Numeracy - Filling in the Gaps!

This term, I have decided to really focus in on the specific gaps students have in their numeracy knowledge. In order to do this, I have completed a JAM assessment on all students in my numeracy class. At this stage, I have only completed Module One and Two as will be focusing on these areas the next few weeks.
I have now gone through all the results and grouped my students into four groups - each having a specific learning need that is fairly similar:

GROUP 1 - These students need to focus on being able to count on with materials to add two numbers together. They are able to add by counting all, however struggling to image and count on.

GROUP 2 - These students have a basic understanding of counting on, however still always start from 1. We need to focus on understanding that we can count on from the biggest number.

GROUP 3 - Theses students have shown they can count on, however sometimes hesitate and struggle with subtraction.

GROUP 4 - These students have the strongest understanding of this strategy, however need to make sure to really consolidate counting on and practice counting back.

I have decided that I am going to run mini workshops in class seeing students each day - we will also be completing a regularly basic facts test to monitor improvement over the next few weeks.

Counting is also going to be a daily warm up and we will do this by walking around the class, marching and dancing to make it more engaging and active for the students.

Inquiry Update - Building Vocabulary Term 3

Over the last few weeks, I have been looking into building student vocabulary in order to help their progress in both reading and writing. Sight Word Bingo has been an almost daily game and I have noticed students recalling these in their reading. I have also started playing a game called "We are going on a picnic". In this game we each go around the circle adding something to our picnic basket. As we go around the circle, the students have to retain more and more words. The main reason behind this activity was getting students to learn to be able to retain and then recall words and information. I had found in writing time, that even though we created brainstorms and sung sentences, they often were not recalling this after - as this is a new addition to our class games I am yet to find out how successful it will be. However, I have already noticed a growth in confidence in our quieter students who don't always share their ideas on their own - in the Picnic game they have been really quick to grasp the concept and excelled - this in turn has really grown their willingness to join in.

Inquiry - Building Vocabulary

For the rest of the year, I have decided that my inquiry is going to be based on building vocabulary for students in both reading and writing. Through a series of different interactive games, I hope that I will be able to build students' vocabulary and their connections to prior knowledge. I was lucky enough to come back in time for a team session on this topic with Dr Jannie Van Hees. She gave us ideas on creating oral paragraphs, wordplosions, the importance of quick sight word recall. My postgraduate research had been based on this topic, however I am keen to continue this area of research. This week, we began with lots of reading of picture books and sight word bingo. Over the next few weeks, I will be posting the various activities we are doing in class to extend the variety of vocab and important basic sight word vocab in the class. As always, love to hear of any cool ideas you may also have!

Celebrating Accelerated Shift in 2017!

Today Dorothy took our staff meeting on how visible learning empowers both students and teachers. We reflected on the strategies we have used this year to accelerate the learning and were asked to share a short summary of how we achieved this shift.

Here is a summary to celebrate the shift of a student in Year 2:

Teaching Inquiry - Term 4 (Basic Facts continued...)

The students really enjoyed the basic facts challenges on our Google Forms last term (see previous post for more details). The competition aspect of wanting to move up the levels proved to be a hit and was great motivation to get them trying again and again! I did find that a few students who were starting to struggle at the higher levels were losing motivation and I feel this may have been down to their strategies not being high enough for the questions...

From this I realised, how although I wanted to have a big push in students' knowledge, I also needed them to maintain their knowledge of strategies. Therefore, I am going to include a daily recap of strategies they can use as part of our calendar maths. At the moment, I plan to have a daily question which we will solve as a class in a variety of ways with different strategies. Funnily enough at the photocopier this morning were a stack of strategy posters, which I was able to locate after a quick Google search (link to them here) and am now in the process of popping up on the wall as reference for the class.

Reflecting on my inquiry last term made me realised how hand-in-hand both knowledge and strategy go, and the importance of ensuring students are maintaining and practising these both as often as possible!


Image attribution

Maths Professional Development with Jo Knox - Calendar Maths!

We have been very lucky at Pt England School to have Jo Knox working alongside us this year in maths. Last week we had team sessions with Jo and I left feeling extremely inspired by all her ideas!

The focus of our session was fractions (I will post about this soon), however she also touched on Calendar Maths and how it can be used in the classroom to reinforce various maths skills each day.
(I had seen a similar concept on a placement with 100 days of school, however had not yet seen the many creative ideas that Jo presented us with!)

Calendar Maths is set up as an interactive wall display which you complete with students for a few minutes each day. Some teachers also use it as part of their maths rotation which can be seen in the links below.

Visit these links to see what I am talking about!

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3 

What you decide to include on your Calendar Math is totally up to you and will depend on the age and needs of your students.

You may include:

A calendar!

With this you could talk about the date - what is the number before and after? What is 10 more? 10 less?
Bundle the number into groups of ones and 10s - students will get to see how when you get to the next ten you bundle the ones and they become one group of 10 and not individual ones.
Talk about the days of the week, months, year and seasons.


A clock!

Get a clock and talk about what time the clock is showing.


A hundreds board!

Start from day one and add a number each day. You could count forwards and back from the number of the day. This will help with students not always counting up from 1 which can cause difficulties when you want students to start from a different number!


Have a daily fraction!

Pop up a fraction and get students to read what it says and maybe even match a picture that represents that fraction.


A tooth tally chart!

Each time a tooth is lost in the class add it to a tooth tally chart to expose kids to how we tally and group in 5's.


A piggy bank!

Put some money in the piggy bank. How rich are we today?


Would love to hear any more ideas you may have about Calendar Maths and how it is used in your classroom!


Image attribution 

Inquiry - Basic Facts

Last term, a colleague of mine, Charlotte Gaston, created a Google Form on which the students completed a basic facts test online, on their iPads. She had set it up so that the students answers were then submitted to a Google Spreadsheet.

Seeing as I had begun my inquiry at the beginning of the year on how to improve students' basic facts knowledge, I was excited to give this a go. On the weekend I finally got around to setting this all up!

I created a Google Form with questions I had found from a resource (basic facts tests for different stages) on Hikutaia's School Website. One of the Google Form tests was based on the Stage 2-3 test and the second form was based on the Stage 4 test.

Each question was assigned a "short answer" answer option and 1 point (This way when it was self-marked through Google Sheets we could quickly see how many each student got correct).
The only question that was set as required was the "What is your name?" question - this was so students who did not complete the questions in the 5 minutes could still submit their test. The name question was required so that students had to write their name to submit.

Next, I assigned a Google Sheet to the form - I made sure that the Google Sheet was different for the Stage 2-3 test and Stage 4 test.

Above you can see Room 27's first attempt at the basic facts test. Overall the students really enjoyed the challenge and were quick to grasp onto what they had to do to answer the questions. I will make sure to continue scaffolding this over the week, so next week students will be able to jump straight on each day after morning tea for their daily basics fact quiz.

At the moment we have said that if students get 20/20 three times in a row they are able to move onto the next level. Will keep you updated on how this goes!

Developing in Digital Worlds - Online PLG

This term I am taking part in an online professional learning group called Developing in Digital Worlds. The focus of this group is on "Argumentation" and the importance of developing ideas and skills around argumentation in the classroom. The sessions are lead by Naomi Rosedale, Stuart McNaughton and Cynthia Greenleaf. Sessions are going to be fortnightly and conducted through Google Hangouts.

The objectives of this group can be seen here:

The opportunity to take part in this professional learning group could not have come at a much better time. I have only recently reflected on how I often see students both in and out of the class have a very "my side" bias and how the conversation of "thinking about others feelings and how you would feel if you had been standing in their shoes" has reappeared quite regularly the last few weeks.

After the first session, I realised how I haven't been explicitly planning lessons to teach students this skill. I had placed the expectation to students that they would always be conscious of the ideas and feelings of others, however had never demonstrated what steps they had to take, vocabulary that could be used and what this would look like.

A few nights of ideas wizzing through my brain and I came up with the following idea. I would pose students with the scenario that we would be receiving a class pet. There would be three options: Tim the Tiger (who no longer fitted in his cage and needed a new home), Elijah the Elephant (he has been living in Africa but is now on his way in a ship and needs a new home) and Bella the Puppy (she has lost her mum and needs to be taken care of).

The lesson began with us talking about what a good listener is - does not talk over others, listens carefully by thinking about what the other person has said, may ask questions about what they have heard to find out more. We also discussed that in the activity everyone might have different ideas and we are allowed to change our minds as we hear what others think.

Next I told the class we were getting a pet!

As you could imagine with a class of 25 six and seven year olds, the excitement erupted (only one student did not seem convinced that this was really going to happen...I let the other students believe that this could be a very real scenario as I did not want to dampen the mood!)

After I flipped over the images of the three possible pets and what their story was I let the students bubble with excitement, sharing with their friends about the pet they wanted. I then asked the students to sit in a group by the pet they think the class should choose.

Next I posed the following questions to the students (questions and responses can be seen in the slides below), giving each group time to discuss and then also time to share their opinion with the class.




I was blown away by the thought that had been put into some of the responses (especially concerns over Elijah damaging the iPads with water!). The students had really thought hard about what each option would mean for the class. Some students had even started to realise that maybe their pet was not such a good option when other groups pointed out concerns such as tigers getting aggressive or elephants being huge!

I could definitely not fault students on engagement and participation (some of my quietest students spoke up for the first time with many great ideas!) I did notice that students were still very stuck on their own opinion and would fight to get their choice regardless of others suggestions. Some students were not very focused when others were speaking, more so waiting eagerly to share their own thoughts. This will be an area I will need to look into more for the next activity.

Would definitely recommend having a go at argumentation in your class, as I learnt so much about my own teaching and the students in the process. Let me know how the activity goes in your class or any other suggestions you may have!

Inquiry - How to teach and learn basic facts!

My inquiry has gone off on a slightly different part in that I am now focusing on the basic facts within the friends to 5 and 10 and family of facts. By using the family of facts students are starting to see the connection between addition and subtraction. Over the holidays, I am going to look into a way that I can establish a classroom routine where there are basic fact iPad activities that the students complete each day as a follow up or warm up activity. These activities will be designed at specific levels through which the students can progress through as they begin to retain the facts as knowledge. Watch this space!

Inquiry 2017: How to make basic facts more basic (easier to learn)!

After analysing the maths data I received from students' JAM results in 2016, it was evident that basic facts would be an area that a majority of the students needed work on. Last year I struggled with teaching students basic facts as I knew that  many students were still grasping the basic idea of numbers and what they represent. Although in saying that we had begun teaching students basic addition with small numbers so technically teaching quick fire addition and subtraction facts is very similar. Over the next week, I plan to look into some literature and ask colleagues in the junior school how they approach basic facts in year 1 and 2, so that I can create an action plan for my teaching inquiry this year. Watch this space!

Figure 1: Student data from 2016 JAM:

Inquiry - Increasing vocabulary through class stories

Over Term 3 we have been taking the time to read our class lots of stories that they have chosen at the library. They all love listening to stories and will often seek clarification on new words they hear. Seeing they are so engaged during this time I am wanting to find a way to use this time to build on their curiosity. I have thought about maybe creating a word wall or a word map but am still trying to think of a way to make it a quick lesson that does not take away from the reading for enjoyment factor. If you have any suggestions please comment below!

Inquiry - Where to next?

Over the last 6 months I have been inquiring into high frequency word retention. I designed an intervention called "Word Worm" (click here to find out more) which both I and the students thoroughly enjoyed. The students were repeatedly exposed to the words and used the words not only in their reading but also their writing and the amount of words they were able to retain increased. As I look into my next inquiry topic and possible ideas for my dissertation next year, I am considering inquiring into the value of reading to the class. Over the next weeks I will be looking into different research and literature to further define the path I will take. This idea is still in its very early stages - I look forward to updating you over the next term. If you have any suggestions on books to read or possible ways to encourage student-led discussion when reading to the class I would love to hear any ideas!

Inquiry - Developing more Word Worm activities

In order to give the students the opportunity to locate the high frequency words in a sentence I have decided to add this slide into the activity. Although I was focusing on teaching individual words in isolation in order to repeat the students to the same individual word, I do believe it will be beneficial for them to find the word hidden among other words. I am hoping by doing this students will be able to more easily translate their new learning of a word into locating it in their readers. (They have been able to read these words in their stories a majority of the time, however sometimes they still require prompting to focus on what they can see and to not get confused about the words around the word they are trying to read) I will be implementing this new slide in Term 2 so will keep you updated on whether or not it has been beneficial to add it in!

Inquiry Update - Word Worm

This term my inquiry is investigating into how I can support a group of three students to retain high frequency words. Reflection on the teaching programme in the first term highlighted that these students were retaining knowledge that was repeated over a series of days, they enjoyed working with manipulative materials and also were more engaged in tasks where an element of challenge and competition was involved. Often in the first term, I had not taught individual words on consecutive days, therefore the students had not been repeatedly exposed to a word until they were able to commit this knowledge to memory. 

The designed intervention was therefore going to incorporate an element of repetition, overlearning, challenge and competition. I created a digital tool called "Word Worm" where students completed a series of slides based on one particular word. They would complete the same "Word Worm" task daily until they could read this word without teacher support (the teacher would test the student randomly on the word - to make sure the student had retained the word over a period of time the test would be completed when the students arrived to school in the morning).

Here you can see the designed digital tool with a brief explanation of each slide:

In order to incorporate an element of challenge and competition, the students were told that for every 5 words they learnt they would be able to select a prize out of the prize box. A record of the words they had learnt were placed on the wall - this worked as a word bank for students to refer to throughout the date and also was a visible progress chart.

The students have really enjoyed the activity so far and I definitely believe the extrinsic motivation of a prize helped to encourage their engagement. Reflecting on the intervention so far, I believe  in order to ensure that the learnt words are not forgotten I need to create a "test" activity where each new word they learn is added and reviewed. 

Exploring iMovie!

Last Friday, we explored iMovie and were challenged to create a movie based around our inquiry. I began creating my movie on the iPad, only to realise that this would cause much challenge as the functions I required were limited and only readily available on the computer programme. After much trial and error, I decided that I would retake my photos (as iMovie did not save these onto my iPad automatically and they were stuck hidden away somewhere) and work on iMovie on my laptop. I learnt that if I want to create another movie using iMovie on the iPad, I need to first learn how to be able to rotate photos and edit the videos as I can on the laptop. I am unsure whether the iPad app has all the same functions? If you know any tips and tricks I would love to hear!
Check out the movie!

Inquiry Update

This year, my inquiry began as a research project into Gwenneth Phillips' strategies for teaching reading. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the specific prompts she developed to guide students, and have begun using these in my lessons. I found that it helped greatly in guiding students to stop and think, before I too eagerly jumped in to help them out. It has definitely been a great challenge and one I will continue to work on over the year!

Last week, I decided to veer my Inquiry down a new path, in order to meet the needs of a specific group of children. These children have been working very hard this term, however have demonstrated difficulty in their retention of high frequency words. The group have little alphabet and word knowledge, which has caused them to plateau at Magenta. Over the next weeks, I am wanting to research into memorisation strategies and create a learning tool to help students retain the high frequency words needed to progress in reading. This will be an exciting journey in Term Two - will post my plan of attack over the next few weeks!

Getting into my 2016 Teaching Inquiry

This year my inquiry focus is into how I can use formative practice in reading to track how teaching strategies are working - with a focus on Gwyneth Phillips prompts in guided sessions. I will observe my colleagues to see how they use the different prompts for each level, so that I can then use these appropriately in my reading groups. As I use these prompts, I will observe and reflect on how the children engage with the text and use different strategies to read increasingly difficult text.

To get started this year, I got my hands on some resources and bound a reference book for the prompts at each reading stage. I have observed a colleague using the Magenta prompts and have started using these in my own reading groups. Over the term, I will take time to continue observing and then using the strategies I have seen in my own reading teaching.