2019 INQUIRY

2019 INQUIRY

INQUIRY QUESTION

Q - IF I DEVELOP A POSITIVE SELF BELIEF IN TEACHERS AROUND MATHS THAN STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT WILL ACCELERATE.

TERM 1 2019

At the beginning of the term I talked to teachers and discussed what they would like help with and how they felt about maths. This gave me a good general idea about their feelings around teaching maths and where they thought their strengths and weaknesses lied. After this, Aaron and I had a discussion around capturing teacher voice. I have then sent teachers their own self assessment so they can highlight their strengths and perceived weaknesses. This also gives me a focus for when I do observations. I have put the link to the self assessments below.

TEACHER SELF ASSESSMENT AND FOLDERS
SELF ASSESSMENT

MONDAY 18 FEBRUARY

During  our staff meeting I asked the staff to separate into their syndicates so I could gain some insight into their beliefs around teaching and learning of mathematics. I posed them these questions:

What does a positive learning environment look like?

What does a not so positive learning environment look like?

How would your students know they are good at maths?

What dispositions will support a successful maths environment?

What are your daily practices around maths?

Yr 1/2

Y3/4

Y5/6

Y7/8

HUNCH

From all of this evidence I was able to develop my hunch. A lot of teachers were self conscious with their ability to teach maths and their lack of content knowledge was also a barrier. Furthermore, they wanted to have more engaging rich tasks. From this I was able to develop my inquiry question.

What will I do next? 

See below for in the focusing section where I have shared what I will DO to support my colleagues.

I emailed all teachers and asked who would be comfortable with me coming into their class from their responses I set up a timetable.

Thursday 28th Timetable

Class                            Time

Kate & Greer Rm 14-15	11.40
Ange Rm 3	12.00
Jess Rm 5	12.20

Unfortunately, Jess had release on this day and I was unable to observe her teaching/learning. However, she is going to video herself with her learners and share it with me.

The focus with the observations was their self assessment. I went into the observations saw where they had marked themselves and then put in where I thought they should be. After the observations I have written up feedback and placed it in their folders, which I have made a link to below. 

I have also re-emailed the staff to see who was keen to have an observation on my next release day 11 April 2019.

Ash was nervous about having an observation so I let her observe me with a focus on how I do group rotations.

 

CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS

TAKING ACTION

With Greer and Kate I have introduced them to talks move and given them a reading and a way to introduce it to their class.

TALK MOVES RESOURCES

Jason D was looking for rich tasks to introduce to his class. I have given him some resources and sites e.g YOUCUBED and nrich. I have also shared my task sheets with him that I use during maths.

RICH TASKS AND TASK SHEET

After Ash observed me in class she wanted to know how I planned my lessons and rotations. We meet after school and I helped her use NZ Maths to help with her planning and shared what I did for planning.

SAMPLE OF MATHS PLANNING

TO help Ange I have given her feedback on her lesson and provided an example of how the students can take ownership of their modeling books.

Taking action is continuous I will be meeting with these teachers throughout the term to see how they are going and if they need any other support. Furthermore, I will be organising more observation and they will have the opportunity to come and observe me.

Term Two 2019

As part of my own learning I have visited new entrant classes to see how they teach maths (I have never taught in Yr 0-3). I was able to participate in learning through play, which incorporated number from 1- 100 and identifying shapes. It was amazing to see the engagement of the juniors and the language that they use when doing this. I also got to see how assessment was incorporated into learning through play.

During the term I invited other teachers to come and observe me teaching (statistics, stem and leaf graphs). Emma Garlic (Yr 3-4) came into class to see how she could adapt what I do to high maths achievers in her class.

I was also asked by a fellow teacher to help with planning for high achieving learners and how to find and gather resources. I helped through navigating them through NZ Maths and how they have planning guides and resources linked to each lesson. I also showed/talked about interactive learning resources and how they can be catered to the learners. Also, ensuring that all interactive sites are based around learning and not busy work
Khan
Prodigy
Polyup
Maths Breakers
Maths Starters Of The Day
NRich
Fog Stone Isle
NZ Maths

During week seven I held a workshop on learner agency around maths for the staff. I showed them how I was approaching this and the development of my learner agency sheets and the differentiation of them.

Learner agency sheet 1
Learner agency sheet 2
Learner agency sheet 3
Learner agency sheet 4

Inquiry 2018

SHOWING EVIDENCE IN MY INQUIRY 2018

Link to Cap Document with links
Link to CAP folder

Q. How can we engage our priority students,  to accelerate achievement in mathematics?

Q. How can we use effective feedback and feedforward for our students to accelerate achievement in mathematics?

Week 5 February 2018

Evidence:

As a team, we have started focusing on our Tier 2 students. I have reviewed students information from last year and have spoken to teachers from last year.

See the  Link for more details on the tier document, for barriers and strengths. New comments on each learner are also on their profile in etap, see screenshots above for first comments.

What will I do next? 
See below for in the focusing section where I have shared what 'Direct Acts of Teaching' I will take to support my students.

After scanning my Tier 2 learners, I then focused on two actions.

1. To develop deeper learning relationships with my Tier 2 students and their parents/whanau. In total, I have 5 students who are Tier 2 in mathematics. 
2. Two of these learners are Maori. I took advice from the Cultural Responsive learning team to develop informal connections with whanau. I have embedded te reo commands into my daily routines.

Link to PTC's:  My assessment shows I am working able to analyse Tier 2 learners (Standard 1,2,4 ). I have also analysed previous assessment to identify math goals (Standard 4). 

After analysing the strategy stage booklets and other data gathered it was obvious that in proportions and ratios all of the Tier 2 children were struggling with finding a fraction of a whole number and problem solving e.g finding the equation within the question and strategies to solve them e.g being systematic, trial and error, draw, use equipment, looking for patterns and working backwards.  My planning shows how I have planned to teach several strategies to these groups. 

My tier two kids for mathematics are in the denominators and Add It Up, the planning and teaching strategies are similar .

My modelling books show the same planning and teaching of a variety of strategies to help with the problem solving activities we have done e.g algorithms and number line work. I have also used a digital modeling book Explain Everything which the students can then use when they are working independently from me in small groups or by themselves - rewindable learning.

Modelling Videos

Link to PTC's:  

After spending time with each of the children is was starting to become clear what some of the barriers could be.
Abbie - has had a lot of absences and this is impacting on her  learning. She is a very bright and capable girl but is hardly at school which effects her achievement.
Deacon - is a great all round student but has a negative disposition to maths. He tries hard but when he is not successful it hits him hard and lowers his confidence.
Anika - has had a lot of absences throughout the first term. She is low on confidence and can surround herself with people who are not positive to her learning.
Cheyanne - has a negative disposition to maths and low confidence.


Meeting Minutes from Holidays before Term 2 - We now have accurate data and can make some hunches about these tier 2 kids. We have got to know them and have collected student voice. 








• Taking action 
  What can we do differently to make enough of a difference? "Genuine inquiry needs space to take risks, make mistakes, and try again – and again". Changing things can also feel risky for some learners who then resist change, and in turn bring concerned parents. We need to build understanding for all, right from the outset.
• 1. Giving accurate feedback on goals and feed forward. 
 
• 2. Engaging students.                  
• Team Reading Log click here
• 
  
• 1. Giving Feedback  



























Reading Hattie - Feedback
• 
  
• 2. Student Engagement.
• geoffs maths starters
• 
  
• Link to PTC's: 

I think the rich maths tasks and the approach of allowing students to struggle has made a
difference in their ability to persist in solving maths problems. Now that the students have had
to struggle and use trial and error before teacher assistance and had success with this they are
more confident and enjoying numeracy more. However, my feedback is inconsistent and this
is my next step.

• How can I incorporate it into my group time?
• Does it need to be a separate meeting?
• Can the kids give feedback to each other?
• Can they self assess first?
• Will the student agency set up in my class help support their accelerated progress?
• Would a daily session ramp up the learning for this group of kids? Before school?

CHECKING:

DEACON:

Deacons skills as a mathematician have been continually growing throughout the year. He is starting to understand the strategies needed to solve problems where decimals are multiplied or divided. Deacon is really enjoying geometry and can identify whether an angle is obtuse, acute, reflex or right angle. He can also identify 3D shapes and how many faces, edges and vertices they have.


ABBIE:

Abbie is an independent learner who tries hard to succeed in mathematics. She is able to use part whole strategies to solve multiplication problems. With algebra she can use BEDMAS to solve equations and can recognise formulas to solve algebraic equations. Abbie has a sound understanding of geometry and can identify lines of symmetry, 3D shapes and how to draw nets. She can also identify obtuse, acute and right angles.

ANIKA:

Anika works hard in maths and displays good understanding of what we are learning. She is able to use problem solving skills to solve large subtraction and multiplication problems. Anika is able to solve basic algebra problems using the BEDMAS formula. Through geometry she shows a sound knowledge of 3D shapes, how many faces and edges they have and can create nets. Anika can also identify acute, obtuse and right angle triangles.

CHEYANNE:

Cheyanne is working hard at maths, but needs to believe in herself and her abilities. She is a confident sportsperson and I would like to see some of this confidence when she is approaching her work. Cheyanne is now capable of finding a fraction of a whole number. In geometry, she can identify 3D shapes and how many faces and edges they have. Cheyanne also knows what obtuse, acute and right angles are.