otago maths association pd 2014
TRANSCRIPT
Why students don’t achieve:
Myths
Maths is for maths people
Maths is an innate talent
Parents are poor at maths, ergo…
Students who are good at English are not
good at Maths
And more…
Teachers mixing it up
Sometimes, we don’t see it, but we can
get it wrong.
Need to ask ourselves “what will it look
like in the end?” for the student
Get rid of the kid
When teachers give up; students can
give up
Swapping students out of your class is a
form of giving up
Letting students be excused from
participating in class is a form of giving
up
Praise breaks motivation
(not a myth)
Evidence available
Focus on what students can do can
impact negatively
Stunted relationships
Breakdown of relationships between
maths teachers and the students
Support for maths teachers and their
relationships will be beneficial to student
learning
There’s more…and its real
Discipline of maths is wrought with
issues a lot of the time only maths can
fix, but maths can help other disciplines
Some issues in the maths class are
specific to maths, and some of those
issues involve maths.
Demands on a student
Discipline
Developing habits of discipline
Knowing when to be still because the
brain needs time to process.
Avoiding distractions
The maths teacher must
Never give up on a student
Make mistakes part of the lesson
Make mistakes part of the success
Praise the mistake that was made
because it leads to success
Recognise processes and rules in maths
are important
Our colleagues can
Support the maths teacher by helping students reconnect with their teacher, rather than provide a way out/a way to give up.
Know that students need to understand boundaries of the maths classroom
Know that successful acquisition of maths knowledge mostly needs a calm environment
KC and Tataiako
Drawing on Key Competencies to make
maths work in the classroom involves
relationships
We got this
Top down
When planning schemes, work from the
top down
Put emphasis on stats and probability,
but not in the same year level
Suggest Stats at Year 9, Prob at Year 10
Avoid using activities across year levels.
That last point
An activity used in Year 9 should not be
used in Year 10, unless
It is used as a review
In a case where students had not used it
previously
…because
It undermines the validity of the current
topic
Increases feelings of inability if students
know they are doing work they did the
year before
Eats up confidence
Focus
Helping students recognise when they
are using maths
Using games
Praising mistakes
Developing learning plans based on
what needs to be done in Year 13, etc
2017 assessment
Already trialled in a number of schools
Biggest glitch to date has been inability
of assessment programme to allow
students to go backwards and forwards,
after having gone backwards.
1.2 Assessment completed online
Research
Shows use of devices up to only 20% of
class-time in subject of maths
New apps overwhelm student learning
of key maths steps
Mastery of key maths skills does not rely
on EDs
EDs used for research, posters,
googledocs, homework
Concerns
New apps may outsource need for
graphics calculators
New apps able to read and solve maths
problems being developed
Demands on classroom teacher to use
EDs that are detrimental rather than
helpful
Expectation that EDs are the answer
Reality
Year 13 students prefer graphics
calculators.
Online assessment authenticity easily
compromised
Students trying to use apps to solve
maths problems are not maths students
Little use of EDs needs to be acceptable
in maths
List of resources
http://www.oma.org.nz/resources.html
What? Only our school have used IXL
and others hadn’t heard of it?
Differentiated learning
Ended up doing a mini workshop with
people about how to develop DL in their
classrooms
Thanks to Munro Doran
So…
From the PD
We are already ahead of the pack when
it comes to using Inquiry and Tataiako
because we are using the key
competencies, cultural key
competencies and inquiry cycle to help
We have a scheme
We are hitting the BYOD
More things that stood out included use
of hands on activities, taking time in
class to korero
What is interfering in our success?
Things we can do
Use colour
Paper
Card
Felts
Use Talking Points
Interchange Grid task with Talking Points
Write up three questions and let them talk.
You listen.
Talking points
Luke Skywalker has three minutes to
prepare for battle, he is most likely to
grab
a) A first aid kit
b) His light sabre
c) Light sabre batteries
Listen
Listen out for rationale
What prior knowledge can you place?
Aside from who hasn’t seen any of the
Star Wars films, what gaps are
becoming clear?
Who used key words? What are they?
How were they used?
Three level guide
Its an English thing, but it can work in
our classes:
Develop Talking Points with three
questions: easy (A), difficult (M), more
difficult (E).
Refer to the marking schedule to help
Not an OSEM fan
Sorry
S and E…eek
PLAN works and so does PEER
We need to agree on one, but it can’t be
OSEM
PLAN
Point
The point that is clear
Link
to evidence (from example to point)
Analysis
of point and the evidence, and how it answers the problem/question
iNference OR Next idea
What does it mean and where does it lead?
PEER
Point
The point that is clear
Evidence
The evidence or example
Explanation
How it answers the problem
Reason/rationale/relationship
Across the point to the answer
Stick to plan
Running out of time to clock up that
excellence?
Is pushing the timeframe out really going
to help or are we giving our students a
false impression of what is needed?
Use homework to support the classwork.
Building basics
Team needs to work together
Heroes wreck the learning habits of
students
Don’t be a hero, be a team player