Rethinking Mathematics - Developing mathematical inquiry in a learning community - Part 1

This year Rawhiti School will be working with the DMIC programme to accelerate our learners in mathematics.

These are my notes for the first PD session:

• Why: our work with Manaiakalani has seen an improvement in writing, but there is a need for maths PD to accelerate our students
• What is DMIC - a pedagogy for mathematics teaching and learning
• For students, it is just mathematics, no labels.
• Reflect:
• What do I think are the reasons some of our students do not achieve in mathematics?
• relevance in their lives and experience
• prior knowledge
• messaging from home/ reports
• What things do you do to help them?
• assessment
• lessons based on gaps identified in PAT
• finding student interests and align lessons with current inquiry learning
• Maori Yr 8 achieving @ Lv 4 is 27%, Pasifika students at Yr 8 achieving @ Lv 4 is 24%
• How confident do you feel about meeting their needs?
• Reasonably confident, I certainly get them thinking. 
• I am aware that many still have key gaps
•  Does our practice get in the way of our students? Deficit theorising of our students
• Put culture at the centre
• Why does it matter?
• The socio-political and economic impact affects students negatively
• This leads to increased underachievement and inequity in our maths classrooms
• Recognise that culture and mathematics are intertwined
• Cultures of Maori, Pasifika are strengths
• De-silence race in maths which occurs through colour blindness and whiteness
• Attend to racial ascription: e.g. groups that see themselves as other
• Look at the status we put on certain students in our class
• What is DMIC?
• Connected, rich mathematical thinking and reasoning
• Proficient use of mathematical practices
• Inquiry learning within mathematics
• Social grouping and group worthing problematic activity
• High expectations and inclusion
• Culturally sustaining teaching and learning
• Co-construction teaching, co-constructing learning
• Role of mentors
• Co-construction effective pedagogy and improved learning outcomes
• "Pause"
• Reflectively examine, explore, and adapt practices
• Designed to open up the teacher's potential growth in both mathematical and culturally responsive pedagogical practices
• Setting up the classroom: Senior
• The class split into halves - each half is seen on alternate days
• Strength-based social grouping
• Groups of four, one pen and one book
• One challenging task (if any student can solve it on their own it is not challenging)
• Encourage recording and multiple representations
• What modelling and behaviour expectations are needed prior to learning?
• One Lesson: Seniors
• 10 min warm-up
• 10 min group norms/ launch
• What is happening in the story? What is it you have to find out?
• 15 min small group activity
• 15 min Large group discussion
• 10 min Making connections to the big idea
• Planning
• Big Idea
• AO
• Task
• Possible solutions
• Possible misconceptions
• Connect/ generalising 
• Mathematical Practices
• These are the things that successful mathematical learners and users do. 
• Making a claim
• Developing a mathematical explanation
• Justifying thinking
• Construction viable arguments
• Generalising
• Representing thinking
• Launch
• Focus on the context
• Ask what is happening in this story? ask others to add or repeat and revoice thinking.
• Ask so what is it asking us to find out? avoid operation talk
• Task example: Leitoria is making ule lole for prize giving. Every ule lole has 29 lollies in it, and she needs 15 of them. How many lollies will she need?

Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher 2019 - KPMG Final Day

Session One - Reflection

The day began with a series of questions and a discussion on the impact of the MIT programme.

WHERE HAVE I GOT TO?

The tool and Literacy Circle Conversation programme, in various forms, has been running since term 2. At this stage, my students are moving on with a different focus in their literacy. One colleague in my studio has used the tool and seen a high level of engagement.

HOW HAS MY PROJECT IMPACTED: SCHOOL? CLUSTER? MANAIAKALANI?

I have presented my Wananga presentation to our Board of Trustees. My principal would like to trial the Literature Circle Conversation programme with our senior students. There is a discussion of Amber and I presenting our final presentation at the next cluster Teacher Only Day, and possibly running a smaller Innovative Teacher programme within our cluster.

WITH THE POWER OF HINDSIGHT, WOULD I DO IT AGAIN?

I am always ready to change my teaching programme and try something new. Now that I have a better understanding of design thinking and ideation, I will look at new goals for 2020 with my new students. I would do this, or something similar, again.

WHAT HAS WORKED WELL IN 2019?

Being challenged by my peers to get to the “why do this thing”. Having the chance to keep the bones of my idea, but then having changes that make it more workable in the learning space. Seeing the results in my students, and the shift in their attitude has demonstrated impact. Having the chance to step up in front of an audience to be the expert has been something I have working up to.

WHAT RECOMMENDATIONS DO YOU HAVE FOR 2020?

Perhaps provide a rough outline/ links to information about the design thinking process and ideation before going in, particularly for those of us who haven’t done this before. Co-construct the use of tools like Viber to coordinate Hangouts and release days to develop critical friend roles and coaching.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? - Next year? 3 years? 10 years?

To continue to use the tool in a new learning space and across the curriculum. Rolling it out across the school and cluster. Looking for the highest need in the new space to find a new inquiry. Looking forward to presenting it at conferences and toolkits.

Session Two - Telling my story

00:00 Introduction
00:25 The Problem
00:51 Where I started
01:33 My Inquiry - in a nutshell
02:02 LIT CIR CON - the digital tool
02:17 Example of student feedback
03:05 Student and teacher resources on LIT CIR CON
03:49 The LIT CIR CON Process
04:48 Measuring success and seeing the impact on learners
06:17 Target student data
10:04 Cohort and class data
11:23 Student voice video

MIT 19 Cohort Website

Learning In the Fast Lane chapter 7 - Student Motivation

Title of Book/Reading/Study Programme

Learning in the Fast Lane

Author

Suzy Pepper Rollins

Synopsis

This chapter is primarily about student motivation when they work. The central thesis is students need to see the VALUE of the work they are doing, and have the CONFIDENCE to engage with the task. Confidence comes through earlier chapters as tasks are scaffolded for success, Value comes through student agency and interest.

Motivation

Having students want to engage in their learning. We have about 90% - 95% of students who are engaged, and then another 10% who don't engage.

How will it help me? How has it helped me?

A reminder of the importance of developing relationships and setting high-value tasks that engage students in learning.

Manaiakalani Wananga 2019 - Presenting my Inquiry

Today I presented a summary of my MIT Inquiry into literature circles, video creation and a shared blog.

Above is my presentation with speaker notes on alternate slides.

There were several key takeaways from this day:
- Change the subject of reading  into the practice of reading across the curriculum
- There was a positive response to the data and findings from the inquiry (slides 19, 21, 24)
- In 2020 there will be a focus on reading. Much of my inquiry aligns with the Wolf-Fisher suggestions for lifting reading achievement - reading authentic texts, extended reading of a single text, extended discussion and conferencing, reading strategies, critical thinking, co-authorship and agency.

Next steps:
- Get some comparative data from within the school.
- Continue to develop the teacher section of the LIT CIR CON blog
- How do I implement the programme for 2020? New studio, new team, new students

Learning in the Fast Lane - Student Work Sessions

Title of Book

Learning in the Fast Lane

Author

Suzy Pepper Rollins

Synopsis

In this chapter, Rollins discusses how low-level work for struggling students is not engaging or useful. It covers a number of strategies that encourage collaboration and accountability for students with their peers. There is a strong correlation between the strategies mentioned and how I have been running my Literacy Circle Conversation reading programme.

How will it help me? 

Use the metacognition strategies in reading - VIP, Sticky notes etc





 Discussion

Learning in the Fast Lane - Chapter 5 - Vocabulary Development

Here is our discussion on Chapter 5 of Learning in the Fast Lane by Suzy Pepper Rollins.




Title of Book

Learning in the Fast Lane - Chapter 5 - Vocabulary Development

Author

Suzy Pepper Rollins

Synopsis

Many students arrive at school with up 70% less vocabulary than their peers. Here are some strategies for developing student strategies and exposing students to new words 6 times. These should be visual, interactive and collaborative.


How will it help me? How has it helped me?

I have used several of these strategies with my Level 1b writers. They have developed an understanding of key science vocabulary (e.g. force, energy, friction, vibration).

I need to include using the strategies for incidental vocabulary.

Literacy Circle Conversation Student Resources

After our last KPMG day (The Dragon's Den), I decided to create resources to help students understand their roles better. These I have linked to the updated script, which is now a Google Presentation.




This Presentation has become the end result of several scripts, reading reflections and storyboards my class has used throughout the year. My students found previous reflections and scripts time-consuming and without purpose. Having the script as a presentation provides the students' another opportunity to collaboratively process their thinking.

Below are the accompanying resources for LIT CIR CON. Each relates to the roles as described by Lauren Coccia in her paper Literature Circles and Their Improvement of
Comprehension.

I would like to point out that these are the roles being used by my Year 6 students as I believe they align with the key comprehension strategies students need to interact with texts in Year 6 and beyond. In other cooperative literacy activities similar to literacy circles, such as reciprocal reading, there are similar roles. However, in reciprocal reading, the text tends to be attacked in smaller chunks page-by-page. In literacy circles the text is approached as a whole by each student.





Please feel free to make copies and changes as you see fit.