It's all about the teachers, but shifts will take time. 6 months - 12 months - it's a long journey which will contain ups and downs. Students love and the student voice shows this. ERO uses this PD.
Currently 26% Maori achieve curriculum standards (Level 4) at Year 8 and 11% of Pasifika. The spill over is enormous: jobs, etc., as well as prison stats prove this too.
We're not just talking about Maori and Pasifika though - all diverse students are included here.
Interestingly most teachers feel confident in their teaching and feel able to engage and meet the needs of their students.
...and don't just be satisfied with 'at'; continue to push all children to 'above'.
Tchrs tend to engage in 'deficit theorising'; this then holds not only the children, but also the teachers, back, e.g., "You don't understand, these children come to school knowing nothing." This isn't only Maori and Pasifika children, but all diverse children. And what works for diverse students, works for ALL children.
All children can be good at Maths - this is the reality.
Deficit theorising of students: go on to Youtube and look at Whitespace. Lots of people think only white people can do maths. Equally lots of white people think only other people can do maths.
One child said, "I used to think Maths was just random/stuff you do at school."
Maths anxiety-kids - this starts at 5 1/2.
Why does it all matter - because the impact is life long. Equality and equity are quite different. We need to move to equity. It's not about just giving equality (the same) to all children. We shouldn't be 'dumbing it down' when we talk with particular groups.
Core Pasfika values? How do they play out in the classroom?
Own values? How do they play out in the classroom?
Screen shot of Pasifika Education plan - values (have printed this off)
Discussion amongst staff about personal values. Our group refined all of the values we recorded down to one word: relationships.
The Pasfika values underpin collectivism and communalism. The opposite is individualism. This was exemplified at the time of the election!
 |
| A snapshot of our record of values which we hold dear |
Service is the one value which we don't tend to see in Kiwi classrooms. Service plays out when children are working in groups. Note, Bobbi's example of the Samoan boy whose teacher described him as a 'nuisance'. (Kept running around making sure all his group members had a pen, roaming around the classroom checking on everyone, tidying the teacher's desk, etc.!)
A way forward:
recognising that culture and maths are intertwined. Colouring in the White Spaces, by Anne Milne (was a doctorate and has now been published as a book).
How do we teach to the 'others'? We often have lower expectations, we speak in simple terms so that they'll 'get it', and use procedural teaching methods.
Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities (DMIC):
Best practice nationally and internationally, and research-based (best evidence).
What is working for our diverse learners?
- Connected rich mathematical thinking and reasoning (opposite of randomness!); no stages, as in Numeracy Project), just big ideas
- Proficient use of mathematical practices
- Inquiry learning within mathematics: not strategy teaching and learning
- Social grouping and group-worthy of problematic activity: no ability grouping, social grouping based on kids who will work well together, and who will be supportive of other group members; the tasks need to be really challenging and group-worthy; juniors will work in pairs, and the problems need to be challenging enough that they will take two brains to solve them
- high expectations and inclusion: all children participate regardless of challenges (Downs Syndrome, elective mute, as examples); as teachers we should be prepared to take big risks with our children; we need to use growth mindset language with our children; with our NEs who come to school as non-counters, put them with the counters and watch them learn! They still need to see it being modelled by the teacher though; teachers must know their curriculum; always be referring to the curriculum levels
- culturally responsive teaching and learning: writing problems about what the children do and are engaged with; children will then really focus on the problem and therefore the maths; remember the natural state of the mathematician is to be stuck! We're not looking for speed we're looking at how to become unstuck)
- co-constructing teaching and learning (this is when the mentors will come to work with us in the classroom; we'll have a problem written and prepared, and then begin our teaching; the mentor might call a pause or we might call a "pause"; this is about working together to transform practice; the children really like it when the mentors come in because they then see the teacher as a learner too); the mentors are not coming in to observe us; they're not writing notes; it's totally co-constructed teacher and mentor working together.
The challenge is: finding the big idea; how do I connect this to that one big idea?
Mathematical practices are what you do to solve problems. They are the specific things that successful mathematics learners and users (problem solvers) do. They go a long way beyond the knowledge and strategies promoted in Numeracy. They are key to learning and using mathematics. Successful users often know and use them implicitly but teachers need to make them explicit to ensure equity.
The Numeracy Project was initially trialled in Bobbi's own classroom. Unfortunately communication was dropped from the Project over time.
Some ch'n just know the mathematical practices and use them. Others don't know them and they need teachers to explicitly teach them:
- Explicit teaching of them
- When children use a mathematical practice, if you hear them use that practice, you identify and name it/describe it for all.
Naming mathematical practices is very difficult to do - there are so many of them and identifying them as they're being used is quite tricky.
Being able to include 'because' is very powerful.
These are just SOME mathematical practices:
- justifying thinking (if, then, so; and including the word 'because')
- representation
- generalising a mathematical idea (does it always work?)
- making connections
- using prior knowledge
- making a claim
- developing a mathematical explanation (so that others can also understand your thinking)
- constructing arguments (these are referred to as 'friendly' arguments)
- representing mathematical thinking using pictures, materials and numbers
- using mathematical language
- using the best tools for the problem
Our job as teachers is to notice and respond.
We're not going to use the word 'strategy' any more!! (HEEELLP!)
As teachers, we now don't need to worry about the answer a child comes up with, we should be more interested in the method or the way in which they reached that result.
In the NE classroom we can pose problems such as there are 10 apples and 2 plates. How many different ways can the apples be arranged on the 2 plates?
Many children can apply a procedure but if they can't add the 'because' they're stuck. Their thinking needs to be lifted (think of Bloom's). They need to be able to justify.
A useful doc is the NS exemplars (white) book, which gives ideas for problems. See Dorinda re the app she sent through to us.
Launching a problem (see the article and put the link here - it was sent through to us):
First focus is the
context. Students read the problem.
What's happening in the story - you're not talking about numbers at this stage. Ask for others to
add on or
repeat and
revoice until you know they all understand the story.
So what is it asking us to do? Don't let them say an operation. Focus attention on concepts, not how to do it.
It's really important to get the launch done well.
At the older levels it's important to let the children read the problem themselves - this gives them greater 'ownership'. The problem isn't the teacher's, being given to them/read to them. It's more likely that the children will make it their own, if they read it themselves.
The problems need to be prosocial and culturally responsive.
Don't ask for hands up, rather pick on someone (be strategic about who). For example, if the problem is about a hangi and there are some kids in the class who are in the kapa haka group, or Ngai Tahu, ask them to explain what's happening in the story. Don't use 'repeat' as a management tool! Asking children to repeat, the children will use varying and different words which may well help their peers.
Big mathematical ideas
link:
- trusting the count (mid Year 1)
- place value (Year 2)
- mutiplicative thinking (Year 4)
- partitioning (Year 6)
- proportional reasoning (Year 8)
- generalising (Year 10)
Actions for teachers to use to have students develop conceptual explanations:
Model and support questions which clarify an explanation.
Tasks need to have a low floor, high ceiling. Note the tivaevae problem, in which children can continue the pattern and then write a formula for solving.
We need to have an ethic of care: every student is able to participate. Children who participate learn.
Don't jump in and rescue - avoid dependency on the teacher. Teachers need to work together and challenge their students.
The teacher's job is to facilitate, ask the right questions at the right time. This isn't easy!
At NE level the children will work in pairs. Social grouping means the teacher selects the pairings - these can be the same each time or mixed pairs over time. Putting two silent children together can work well! Put two non-English speaking children together and let them speak their own language.
The lesson structure...
Group norms: active listening; sharing the pen; meaning of 'pause'.
If the children are using materials, then the teacher must notate for them.
What are the '
talk moves'? Revoicing, repeating, reasoning, adding on, waiting.
When the teacher 'revoices' he or she is picking up on the big ideas.
The teacher role is to anticipate, monitor, select (one or two groups and who's going to be sharing back and why), sequence (think about which group first then who to follow - this is important), connect (between what the sharing group did and what 'my' group did).
Go to the Communication and Participation Framework to record what I'm going to give up.
Video
link of Bobbi discussing communities of mathematical inquiry, and
Developing Communities of Mathematical Inquiry.
Here is the
link to NZMaths Key Mathematical Ideas
Food for thought:
- What's it going to be like having to give up one of my old favourites, Book 5?!?
- What are the Big Ideas?
- What might our norms be?
- How will we group our children now? Social grouping, but perhaps we need to wait a little until we know the children a little better?
