Natalie shared her French Immersion class with us for guided math. She was very well organised and had trained the kids to know what to do and were to go. They were very excited to share with us. Below are a few photos of her using the open number line at the table. I have added more information and a video in the 'Teaching at the table ' tab under student procedures. There are so many teachers at 100 Mile Elementary that we have to do two groups. In the morning the primary teachers observed Cindy Craig and in the Afternoon we observed Carolyn Cushing. We were quite amazed by the organization in Cindy's grade 2 classroom. She has t-charts of expectations, colour coded Yahtzee boards that match the colour of the dice. She worked at the table and helped students catch each others mistakes. At the ipad station students worked on addition facts and used graph paper to work on number printing and reversals. Students and the observing teachers were engaged and motivated. The lesson at the carpet was on a monster squeeze, students had to guess the mystery number and narrow the choices between high and low numbers. Students loved this game.
In the afternoon we watched Carolyn in her 3/4 class. One particular idea that we liked was that she had an activity at her teaching table for the kids to do while she ensured all other students knew what they were doing at their stations. The other students were doing symmetry paperwork and activities on geoboards. Carolyn's work at the table was full of discovery and allowing students to notice their own mistakes, checking them with each other. The K/1 teachers met to observe Leona in her busy kindergarten class. Teachers were eager to see her adaptation of the weekly graph using pictures and actual leaves. Students were on task and doing many different activities: match it using power of ten cards, puzzle, bump, clock numeral matching, math tools (pattern blocks) and time with the teacher. Leona wanted to know if the students seemed ready and prepared for the activities and the teachers all found that they were. We also looked at the assessment tool in the k-3 Teachable moment by Trevor Caulkins. We collaborated on it, tweaked it and decided to use it 3 times a year. What a great sharing session today in Tracy Walton's grade 4 class. The teachers observing and sharing wanted more ideas for organisation. What was great was our discovery that each of us will develop our own way using ideas from each other and tweaking as we go. We had great fun doing a a demo lesson on place value cards, and the open number line, discovering the many ways of approaching mental math. There were many ahah moments and goals set:
Chris shared with five teachers watching. It was the very beginning of introducing rotations so he had 3 large groups of 9 or 10 students rotating through 'Number stories', a graph and time at the table. At the table he taught a game focusing on place value and the students ability to say it aloud accurately. He then sent them off to play while he rotated around the room supporting students. The focus on place value came from his Math Profile Assessment and his follow up with a math 'check' on this concept. Teachers were impressed with: how on task the students were, how he used power of ten cards to represent digits, his encouragement of 'playing' with numbers for number stories, and his ability to let the students discover how works rather than telling them. New pictures of this morning have been uploaded to weekly graph, number stories and a video of the game in the 'games section'.
Thank you to Kristy Davis for sharing in her room so early in the year. All students were so engaged and on task and the routines were well established. Some great learning points: Kids cheered for the choices to be used on the graph, they decided on the title from the question. Kristy uses their student login for the school computers for every login on apps etc. . They are happily engaged in 'Sum dog' on the ipad. The most striking element was how Kristy always gave the choice to the kids- What is working well? How would you change it? What do you think? Is it accurate? were just a few of the questions she asked her students. She also shared the idea of a colleague (Catherine Cook) to put the students duo-tangs in group buckets so they were easy to grab. Her fellow teachers were in awe of her organization.
Please go to the 'Old Blog" page to see the images. Weekly Graph UpdatesWelcome back everyone and welcome to all our new cohort members at school district 27. As you get started at the beginning of the year , the weekly ( or I should say daily for the first two weeks) graph is a great way to establish routines, and get to know your students. Prior to today the downloadable documents included a "Questions and what I noticed form the graph page". I have updated this form. We have found that forcing students to come up with questions that fit into an equation is not realistic and also quite challenging. I find that there is enough understanding and quality math talk from the statement ' What I noticed . . .' so I have adapted the form accordingly. If you have any other ideas or strategies to share , please add a comment. Also If you have any good questions for graphing in your classroom, please add them to this blog in the comments section. Thank-you and good luck with your start-up.
Grade 2 and 3 teachers met at Cataline and Nesika today to watch two teachers. One teacher has just started to implement the games ans activities on the road to starting guided math groups 6 teachers traveled to the south end to watch two teachers team teach a grade 10 math class. They had set up 3 rotations for their students: Khan Academy app on ipads, a lesson on the y intercept and slope and a paper work reviewing previous lessons. We noticed how engaged the students were, how the teaching of the small group helped the teachers give specific feedback and how the variety of 3x 20 minute sessions worked for everyone. Today we observed in a grade 1 class. Students did a 'How Many Ways' whole class activity where everyone was honored for doing their stories their way. students seamlessly went to their stations doing paper work, memory card games, dices games and pattern block tangrams. Jean Swaan the teacher worked with a small group on the power of 9 strategy. We observed that allowing students to play with ten frames before going to the numerical equation helps students discover the strategy. We then went into Cindy Craig's 2/3 class at recess and saw how she organized her rotations and supplies. |
Sylvia SwiftA comment on our latest sessions with testimonials from the participants. Archives
May 2016
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