SPublish, SCoteach, SModel, SGuide, SFback, SReflect

Label Key:

LEvidence	Learn - Gather Evidence	CPlan	Create - Make a plan	SPublish	Share - Publish
LScan	Learn - Scan	CTry	Create - Try new things	SCoteach	Share - Co-teach
LTrend	Learn - Identify Trends	CInnovate	Create - Innovate	SModel	Share - Model
LHypothesise	Learn - Hypothesise	CImplement	Create - Implement	SGuide	Share - Guide
LResearch	Learn - Research	CReflect	Create - Reflect	SFback	Share - Feedback
LReflect	Learn - Reflect			SReflect	Share - Reflect