Term 3 #3 Hunch

GOAL

Few students including 3 students from my target group have difficulty with being an active listener. They are very easily distracted and they usually fidgeted. I am going to give them roles - hopefully to keep them busy and engaged during learning time. 

Indicators of progress

Follow instructions quickly

Taking turn - wait for their turn and listen to what others are saying

Increase attention span

Checkpoint

Rangimarie and House cards work but sometimes it can be distracting

Working in pairs seem to work better - not too many 

One problem per day is enough 

Presentation at the Manaiakalani Hui 2017

It was a pleasure to be part of the Manaiakalani Hui for 2017. We were given an opportunity to show and talk to teachers about our focusing inquiry for the year as part of our role as COL teachers.

I had lots of people visited and talked to me about my Maths focusing Inquiry. I was able to share my thoughts and ideas with them. We shared some of the common problems that we see in class and also some of the possible solutions for some identified issue in Maths especially for junior classes.

Common concerns on the day was, 'how are we going to increase student talk,  and to use academic language?' I was impressed with the fact that teachers are concerning about this issue and trying to address it in similar ways with what I have suggested. 

Term 3 #2 Hunch

GOAL

Continue using FRONTLOADING, MATHS WALL and NUMBER TALK to encourage student talk and provide students with more Mathematical vocabs. Some of my learners find it hard to count on / back from any number to 20. 

 

Problem Solving Approach

Some learners in my target group still struggle to talk, participate, or contribute in whole class discussion. These students are new entrants who are not yet confident, don't know the appropriate Maths language to use, and not familiar with the our class norm.

I discussed this problem at our team meeting with the junior teachers and we think the best way is to continue using the Problem Solving Approach but with a little FRONTLOADING at the beginning.

I can't wait to see how ideas above have impact on my students' learning and using of mathematical language; and understanding of strategies used to solve given Maths problems.

I am hoping that at the end of this year, my learners would be able to:

• think independently and confidently
• able to share their thinking using appropriate Maths language
• able to unpack a problem and use appropriate strategy to solve problems

Talk Moves & ESOL students

Talk Moves is a tool that we use at our school to help increase student talk academically. It is a tool that I really like to use with ESOL students especially. Like I have mentioned before in my other posts, learning Maths language for ESOL students is learning ANOTHER language. It is a foreign language and us, teachers must use a tool that enables our learners (ESOL students) to talk more, think deeper, and explain their thinking with confident.

What is TALK MOVES

How to use Talk Moves and why?

Talk Moves is the only tool that I use in Maths because it goes along well with Problem Solving Approach in Maths. I have realised so many good reasons why using Talk Moves. One of them and I think it is important is learning from each other. Students are building their confidence when making mistakes. They learn to work collaboratively with a friend as part of this process.

At the end of this year, I believe my learners will:

- increase the ability to talk in Maths

- improve deeper thinking due to using of revoice, friendly disagree or agree and add-on.

- increase using of Maths language correctly

- work collaboratively with a friend and share ideas

Mathematical Theory - Teaching ESOL students

When learning a new number in class, I do not give them the number by itself, I use that number in a problem. I believe that I do not have to spend 15 minutes on learning about number 5, for example, just because my children do not know number 5. 

This is what I did. I used 5 in a problem such as : Kolo has 5 soft toys and Marii has 2 soft toys. How many soft toys altogether that they have?

Children are learning number 5 better when it is used in a context. It was hard at the beginning but I have realised that children enjoyed exploring using familiar contexts; and they learned to know and identify numbers faster in this way rather than learning the number in isolation.