Spiral of Inquiry - Scanning

After our COPs meeting today I have been reflecting on the next steps in this process. It was really interesting hearing how the scanning stage went for others and hearing my own process summarised by Janelle. From this process I realised that the children I have chose have pretty good self-esteem and feelings about maths. I didn't initially think this would be the case. This finding is also quite unique in our COPS group as many of the learners discussed had wellbeing or engagement needs as well as academic needs. I will think about these learners carefully before moving forward with them as they all have good relationships at school and are all engaged in maths. I wonder if there are other children that would benefit from this process more? This summary shows the key areas I discussed as well as my hunches going forward. These hunches were interesting as they were quite similar to other people in the group! Maths language was also discussed by others in our group as an area of need. We also discussed the lack of focus on strand as a system in general and how this influences our children's perceptions of maths. This conversation made me think about how we teach maths at school. We have a huge focus on authentic learning experiences particularly in writing along with ensuring reading is well integrated and 'real' when possible. Why do we not do this so well in maths? I think in the past I have considered using word problems that relate to the children as 'authentic' however I am really starting to question this. I would love to investigate moving away from numeracy, strand and strategy based group sessions to developing maths experiences where all of these concepts are taught through a project-based approach. This could be a potential focus for this inquiry!