My beliefs around learning Maths

Following on from Sharon's sharing I have been wondering about my beliefs about Maths teaching and learning. So far these are my beliefs (perhaps most will end up to be practices!!);

• hands on manipulation of materials helps their learning
• playing games (having fun) helps consolidate ideas
• following from this - winning boosts confidence
• worksheets have a place - as an assessment / progress checkin
• unless practising writing numbers, worksheets don't help learning (unless used as above!)
• to make self-directed at maths time
  • need to teach learning tasks
  • have tasks that are levelled correctly
  • encourage use of GM
• Juniors need lots of short, sharp DAT then consolidation time
• For SDL, mixed ability good - maybe buddy blues with reds
• Physical movement helps memorise numbers
• Need engagement - students having clear expectations

SOLO, Pebbles and Clarity in the Classroom

I think this is going to be a post I keep coming back to as it feels like the cloud is lifting - all be it slowly, and that my thoughts are becoming clearer.

A few different streams of thought and PD are slowly coming together - Clarity in the Classroom, Pebbles and SOLO.

My takeouts from the Clarity in the Classroom readings so far, are around making it clear what a child is suppose to be learning, and the benefits this will have in building a learning focused relationship. This links to our pebbles (especially in maths) as the children know which pebbles they have and so know their next steps and so what they are learning - although we need to be more explicit with this. On another level we could start to link in SOLO which is all about making the learning intentions clear for all and the progress - how to get deeper learning by building on existing learning.

One element that is not always clear in all my lessons are my expectation of what they will learn, so if I don’t know this (or it’s not clear) then how are they suppose to know what they are learning? This might also explain why some children don’t push themselves - while they know their next steps there is no expectation that they will be working on them.

Lots of work to do here and I've made a start;

Big Step 3 - Relationships

Writing with my mentor group

I have seen amazing growth and progress in a number of writers and it is heart-warming to see. Several writers I had thought of as quite reluctant are now asking to write everyday. Pinpointing why is hard as i’m not one to sell myself and i’m sure there is lots of things at play, however I do believe that the relationships I have built with my mentor group, and the trust that there is, is paying off. These children know I want the best for and from them and as we celebrate success (in a fairly whoop whoop low key way) they want to do their best. They are moving from writing and reading for me to doing it for themselves - finding their voices and giving them an audience - knowing that we (all mentors) want to read their stories. The level of enthusiasm is quite exhausting but well worth it to see the joy on their faces. Must share this joy with their families, just incase they haven’t!

Roll time reformed

I put together a practice pack for Nate for those times when we're waiting. This worked really and others asked for the same thing so now this is what greets me at roll time;

Notice the good, let the little stuff go

Following on from our SPS team PL where we have been focusing on, and learning about, relationships we were asked to Think Pair (and Share if we were brave!) about the relationships we have formed with the children we work with.

I looked at my mentor group and the main messages I have communicated. 4 things came to mind immediately;

• Growth Mindset and what it means
• Doing the right thing
• Routines
• Making good choices for learning

For my mentor group all of these messages have an element of building, growing or maintaining relationships which is my second; 

After a discussion with Muireann, we have identified a small goal which I will work on over the next couple of weeks - notice the good, let the little stuff go. Reflecting even after a day it feels good - staying so positive with the children makes me feel more joyful and if i'm just not feeling it then i'm going to "fake it til I make it" as someone(??) once said!

Publishing time in Pounamu (term 1, 2016)

At the end of the term all Pounamu children were able to publish their favourite piece of writing from the term. A great way for them to have an audience for their work.

Here is the work by last terms Spaceships;



Here is the work by last terms Rockets;



Here is the work by last terms Hot Air Balloons;



Here is the work by last terms Aeroplanes;

Writing Reflection

To help with my Writing Inquiry and see what my next steps are I looked in more detail at my chosen 3 students to analyse the good, the bad and the brilliant.



My big realisation from looking at their writing is that having looked (studied!) the progressions, this really helped me pinpoint (with Jill's help) what their next steps were.

My next steps are to;

• keep this analysis going - do it again at the end of the term,
• feedback to the children their specific goals
• based on what happens next with these 3 then perhaps have 2 levels of goals for each child
• be more confident in my ability as I have had a positive impact
• create and display some exemplars so children have a bench mark - they know what "good writing" looks like.

The Practicalities of pebbles

Moving into next term I will be teaching reading again, and some of the readers will be emergent / magenta readers, which I have never taught before!

I love the challenge of this and so decided to pull apart the SPS reading progressions and pebble-ise them so I have a clearer understanding of what I need the learners to be able to do. I don’t want to make things “tick-boxy” but I do need to know where to start, and how to identify a child’s next step.

I just looked at magenta, red and yellow as I don’t think in the next term I’ll get my readers beyond this level.

Here are my pebbles!

To help with my writing inquiry I also pebble-ised the writing progressions. Initially I grouped them into levels but was then prompted to think about the progressions in a less linear way so the pebbles below are grouped by focus areas.


This work on pebbling the progressions has made the progressions more accessible and real for me and I now have a go to document that I understand to help me.

To help with communicating learning, and to hopefully motivate the children, each individual pebble could be used as a "badge" of achievement - either on Linc-Ed or as "tokens" the children could collect - this idea was inspired by Claire.

Term 2, Design for Learning

Helping to design the learning for next term for Pounamu in terms of the technical, logistical side of things has been great - especially working with Muireann as she has great ideas, which I can then help make happen.

We’ve tried to give our overall weekly timetable enough structure so that within the structure we can have some freedom (“from structure comes freedom” Ben Witherford, 2015). We also have a focus on team teaching in lots of areas, although in others it will be possible to slip back in to “single cell” mentality. I believe we won’t, as we know we are all responsible for every child and are happy sharing resources and ideas. We also have the flexibility and adaptability to change what’s happening if the new, grand plan doesn’t work! Remembering that to be in a truly collaborative relationship we need to be dependent on each other to make our learning time work.

Having done this overall “schedule” when I started to pull apart what I needed to plan and prepare I then had quite a shock, and started to wonder about the sanity of our grand design!

• 4 reading groups x 4 times a week
• 3 reading rotations x 4 times a week
• 1 hour long concept
• 3, 15 minute concept “recaps”
• 5 writing lessons (structured, formal)
• 4 x maths stations
• 5 x phonics sessions
• 1 x formal PE

This to me looked like a lot of work! When raised with the team, the partnerships and team teaching came into play. Sharing resources and ideas with Muireann as we have one set of readers, the 4 of us planning concept with Emma (DATS) helping, team teaching writing with Muireann, being in a partnership with Eve for Maths, hopefully having a more formal approach to Phonics coming from PD in the school holidays, which leaves a formal PE session in which we are doing ball skills which we started last year.

It is still a lot of planning to do but at least we are doing it together!

Big Step 1 - Writing

Had a great meeting with Muireann this week and we broke down my first goal;

Go on a "Personal Writing Inquiry" I need to learn how to help my learners.

This is a huge goal and so to make sure I am progressing I need to break this into smaller, more manageable goals.

Looking back over this term (term 1, 2016) I have been focusing on ideas - making sure the children have something to write about. Starting each lesson with the mentors modelling the drawing of their ideas means that it is now automatic for the children. As we write over several days this drawing of ideas has become really important as it is a reference point for the children to go back to to continue writing.

Moving on, and building on this, I now want to focus on feedback - making sure it is accurate and timely. Next term will be a different set up for writing, and as we get more children it will become harder to see each child in every writing session so the reviewing of books and the feedforward to them will become key in making sure they progress.


Having broken this big step into smaller, baby ones, I now need to go and do the same for my other goals.

Big Step 3 - Relationships

Relationships

Having had to think about each child in my mentor group to write a comment I identified a group of children who I need to build or develop my relationship with. To help foster these relationships I had a group 6 and we played with the Beebots.

The session was great for getting to know these children better; some children were much more verbal than usual, showed great collaboration skills and perseverance, loved the hands on nature of the task whilst others didn’t want to play with them or make mistakes and struggled to verbalise.

When reflecting on the session I started recording their thoughts about the Beebots and the process when in fact the purpose (the why) of the session was to get to know the children better and how I can support their learning. So here are my observations, what I need to do and a goal for the children.

Child	Observations	How I can best support	Goal for the child
Boy 1	·      Loved the hands on nature, ·      Straight into it - didn’t need encouragement to play ·      Asked for explicit instructions ·      Persevered as found it hard to think about all the steps ·      Liked working with a partner	·      Make sure hands on tasks available ·      Start building on thinking through all steps needed ·      Make sure all instructions are clear and structured	Try before asking for help
Boy 2	·      Loved the hands on nature, ·      Needed encouragement to start playing ·      Struggled to verbalise thoughts, feelings and questions	·      Make sure hands on tasks available ·      Encourage to speak – don’t let others do his talking	Speak out, ask for help
Boy 3	·      Very enthusiastic and animated ·      Straight into it, playing and experimenting ·      Liked working with partner	·      Hands on tasks (especially in areas he finds hard) ·      Spark curiosity so always this engaged	Try hard in all areas
Boy 4	·      Loved hands on ·      Confident and happy to share ideas ·      Liked working with partner	·      Usually quiet in habitat so find ways to hear his voice – has lots to say	Share ideas during learning time
Girl 1	·      Enthusiastic participant ·      Happy to help partner ·      Persevered	·      Give ways of supporting peers without doing it for them	Challenge self to do harder things
Girl 2	·      Very reserved, especially when questioned ·      Gave it a go initially but then didn’t want to try	·      Find ways of letting her know it is OK to make mistakes, give things a go	Take risks, mistakes are part of learning